Try as they might, the airlines couldn’t spoil our Christmas… Though they cancelled my flights and made me spend fourteen hours on a detour through Houston, sent my clothes to Maui and failed to call me when they arrived in Seattle, and cancelled my sister and nephew’s flight (their eight-hour detour took them through San Francisco), we nonetheless managed to visit grandma, destroy some presents, and stuff ourselves with food and booze.
So far, despite the odds, James turns out to be a sweet, well-behaved, intelligent kid. Also, he’s ridiculously cute — I challenge anyone to show me the nephew who can out-cute mine. 
He’s too young to appreciate expensive gifts (his favorite this year? A tossup between the piggy bank with the disembodied hand that snatches the deposit and blowing bubbles.) but not too young to appreciate lots of them. But he’s also excited to see other people open their gifts, which was nice to see.
Mom went beyond the call of duty, as she always does. Her Fontanini nativity set is growing boundlessly, her home was immaculately decorated, and she put hot water bottles in our beds every night.
Scored me a nice zip-up sweater from Eddie Bauer, a Montana Highway Patrol hoodie, and a sweet pair of slippers. Also got some nice Reidel scotch glasses from Anne (good call, girl).
January 1st, 2007 at 10:55 pm
wow — this one has to be a tie.
How about James wins cutest nephew while Jada continues to reign as cutest niece?