I Suck At Pseudo Christmas

Yesterday was the holiday tradition in Karen's family known as Pseudo Christmas. Now, I suck at Pseudo Christmas. I think Modern Family's "Express Christmas" has a better ring to it.

Pseudo Christmas is held in the lovely land of Lowell. There is a lot to like about Lowell or so the residents there will tell you. It just so happens to be where Karen's aunt, uncle, and cousins live.

Personally, as much as enjoy Lowell, I think Karen should have skipped her family tradition this year. She has been battling a fever this entire weekend. She actually almost cancelled going to my BFF's (Kerry) holiday party on Saturday due to her fever. So going out the following day, even if it's family tradition, probably isn't a good idea. But that's just my opinion. As I am posting this, she is still battling fever-like symptoms (and it's Monday). Oh what people do for "tradition".

Anyway, it was a nice Pseudo Christmas. With Karen being sick (and pregnant), I actually spent most of the day making sure our twenty month old daughter (Briana) was not getting into things. I actually missed out on the majority of the "silly swap" that Karen's family holds because Briana wanted to play elsewhere. Luckily for me, I drew an early number. So I could just pick a gift... leave to attend to Briana... and no one would miss me.

For me, probably the most memorable part of Pseudo Christmas was taking a break to go to a discount auto parts store with Karen's cousin's husband (Tommy) and my favorite brother-in-law (PJ). PJ needed to pick up some light bulbs for his trailer. We weren't gone that long, but the break from being a responsible parent was definitely nice.

One of the other things that I'll probably remember from Pseudo Christmas 2011 is Karen's grandmother's sister (Mary) and her love of apple pie. Suffice to say, Mary is mentally not all there. She is being taken care of by her son (Kevin), who interestingly enough told me a side story about how someone calls him "Mike" now because he was spotted wearing a jacket I brought to the silly swap of Pseudo Christmas 2010. I brought an old high school jacket with my name on the sleeve. Kevin (or Mary) was the lucky recipient of the jacket last year. As a result, Kevin uses it as his smoking jacket and apparently someone whom he vaguely knows greeted him with a "Hi Mike" the other day.

Anyway, Mary had a slice of apple pie for dessert. She wanted a second helping of the apple pie, but Kevin told her that there was none left. So back and forth they went over the apple pie and how she wanted another slice and how Kevin said there was none left. Of course, while this is going on PJ is egging Mary on about getting another slice of pie. It seemed like the discussion of the apple pie lasted forever. And truthfully, there were two slices of apple pie left. I happen to know that because I ate one of the remaining slices. Apple pie = yum! (Mary was right.)