Guise Will Be Guise - 12/25/2006

Feliz Navidad Todos! We hope you are having a great Christmas Day. We've had a swell weekend.

Saturday night, Niki came by to visit and spend the night. She's down from Maryland visiting her parents, and came by to see the house and spend a day. We went to the Olive Garden for dinner, where we were placed waaaaaaay in the back of the restaurant. So we were loud. :) It was fun. I think the waitress liked us, even WITH the whole "Niki asked for no green peppers because she's allergic to them, and they gave them to her anyway" thing. She didn't get sick, so it was all good. The waitress was totally scared Niki would have some kind of reaction. She kept coming by the table to check on us.

We stopped at Target to pick up some bread and ...something else I can't remember. I just remember Jake swinging the bread around and then plopping it under the PlayStation 3 demo so he could play it. Niki looks at the bread, looks at me and says "Man, your bread is toast." (pause) To which she & I burst out laughing hysterically, leaving David dazed and confused. It was funny! Bread...toast. *snicker*

Niki spent the night and then Sunday morning, after I remove a substantial chunk out of my ankle shaving (it is still bleeding - I removed the band-aid to change it, and it's still running), my sister Brenda, nephew Jonathan and his dad Fede came up. Brenda got to meet Niki (one of David's oldest friends) and said of Niki: "I like her. She has such a bubbly personality. And she's brave. She drives all over the place by herself!" (Brenda won't drive anywhere more than 1/2 hour by herself. That 1/2 hour is her going to work.)

While Brenda and Niki were getting on, I was driving Jake over to his dad's side of the family's Christmas Dinner. My nephew came to keep me company. Jake went with his family and I went back home. Niki was almost in her car to leave when Jonathan & I pulled back into the driveway. David left for work half an hour later.

Fede made "Viandas & Bacalao." A Puerto Rican dish. I have never made this dish, so he showed me step-by-step as he did it. White Sweet Potatoes (the only way I can describe it), Onions and "Malanga" (another veggy) served in olive oil & garlic with cod fish served with olive oil, garlic & onions. I'm burping just thinking about it. I LOVE this dish, but it keeps loving me back for HOURS later.

Several hours later, I drove back, this time with Isabel and Brenda, to go get Jake at his aunt's house. Jake's aunt gave Isabel a present (very sweet). We got back to watch Jonathan & Jake dance, while Isabel fawned over my sister Brenda's baby chihuahua, Rica. 9 weeks old and teeny! Excuse my saying this but....My daughter's poops are bigger than this dog. She's SO CUTE! The dog, not my daughter's poop.

David arrived home a little after....9:30 p.m.? I can't remember. We let Jake open some birthday presents from my sister. He got a really cool chess set. It's called a Mystical Creations Dragon Chess Set. Wizards, dragons, etc. Really nice.

Here's where the guise comes in to play.

My sister, her husband and son kept bugging us all day to be able to open Christmas presents. I kept saying no. We do it on Christmas day. After Jake opens his wizard chess set, Brenda asks us to come downstairs to the room with the Christmas tree in it. They want to open ONE present, just One, they beg. I concede to only one person getting a present; the one who finds the hidden Christmas pickle in the tree. They search and Jake ends up finding it.

Brenda then hands Jake another birthday present they forgot to give him. Jake opens it, and it's a Playstation game. Cool! Until David mentions "Hey, that's for PS3!" We don't own a PS3. We will never own a PS3 as long as those suckers are as expensive as they are. We do not work our patooties off to throw away that much $$ on a game system. And if you know me, you know my feeling on video games anyway. I tolerate them because I love my two men. Jonathan looks at Brenda and says "Mom! You got the wrong game! PS2! Not PS3!!" Brenda says something like "Oh, I'm sorry! I still have the receipt," while I am saying "It's ok, she can exchange it or mail us the receipt and we can change it out." By this time, Jonathan (or Brenda?) has pulled out the one gift that Jake can open because he found the Christmas pickle. A rather large gift with a handle. I am clueless.

This is Jake's face as he opens up....his Playstation 3. My insane family bought my son a PS3. What? WHAT?? All three of our jaws drop. We are stunned. The 3 of them are laughing hysterically at how they "got us." We're shocked, and saying that this is just too much. They wave us off. They wanted to do this, etc. etc. We're just sitting there, in shock. And I am feeling like a schmo. I got them each gifts that were like, $25 for one, $30 for the other and $25 for the other, and they get him a PS3? Gahhh! My brother-in-law is SO generous, and I felt like I totally let him down because all I got him was a Target gift card because I could not think of what else to get him.

Jake was in HEAVEN, as you can imagine. We were a little shocked, have I mentioned we were shocked yet? Jake in his tween and now teen years has been testing the limits of sarcasm and rudeness as of late, and it's almost like....here...have a $600 present. Yay! We've already had to kick him off of it because he proclaimed that this was "HIS" PS3 and David could not play it once Jake went to bed. *shakes head*

We went to bed and got up around 8:30 a.m. to my brother-in-law already cooking a pork (pernil) in the oven. He was so hungry for it at 8:30 a.m. because he'd been up at 3 in the morning checking on it and basting it. We opened our presents (insert feeling like a schmo again here). We had tons of presents from friends and family members under the tree. We don't open them until Christmas day, even if we get them early in the mail. So we're opening a million gifts and my sister & family are sort-of just sitting there with the lame gifts we got them. *sigh*

Brenda cooked some Puerto Rican rice (arroz con gandules) and I made a green bean casserole. I also put a pre- made apple pie in the oven. (I baked a cheesecake yesterday from scratch, and a chocolate cake the day before). Christmas dinner was served....at 10:30 a.m. Funny.

Merry Christmas everyone!