I've always been a traditionalist for Christmas. Love the big family gatherings with multiple families, a Christmas table groaning under a presentation of Turkey and Ham and all the trimmings, Christmas carols playing in the background.
And, of course, weeks before Christmas, baking cookies and watching almost every Christmas movie ever made.
So here I sat this Christmas, totally alone. Woke up Christmas morning at 2am, watched two complete showings of A Christmas Story on TBS marathon. Had two "unseen this year" Christmas movies on DVD sitting on the shelf, as backup in case the TV schedule failed me.
And all of a sudden I'd had enough saccharine. I got up and brought the box of gifts my daughter, Crystal and her family had sent me for Christmas, all lovely and valued. Most intriguing was the gift from my two granddaughters, Lexy and Roxy; the complete season series of Modern Family for years one, two and three. I accused my daughter of having a memory like an elephant. When I visited them in Florida at Thanksgiving I had said I rarely watch mainstream TV but had caught a part of one episode of Modern Family and thought I might enjoy it.
So, lo and behold, sitting in front of me this morning was three complete seasons of same. I got up, made breakfast for myself, in honor of canine Christmas I scrambled an egg to complement breakfast for my two Chi's, then took a nap.
Woke up from an early morning nap, checked face book status on everyone (quiet today) and then washed up the breakfast dishes and did a load of laundry. Took a call from my other daughter and sat back with the rest of Christmas day laid out before me with little to do and no one to do it with.
I had little to do in the way of meal preparation as I had already planned my Christmas dinner: Stouffer's Turkey Medallion and mashed potato frozen dinner, mixed veggies and cornbread stuffing prepared from a box. Very non traditional for me.
Didn't care to watch the 96th Christmas movie of the season either. Very nontraditional.
So I broke out Volume 1 of Modern Family, a comedy show about an extremely dysfunctional family, one branch being a spring-December marriage, another being two gay guys who've adopted a little Vietnamese girl, and a "near normal" family populated with teens who see their parents as "aliens" and a father figure who tries to "get down" with his kids and ends up only looking silly.
So here I am, eating a TV dinner for Christmas, eating it alone, and watching the most nontraditional American family one can imagine....and I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my chair. Very, very funny comedy. Now I'm hooked!
After seven episodes of Modern Family I thought I'd take a break and clean up after the Christmas meal. So I carried my plastic TV dinner plate to the trash, threw it away, put my fork in the sink, tupperwared the leftover stuffing and veggies and I was done. No more Turkey carcass to carve up and put away, no tryptophan hangover from overeating, no dishes to clean up. Kitchen clean..."hey, I could get used to this!", thought I.
A glance at the clock says I've got at least six hours till bed time. What to do now? Back to Modern Family; I'm now addicted to these crazy, "nontraditional" people on a "nontraditional" day of a "nontraditional" Christmas....and it wasn't bad at all...excuse me now, I gotta get back and watch the two gay men spar and the Colombian lady who talks so funny!
Happy Holidays!
Modern Family is one of my favorite shows. Didn’t start watching it till the 2nd season which is about the time I arrived in Fargo. As far as I’m concerned, they aren’t all that dysfunctional. I wonder if I should be scared because they seem rather normal to me. Can’t wait till the start of the next season in a week or so.
ReplyDeleteGlad you had a peaceful day with your dogs and watching this funny show. It makes me about fall out of my chair sometimes.
We had tacos for Christmas dinner. It’s a family favorite and easy to make. I sure didn’t feel like making turkey again.
I didn’t know you were alone for Christmas, I thought you were married. I enjoyed watching Mia opening all her stuff. My ex sent me money to buy her a present to be from both of us so I bought her two bags of the large size Legos, 80 pieces a bag. Remember they used to only have the very small ones, like a thousand pieces!? The larger size is easier for little hands, and easier to pick up too. I’m going to get her two more bags of them but first my daughter said I had to get some kind of container to put them all in.
Pam, tacos for Christmas is great too! Tradition is just what the family wants to do, whether it be an old one or a new one.
ReplyDeleteRe, Modern Family, my guess is that they're a little, no a lot "disfunctional"...I doubt that most families could make such diverse characters "work". But, of course that's what makes them funny.
Happy New Year Pam!