Christmas, Revisited

Clean, toss, unclutter...this is beginning to read like a middle-schooler's "dear diary". Time to try something different!
12-25-12 ~ I had a lovely Christmas with Jonathan and Amanda's families at Amanda and Brandon's home! Amanda and Brandon picked me up at 11 a.m. I had baked apple crumb pie and Sara's pumpkin pie that morning -- the pumpkin pie was HOT out of the oven. Picture transporting hot, juicy pie over 5 miles of periodically bumpy road while Amanda dodged man-hole covers and other drivers. Brandon told me if he ended up with pie on his clothes that he would "kill" me! Fortunately, thanks to Amanda's skillful driving and his quick reflexes, the pies stayed in their pie plates where they belonged.
At Amanda's, we ate a light lunch (okay, mostly we snacked) while preparing my family's traditional Christmas dinner: standing rib roast, Delmonico potatoes, candied parsnips, baby peas, butternut squash, and banana bread.
We exchanged gifts while food baked and simmered. Jonathan and kiddos' arrival was perfectly timed! Watching small children open and play with their gifts was so much fun! Xander, 16 months, pulled his Christmas gift from Sharon out of the box, and then proceeded to play with the box for the next hour. (Days later, that box was still his favorite Christmas toy.) Aaron, almost 3 years old, enjoyed opening gifts the most. He wanted to unwrap everyone's! Lily, 3 and a half, liked the 60-piece dragon puzzle from Great Grandma D the most. Jo had received a beautifully colored red and blue betta fish at home, so she loved her clown fish pillow from Sharon. Ammon, who had been given a live hermit crab at home, was thrilled with the hermit crab soft puppet Sharon gave him. (Amazingly, none of these gifts were planned between the two families.) Christmas is still magical if there is a small child involved!
Jonathan and Brandon gave each other NERF automatic weapons. After assembling them and teaching all of us correct gun part terminology (a major undertaking), the two of them battled it out for control of the kitchen and living room. No one was spared! Careful! Don't shoot your eye out!! We all laughed and squealed when hit by the soft foam "bullets". At first, Lily and Xander hid behind boxes and the curtains, but eventually when the laughter was not followed by anyone crying (Jonathan's kids had played this game before), they came out and attacked their father and uncle too. Even Xander took his share of "hits" and loved it. I have never seen our family let loose and have as much fun with each other as adults as they did Christmas afternoon!
Dinner was only 15 minutes off-schedule. The roast beef was perfect, everything was hot, and nothing was over- or under-done. We made a great team of chefs, disproving the old saw that "too many cooks spoil the broth". Only Amanda and I ate parsnips, although everyone tried them.
I couldn't believe it when Jay insisted he had never had them before. Amanda exclaimed, "Mom always makes these!" He still insisted he didn't remember them and finally replied, "that doesn't mean I ever ate them." After trying them and pulling a face, Amanda said with dry humor, "Apparently you tried them once and disliked them so much that you blocked them from your memory." "That's okay, there's all the more for me!" I laughed and exclaimed between mouthfuls. There was so much food, no one went hungry. I shared leftovers with all and still had plenty of everything to take home with me. Most of us were too full for dessert!