Christmas at The Rowlands Christmas at The Rowlands
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We arrive for Christmas Proper at the new Stately Rowland Manor
The Tour of The House begins with the
hearth.
They say time is the fire in which we burn, but here it's mainly used for making
smores.
The spacious living room comes with a House
Elf.
In the kitchen Mom and Lisa rejoice over the shrimp tray.
At the top of the stairs we enter the dwelling of the resident teenager.
Maddie waves hello as the House Elf, Anna, entertains Sasha.
Tess and Holly pose under "The Princess of the Dolphins" bed.
Jeff shows off his and Lisa's bedroom as
well as the adjacent "Three Seasons Room."
Also Known in Michigan as the:
"Always Freezing Cold (except for a few awful hot weeks in the summer) Room"
The view from the Always Freezing Cold (except
for a few awful hot weeks in the summer) Room
and finally the tour ends down in the dungeon-like Little Basement of Horrors.
Back upstairs, Sasha discovers the new Doll House and quickly begins redecorating.
We try to explain that it is not her doll
house,
but she happily ignores us and starts rearranging the bed linens.
Dad pretends to patiently wait to open his
presents but in his mind he's already opened them all,
eaten lunch and dinner and ran out the door yelling 'so long suckers!'
Sylvia sighs that "she is so bored she will just die if we don't start opening presents soon!"
This year Angela got to cut the Traditional
Christmas Kick-off Orange.
An ancient family tradition that is supposedly a great honor.
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Then the 6-8 hours of present opening began in earnest.
Tess gets a new radio and Sasha gets a Tumblin Tigger from Pompa!
Sasha watches as Pompa opens his gifts from Alan
Custom made present tags for the big Jennifer Aniston fan of the family.
Maddie opens her new Lord of the Rings game...
Then quickly composes an Ode of Thanks on the back of her hand and performs it for the family
Sasha waits impatiently and then gets to open another present with Daddy. A new purse!
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Now Alan gets his presents. And what wondrous
presents indeed.
Lisa has given him all the top items on his wish list!
Sin City Deluxe edition and Sin City
magnets,
the new award winning novel by Chris Elliott and a Jack Skellington hat!
Tess watches in awe as Alan opens his marvelous bounty of gifts
And Finally, the present that has been at the top of his wish list for the last 5 years! The David Lynch website exclusive version of Eraserhead. Lisa scores a perfect gift giving year.
Dad then happily opens his new John Fogerty
CD as Alan looks on with jealous rage
for not having added that to his wish list as well. Curse you father!
(Just kidding, I don't
really want the John Fogerty CD.
I appreciate his early work with Creedence Clearwater Revival but am not a huge
fan of his later efforts.)
Time for a snack break. Grandpa takes
Sasha over to the Bobbing for Orange Rinds Bowl.
At least I hope that's what this station was set up for.
Little ill-mannered Sasha demands that she be hand fed snacks by her older cousins.
Alan and Holly pose for a quick
portrait
while Sasha is briefly banished to the corner to pay for her insolence.
Grandpa believes our punishments for Sasha are too harsh, while Pompa finds them hilarious.
Eventually Sasha is allowed to return to
the festivities after she finishes reading and understands the story of the
impudent tiger who insisted that his cousins hand feed him Christmas
treats.
We even let her open another gift.
Then it was Jeff's turn to open his Spidey Gifts.
His somber opening technique and cold indifference toward his presents was felt by all in the room.
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Angela unburdens herself for a moment to open her presents
Sasha announces that if her next present
isn't a Hokey Pokey Elmo - "we will all pay dearly."
Luckily Lisa and Jeff saved us from whatever horror she had planned.
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Holly unwraps and poses repeatedly with her presents from Mom.
Sasha adopts the baby that Anna received a few hours earlier. A vicious custody battle ensues.
Lisa tries to distract her with another doll but Sasha wrinkles her nose at that.
Finally Anna's cheating limbo technique distracts Sasha long enough to forget about the baby doll
Now she can start coveting Sylvia's presents.
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