Christmas 2007

When I awoke this morning, my head filled with visions of my two grandchildren waking up to all of the presents around their trees that Santa had brought them.

Lucy and I talked about those memories we have of when we were children.  the difficulty of falling asleep knowing that Santa never comes when children are awake. The surprise and awe of seeing a tree that had only a few gifts under it turn into a dazzling array of presents during the few hours that we had dozed off (finally).  Our parents complaining that they had "just gone to bed" but dragging themselves to the living room because the rule was, you can't open presents until they were present in the room.

My best childhood Christmas gift in memory was a beautiful bicycle I received when I was a young boy.  I was a paperboy and had to deliver papers before dawn via my bicycle.  All of the paperboys would meet at 5 a.m. on a street corner in Opa Locka where a truck would drive by and drop off our newspapers in stacks bound by wire and named for each delivery boy.  We all had wire cutters with which to cut the wire and then we trifolded each paper, slipped a rubber band around each paper and packed it into a large basket on the front of our bicycles for delivery.  A few days later, the bike was stolen.  A truck drove up to the corner where all of the paperboys had left their bikes, chained to light posts while we all walked across the street to have breakfast at a diner, cut all the chains and threw our bikes onto the truck and disappeared.

As an adult I appreciate things that I might not have before I matured.  Although some say I haven't matured fully yet.  This year I received a simple gift that truly impressed me.  My daughter Rita put together a professionally bound book with photos of me and my Granddaughter together and a narrative that she wrote.  I love this book as much as I did the Bicycle.

This is the first year we've been by ourselves on Christmas morning.  Our children have grown into adults who had to prepare for Santa's visit for their own children.  It is heart warming to see our children, passing along the same excitement and happiness that was enjoyed in our home to their children.

We had a visit the week prior to Christmas from Rita and Alexi.  Justin's work precluded him from coming with them until he drove down last weekend to retrieve his family and return to Dallas by Christmas eve.

These visits from Rita and Alexi have allowed us to participate with Alexi's process of growing up.  They come down and stay with us for a few days a few times a year.  Her rapid mental growth is most obvious when we see her in this manner.  Her verbal skills are amazing and much like her cousin little Leonard, she is progressing with her level of intelligence much faster than many children around her.

Some interesting things happened during this visit.  Lucy decided that a crib was not a good place for her to sleep since she just turned four the week before her visit.  My first memories are around that age, as well.  I still remember my grandfather and how kind he was to me at the age of four.  I was reticent to remove the crib (probably because I had to put it up in our attic - the only place we have for storage.  When Alexi saw her new bed she was ecstatic.  I asked her before they left,  what her favorite presents were (we shared our gifts a few days early to permit her return and the visit from Santa).  She said her favorites were her new bed and a bracelet that the "new" Marino's gave her.

Alexi has a habit while she sleeps she twirls her finger in her hair.  It results daily in a hair knot on the top of her head when she wakes up.  On their last evening we had a panic in the house at around 11pm when alexi woke up with her finger stuck in her hair.  she couldn't extricate it and the finger had turned  purple from being trapped in her hair.  Scissors were obtained, hair was cut and she was rescued. Quite an ordeal. this is a photo of her unraveling her morning hair knot (never a pleasant process, but done DAILY).

We had dinner out with both Rita's family and Leonard's family at Bravo Italian restaurant here at La Cantera (upscale new shopping center).  The food was good but even more fun than that was the trip home.  We drove around looking at christmas lights while playing "name that tune" on the radio.  Rita is now beating me on a grand scale.  When a song would start everyone would try to name the song first.  Alexi was riding in the back seat with her mother and started exclaiming in a calm measured voice "too late" every time Rita shouted an answer.  It was hilarious, having a miniature ally in the back seat.

When we opened our presents Little Lenny received a megaphone that had numerous buttons on it - Lucy's Idea.  She had seen several of the kids in the store having a good old time with it right there in the toystore and felt it would be just as interesting in our home as it was there at the toystore.  It promised to be one of those gifts that drives parents crazy like a new drum set. The buttons distort your voice and you can vary how it sounds.  Our new family tradition is someone announcing, via a megaphone, a play by play as each present is opened.  "AND JUSTIN IS NOW LOOKING OVER HIS AMAZING NEW RADAR DETECTOR, YEA... LET'S HEAR IT FOR JUSTIN!!!"

Little Leonard received his second lensatic compass.  Old age is the reason he has two.  I forgot  I gave him one previously.  I plan on teaching him what life was like reading maps before the advent of the GPS (of which he also has two).

While Lucy and I were preparing our early christmas dinner a discussion of how tall Lenny is commenced among our offspring and their spouses.  Justin, being and engineer, was unable to accept an inaccurate number so we broke out a tape measure and measured everyone.  Excepting the kids (who are obviously short), we now have an order to the Marino/Bowker family height heirarchy.  Brandi is the shortest, next is Justin, then Lucy, then Rita, then Me and then Lenny who is, according to the tape measure, six foot five inches tall.