Christmas Eve!

Everybody came over to my house last night for Christmas Eve, which is when us Latvians do our gift exchange and the celebration of the holiday. Today, Christmas Day, is notable for our family, because today is Peter's birthday!

We had tons of fun last night. The food seemed to satisfy everyone: I had roasted a fresh ham all day long, so the meat just melted in your mouth. My mashed potatoes went quickly, as did the mushroom gravy! Ingrid and Brigit brought salad and veggies, Peter and Samantha brought a whole rockfish with Thai spices, which we steamed in my oven. That was a huge fish!

We sang some holiday songs - both in English and in Latvian, and then I read Maya Angelou's poem, Amazing Peace, which I had heard earlier that week on Oprah & Friends. I love the poem, because of the pictures it paints and the powerful ending.

Then we had the Yankee Swap gift exchange (people can choose either from the unopened gifts or a gift someone has already opened). This year's theme was Movement and Stillness -- as Inara said, there were a lot of Zen gifts! Wind chimes, fountains. I bagged one of the fountains which Ingrid had taken from Pop. I love it when someone takes something someone else has already opened; it's like an avalanche of gift picking!

The kids opened their gifts in between, although Peter, Andrew and Aliya now are participating in the gift exchange as well! They're all so grown up!

Omama and Opapa had picked up Vecmamina for the trip from the nursing home, and I could tell that she was getting tired by the end of the evening. (She normally goes to bed quite early!) She walked herself in and out of the house! (With some help from her grandchildren, of course.) Especially early on in the evening, it seemed that she was very very sharp! Sometimes, though, when the talk is fast and furious, she doesn't stay on top of it, but that is understandable.

All in all, I thought the evening was perfect! I had worked for 3 days to de-clutter the first floor in anticipation and it looked great! Now, I have a whole week to work on the second floor, which is where I dumped all of the stuff from the first floor!!! Yay, vacation!