A Very Dierenfeld Christmas...

Well I'm now heading home after a wonderful Christmas with my family.

And being who we are, we do Christmas a bit different than others. Following our ethnic German roots, our family goes to the Christmas Eve service at church (as kids this was known as the Horror Before the Rapture of New Gifts) and then head home to open gifts that evening. That's right folks... for almost 30 Christmases now... I got to open my gifts before you (unless you also were a part of a more enlightened, Germanic family too). Christmas Eve is the great night, were everyone in my family feigns "oh you don't need to get me anything" and "I really didn't get anything much for anyone" unless it's me... and I really mean it.

My Father's favorite pastime while I grew up was to try to convince my sister and I that there wasn't going to be any gifts for Christmas. That and hiding and mis-wrapping gifts to completely confuse us. Like one year were my GI Joe super-cool airplane was wrapped in Rainbow Bright paper, making me think it was for my sister. Or the other year where he hid our new bike/scooter in the back yard, and my poor sister stepped in dog waste and tracked it through our yuletide living room.

In later years it has been a less commercial affair and more about having a wonderful time together as a family. This is usually centered around various processed meat and cheeses, as well as my mother's infamous Sour Cream Cookies. If you think it sounds nasty, then I'll let your ignorance remain and have your share... because there is NO cookie that beats them. This year's spread was even improved upon, adding the wild game / exotic processed meats. We had Elk Salami, Buffalo Summer Sausage and Duck Summer Sausage. And if you think that they sound nasty, well then I'll have your share of that too.

Perhaps the greatest part of it was the addition to the family, Nicholas. He's already a sweet kid and super cool. When I get home, I'll be posting pics and some short video of him. I'm a proud uncle of a month old baby boy, who doesn't like naps and makes faces at people. Looks like the Dierenfeld genes might dominate...

However, what really makes Christmas wonderful is knowing that my Savior was born around 2000 years ago. Sure, not on Dec 25th, but we couldn't let the pagans have all the good holidays. I hope you had a wonderful time of merriness, joyfultude, and general good cheerifulocity. And I wish you the most blessed New Year!