On a night like this, after a day like this, I have nothing but love to send out to all of you. I spent the bulk of the day in direct communication with my family in one form or another, and the warm fuzzies are overflowing in me now. They're only good if they're shared, and there is plenty for everyone, so come and take some.
I slept late this morning, as I promised myself I would. I know as kids we all woke as early as humanly possible on this morning, but as an adult, I no longer feel the need to be in the living room by 0430 to see what Santa brought me. I had help sleeping last night, and when that assistance was still working after sunup, I let it have free rein. I stumbled around for a bit before remembering that I needed a from-scratch marshmallow recipe from Pinterest. When I discovered that they needed to "cure" for four hours, I set to work immediately so that they would be ready in time for the family dinner. Turns out making marshmallows isn't as difficult as I imagined, but it is ten times stickier than I could have predicted. Maybe I didn't get the sugar to a full 240 degrees, or maybe the humidity in my kitchen was too high (this is Colorado in winter, so that seems unlikely). Or perhaps they really are a gooey mess. It was fun, and not kidding, watching the sugar whisk around in the stand mixer was as mesmerizing as watching Hypnotoad on Futurama. I stood there nearly all of the 12 minutes it took to be fully fluffed and cooled. And after the requisite four hours, I cut them with snowflake cookie cutters, and added a Southern girl ambrosia touch to the traditional Smith family grape and cranberry jello salad.
Our gift exchange was fairly rapid and low key, since there were only the two of us here this morning, and we promised each other and the kids that we didn't need a whole lot more stuff. I got what I was hoping for from my daughter (memory foam pillows and pill holders so that I always have stuff with me when I'm out and forget to pill up in the morning before I leave the house). Mr X was actually happy to get the socks I gave him. And I repeated my favorite gift to both of us from last year, and we each have the seasonal tumbler from Starbucks, the one that includes a pre-paid month of daily coffee or tea refills for all of January. Beyond that, it was an easy day. The television stayed off; no one complained about being bored. We called parents and children on the phone. It was a good day.
As long as I am still invited to come along, I am going to keep going to the in-laws for holidays. Today was definitely worth the drive. I've been a part of this family for my entire adult life (I was a child of 20 when I met them), and I'm not giving them up easily. They have always understood food issues -- these were the people who first made me aware that grain sensitivities were a thing, way back when my kids' older cousins were in preschool. Eating there is safe and enjoyable. Somewhere in the last few years, once the kids became adults, the wine started flowing, and the conversation became a little wilder. At first I felt a little like an outsider with them, but as the years passed, my inhibitions went with them, and now there's nowhere else I'd rather be. As the legal status of my marriage evolves, it might become awkward, but I'm hanging in as long as they let me.
I ran out of steam to push my idea of the service-to-go project I talked about weeks ago. The cyclical nature of my health is like that, and I finally have learned to accept it. But we did manage to dig out good contributions to the annual white elephant gift exchange. The same person who got our gift last year (which was the Blu-ray player we didn't need after we upgraded to a surround-sound system) got this year's electronic item (a cordless land line phone), and she wasn't quite as impressed this time around. For a brief shining moment in time, I had a magnetic knife holder, but that was stolen away, and I ended up with a wooden ball and string game and an instruction book for balloon animals. As we spoke by FaceTime with the cousin who couldn't be there this late in her pregnancy, telling her what our gifts were, my nephew said, "I won a free trip to ARC." (That's the thrift shop closest to his house.) I'm pretty sure that's the gift several of us left with tonight. That, and good memories.
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