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.)

I Suck At Pseudo-Christmas

yesterday began with a surprise visit from my friends (jen and bill). jen and bill were out and about in the morning. as they were in the neighborhood (the neighborhood being the derby shoppes in hingham), they wondered if both karen and i were around for a quick visit.

in the past, jen and bill would stop over in the morning whenever they were around on the weekends. due to recent events like the passing of our son (braden), however, we haven't really seen them in the mornings on the weekends. so, it was definitely nice to have jen and bill visit again.

as a token of my appreciation for stopping by, i tried to poison jen and bill with my cooking. i don't particularly consider myself a good cook... hence... the poison. my cooking skills are probably why i also rely on whupping my friend's (hot amy) butt in wagered competitions... so that i can get free stuff like a meal. as it was the morning, i prepared french toast for jen, bill, karen and myself. (for anyone curious, neither jen nor bill had seconds... so maybe my french toast really was poisonous.) needless to say, it was fun to hang out with jen and bill again in the morning.

shortly thereafter, karen and i headed off to celebrate pseudo-christmas. now, i suck at pseudo-christmas. for anyone curious, pseudo-christmas is a celebration of christmas with the family... just not on christmas day. in general, christmas day is a tough day to gather everyone together. add to that stress the fact that people need to leave early or arrive late after visiting other families... celebrating christmas on christmas day can be quite hectic and people never really get to enjoy the company of each other.

so, it was devised by members of karen's family to celebrate "pseudo-christmas"... which is basically christmas, just not on christmas day. and with many things in karen's family, pseudo-christmas has since become a tradition.

anyway, pseudo-christmas this year was originally to be held the weekend of my birthday. as the weather was not cooperating (because it snowed for three days straight) that weekend, pseudo-christmas had to be rescheduled... for yesterday.

this year was definitely an interesting pseudo-christmas. not a lot of karen's family were able to attend pseudo-christmas yesterday. (aside from karen's immediate family, there were her relatives from lowell: aunt denise, karlene, and tommy; and a surprise visit from karen's uncle charlie and aunt frieda.) most importantly, karen's grandmother (whom we refer to as "nana") was not able to attend. that fact is probably the most important because pseudo-christmas is held at nana's house... due to tradition. (i fear that yesterday will be the last pseudo-christmas because nana's house will be put up for sale some time later this year.)

(the video below is of our neice, kaleigh... our nephew, pj... and tommy... dancing during pseudo-christmas.)


personally, pseudo-christmas yesterday seemed more like a family gathering rather than a celebration of christmas. of course, i could be biased because i have not been feeling much holiday spirit since braden passed away. to me, it just seemed like everyone was going through the motions... ghetto swap and all. (part of the tradition of pseudo-christmas is the "ghetto" swap... which has been renamed to be more swapper-friendly because there are young impressionable children in the family now. the basic gist is a yankee swap of old junk.)

thankfully, i was able to get rid of my "kkk santa" in the swap. interestingly enough, i ended up with a cookbook. perhaps the cookbook is a sign that my cooking is indeed awful. karen was also able to get rid of our shrinky dink oven (much to the joy of kaleigh) that we won at a chinese new year party... which my friend (aimee) reminded me that was another time we actually won something.

all in all, pseudo-christmas was an interesting time. i wonder what pseudo-christmas will be like this year. i can only imagine...