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Haaaaave A HamWrap! Note: Nothing in this entry is intended to offend anyone. Any fun that was not had by me is to be blamed on my inner ear, nothing else. No one is to be upset in any way by this entry. Or any of my entries, for that matter. Thank you for your attention. Photos to follow. (And I should point out here that while Bear has been a slacker about sending me photos, he is also the most fabulousest boyfriend ever because he picked me up from work and drove me around to where I needed to go, not to mention the time he took off work to haul me to the doctor's last week. And no, he didn't tell me that I had to say this.)_________________________________ For the past three years at Christmas time, our group of friends have celebrated Pseudo-Christmas, generally the weekend before Christmas. The hosts cook a turkey and stuffing, and everyone brings a menu item from their own family Christmas traditions. We gather over thirty people in one house or hall for a sit-down dinner with our family of friends. It�s generally a good time, with warm food smells and cheer and reunions and giving. We either collect money for the food bank or put together a hamper for a needy family every year. Some years gifts are exchanged, but more often it�s conversation that is shared rather than consumables. This year it felt like a little something was missing. We still had the traditional power outage in the home where the turkey was cooking (this has happened the past two years, and two officially makes a tradition). We had the traditional Christmas ornaments, a coloured glass ball with our name and the year. We had the food and the friends, including friends come back from out of town. I think it was the contrast with last year, when we had 30 odd people crammed into two rooms of the party house, the power was out in half of the house, it was sweltering hot and you had to climb over the couches and bodies to get to your seat at the table. There was a flurry of gifts exchanged (which made some people feel left out, so it was scrapped this year), the ham wrap was invented and the accompanying �Ham Wrap Chorus� was composed � to the tune of the Hallelujah Chorus. This year the event was held in a hall big enough to accommodate double the number of people, and was somewhat on the chilly side. Several people were too sick to attend, others were somewhat subdued by illness, and I was still sick enough that I had to go and lie down in the corner for an hour and then go home directly to bed. We were also plagued by the bad feelings leftover from an argument between some of our friends; easily half of us had been affected in some way by the backlash from the disagreement. People were hurt and angry, there were actions, reactions, counter-reactions and over-reaction, but I think the feelings were directed more at the situation than at any specific person. I think most people were just upset that arguments were happening over what was supposed to be a happy event at a joyful time of year. There was a definite underlying tension to the event that had never really been present in the past. The highlight of Pseudo-Christmas this year, for me, was getting to see our visiting friends (Roscoe and Smelly and Africa and Foreman) and to hang out with some people we don�t often get to. And the 5 pieces of Chnaners tourti�re that I got to take home and have all to myself. Mmmm�leftovers. And Roscoe made HamWraps for everyone this year. Honest. 2004-12-21 || 1:16 p.m. |
