This week has been action-packed, to say the least. On Christmas Eve we were on the road by 7:45 and arrived at my parents' house in Mt. Airy a little after 11. We went to church earlier than usual to accommodate Olive's bedtime, though we did keep her up a little later than we had been lately, pushing it back to 8:30 so we could spend a little more time at the Garnands', the parents of my oldest friend, Natalie, like I do every Christmas Eve. Olive adored Jackson, Natalie's 2 1/2 year-old son, who endured her mauling, hair-pulling, and head-butting with admirable patience and good humor (Another potential son-in-law? I reckon so!)
Look at that dear, dear boy!
Natalie and the Goon
Christmas Day was relaxing as usual, spent breakfasting, opening and enjoying and watching others enjoy gifts, and dining some more. A fun addition to the normal activities this year was the henna kit that Kellie got for Zoe. We began preparing the mixture the evening before, blending the henna powder with brewed black tea, to let the dyes activate. The next morning I gave her this owl tattoo:
Goonie getting in for a better look
and when there was some left over I did one on myself just for kicks.
Never in a million years would I plaster myself with a real tattoo, but henna is fun stuff, and the traditional Indian designs are gorgeous. I think I had as much fun applying it as Zoe did getting the design on her arm. She's pretty pleased with it and it eager to show it off to her friends when she gets back to Maine tomorrow. Kellie wins the prize for sure for best gifts, what with Zoe's henna, some owl print pyjamas for the Goon, a super-soft fair isle sweater that I've been sporting for three days straight, and a set of four bowls from Anthropologie. Here are two of them (it's a set of two matching pairs). My sis really knows how to do it (and Rob's life has been threatened if he breaks one. Kidding).
After our mendhi frenzy, we caravanned down to North Carolina - our family, Kellie's, and my parents and brothers, Roma and Taylor. To avoid the mayhem that is 95 in a snowstorm, we took the scenic back route down to my grandmother's house. We had a bit of difficulty due to faulty Google directions, but made it in the seven hours expected. With so many people at my grandmother Honey's house (seventeen of us), my Aunt Weegie and Uncle Don graciously put up the Cramers in their lovely house so, though we had to depart from the rest of the family early each night to get Olive to bed, we had very comfortable accommodations. Yesterday morning, after a southern breakfast at Honey's favorite joint, the Western Steakhouse, the four of us turned around to head back to Pittsburgh, a hilly and windy sojourn through the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. This allowed us one more day to spend in Pittsburgh before sending Zoe back to Maine, so we took a trip to the Carnegie Science Center. It was pretty fascinating, even for me, but Zoe was really impressed by the things that she saw there. She even got to be a volunteer in a liquid nitrogen demonstration and sampled a marshmallow that had been dunked in a bowl of the stuff. Pretty cool. I think it's safe to say that, while we're nawt heh belowvahd Mainahs (translation: not her beloved Mainers), she had a pretty good time while she was here, and even picked up a little Picksburghese in the process. Atta girl! We'll miss her for the next six months, but are already planning things to do while she's here for the summer.
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