Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Christmas Part II: Out of Town

Our first stop was of course the Yarbro Homestead. I love it there.

Here is what Christmas looked like last year:

You'll notice the frantic youth devouring wrapping paper to get to the meat inside. Early on Guitar Hero emerges, and the hardware for it is worn like a trophy pelt for the rest of the morning. At some point there seems to be a largish statue standing in the foreground, but it disappears. When the entire family leaves the room toward the end it is to watch a 5 year old drive a plastic John Deere front end loader into the patio furniture. Then we spin around the room creating a Christmas Cyclone that whisks all the gimme-gimme detritus away to santa's magic burn pile.

This year I couldn't help noticing everyone's hands. Here is what they do:

The older hands tend to wait patiently for their turn to open a present
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while the younger hands must be forcibly restrained from skinning their presents alive...
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...which they manage to do anyway
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The male hands all manage to produce tiny blades from somewhere. They spend the morning freeing cards and gifts from bondage by delicately snapping ribbons and slicing envelopes with surgical precision.
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The lady hands are mostly occupied with trying to immortalize the moment
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After opening gifts, the hands like to show them to each other
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The hands handle cash with greater discretion
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At last the hands are free to relax, and they all sit down to a lovely afternoon of screen media. Little hands have new games...
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...and big hands have "the game"
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All the hands though have one thing in common. Girl and boy, young and old, all the hands love to feed faces.
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Merry Christmas.

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