Scarlett Letters

It's all already becoming a blur, frankly. We've been going nonstop for two days, and I barely know where I am. Here are the things that are currently standing out in my memory.

According to my sister-in-law, before my visit, my eight-year-old niece wasn't counting down to Christmas; she was counting down to the day I arrived. Apparently she's more excited by me than her other two aunts. I think it's because I'm far away, I send her stuff, and she doesn't get to see me often. My brother and sister-in-law think it's because when I'm here, I actually pay attention to her. Could be. Also, I'm silly. This also seems to be true of her cousins, all of whom were excited to see me, and all of whom called me "Aunt scarlettina." It's nice.

At Christmas eve dinner:
I bring out the apple-crusted sweet potato casserole.
Guest: Wow, that looks great!
Janna: I slaved over it.
Guest: Hey, give me some of the Slave Casserole!
And for the rest of the night (and probably forever), my sweet and delicious side dish was and will be known as Slave Casserole.

Also? The lamb roast I made was a huge hit.

The Slave Casserole calls for five pounds of sweet potatoes. In Seattle, you can get sweet potatoes that are practically a pound per potato. My brother came home from the grocery store with four sacks of fist-sized sweet potatoes that added up to five pounds. When I say that I slaved over that casserole, I wasn't kidding. You know what it's like to cook and scoop out five pounds of fist-sized potatoes? Holy cats!

My brother went on for about 20 minutes about the special crackers he'd gotten for serving the cheese before Christmas eve dinner. He finally brought them out. They were Soylent Green crackers. I smiled and chuckled--and he was vastly disappointed with my reaction. He thought I'd be hysterical. What he didn't know was that I'd bought him a tee shirt that said, "Soylent Green: Recycling is in Your Future." He understood when he saw the shirt. When I opened my first gift this morning, it was a box of Soylent Green Crackers. It was our Very Soylent Christmas.

I introduced my niece to Simon's Cat. She was tickled, as was my brother.

My sister-in-law, the pediatric speech pathologist and Mary Kay consultant, gave me a super-quick facial which, as it turned out, was a preview of some of my holiday gifts. Looks like I may become a Mary Kay regular for some of this stuff. Good bonding time with her, too, which I was pleased for.

On Christmas eve, my niece prepared cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, then she went to bed. My brother took the bowl of carrots, went out onto the patio, crunched on some of the carrots and scattered them around the yard. He took bites of the two cookies and spread some crumbs on the coffee table, then sipped the milk. This morning, my niece went to the coffee table, and then I "noticed" the carroty mess beyond the sliding doors. She went and looked outside and grinned from ear to ear.

Everyone has been impressed with my weight loss. It's been nice to get the extreme reaction, since no one here has seen me since last April. Feelin' good about that.

Lastly, I must remember to post in detail about my brother's very special Chanukah present. Can't forget that, because it brought a tear to everyone's eye this morning, but I'm too tired tonight to do the story justice. But . . . must remember.

And now . . . to bed.