Christmas, 2006: the good parts

In my last entry, I wrote a little about changing our holiday traditions, and how we wouldn't be visiting my family at Christmas this year. You may have received the impression that I didn't like much about last Christmas, which isn't true. I wanted to share the moments I remember best from last year's holiday visit to my parents' house.

The tiny fez. At a film event earlier in December, I received a goodie bag with all kinds of crazy stuff inside, including a tiny fez and a pair of Shrek ears. I wrapped up those two items and brought them to my parents' house for Christmas Eve. I'm not even sure who they were addressed to, but everyone started playing with them, which was the point. My dad wore the Shrek ears, which his grandkids loved. My husband wore the tiny fez for awhile, but it looked even better on my nephew, as you can see in the above photo. If you ever want to add a lot of fun to a family gathering, bring a tiny fez (or other bizarre hat), is my advice.

An unexpected gift from Kevin Smith. My husband and I and my youngest brother ended up riding to Christmas Day dinner at my sister's house in the back seat of my parents' car. I am not entirely sure why we didn't just take a separate vehicle, because it's a 30-minute drive and my parents can get a little strange in the car. My mom brought along a trivia game that was essentially questions and answers on little cards, and she decided to read us the questions and have us all guess the answers.

At one point she asked my brother a question that was supposed to be about Helen Keller. He paused, and I couldn't resist paraphrasing a line from Clerks 2: "You've got to be as blind as Anne Frank not to know that one!" (If you've seen Clerks 2, you understand. If not, go rent the movie.) All three of us in the back seat exploded into laughter. It was a lot funnier at the time than it should have been, probably because of the situation. It didn't help that my mom looked puzzled and said, "No, it's Helen Keller, not Anne Frank. How can you not know that?" The entire rest of the day, anytime we needed to laugh, someone would start with, "You gotta be as blind as Anne Frank ..." and we'd all giggle. There may also have been some quoting of Randal's Lord of the Rings rant as well.

A long quiet drive. As I mentioned in my previous entry, Christmas night is a dull time at my parents' house, characterized primarily by napping and TV watching. My husband and I wanted to get out of the house, and the movie selection in nearby theaters was unappealing. What we really wanted was to go out to eat, but it's difficult to find restaurants open at night on Dec. 25. And in New Orleans, even a year post-Katrina, it was even more difficult than usual -- lots of restaurants still weren't able to keep long hours because the manpower simply wasn't available. The Bud's Broiler near the house was stuffed with people (and C. had already eaten there on Christmas Eve when he made a quick escape with my youngest brother), the IHOP off I-10 was likewise packed, and we ended up just driving around Metairie for awhile. I showed him various landmarks from my childhood, or the places where the landmarks used to be. We drove down streets that seemed to have big Christmas light displays, for lack of anything else to do. I still felt like a giant mucus-head (stupid cold) but it was a familiar and peaceful drive.

Posted at December 4, 2007 10:01 AM