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Already my time home is almost over. The last seven days have been remarkable in their sameness. My family hasn’t spent this many consecutive days together in the last half-dozen years. Sam had his wisdom teeth out the day after I got home, and he hasn’t been to work in the time since. My mom has a rather unbelievable thirteen days off, starting the day after I got home as well. John is home from college, and isn’t particularly busy during the day. My dad never is.

Every day I wake up, in the late morning or early afternoon, and all five of us are around the house for the rest of the daylight hours. Occasionally one or more of us will go to the store or out for lunch, but the rest of the days are spent mostly idle at home, usually in the living room, usually with a laptop nearby. During the day, my life is completely different from my everyday life away from home; it feels like stepping back in time, and back into a role I’m used to and comfortable with but very rarely play.

Then dinner hits, and my mom has a drink or two. At this point, the men of the house (ie everyone but my mom) make an informal bet. Will she stay up past nine? Nine thirty? Despite thirteen consecutive days off, she refuses or is unable or prefers not to adjust her sleep schedule at all, and she hardly ever stays awake past ten. This is a good thing, because the very specific sound of my parents’ bedroom door closing causes an internal reaction in which I completely lose the sense of guilt that I don’t spend enough time with my family. The night hours are my own, and I get to drop the pseudo-charade. I’m very lucky in that I get to spend most evenings when I’m at home with Kate and Ellie, usually in some way intoxicated. As always in Columbia Station, Ohio, a lot of time is spent in the car on long, straight stretches of country road between places. This time in the car—filled with anticipation, indecision, great ideas, and hilarious banter—is one of my absolute favorite things about being home.

***

My parents used to do a lot of cooking, but it has tapered off as John and I went to college, my mom has started traveling more, and Sam started working all the time. My mom has seemingly forgotten how to make all but half a dozen things, and the rest of the time we eat out or fend for ourselves. Not happy to let the nice ingredients for Christmas Eve dinner be overcooked and poorly seasoned, I volunteered to help out. I made some highly complimented mushrooms as a topper for grilled bacon-wrapped filet mignons, and my mom handled the rest (baked potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, bread, a lovely choice of wine). For the mushrooms, I surveyed the fridge and pantry, and ended up throwing the following together:

1/2 a white onion, minced very fine
a few pats of butter
about a tablespoon of sugar
about two tablespoons of garlic paste
a dash of ground thyme
salt and pepper

After this caramelized down considerably over medium heat, I added a bunch of sliced baby portabellos and porcinos and a little more butter, along with maybe a quarter cup of nice quality whisky from the liquor shelf. I put the pan on low heat and covered it, stirring occasionally, while I got the meat ready with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme. Because the porch is already pitch black at 5:30pm in winter, I relied not on sight but on intuition and took them off the piping hot grill early instead of late. After resting for five minutes, they were just reaching medium rare, and I didn’t have to gag down what otherwise would have been an overcooked (read: ruined) but pricy steak.

[Thanks to Lin for inspiring this section. The gumbo sounded delicious! My mouth was watering by the end of your description.]

***

Dishes done, we settled down in the family room to open presents. We’re getting older, and Christmas is less exciting than it used to be. My brothers, my dad and I all kind of poke fun at my mom most of the time, and while we were opening presents it was no exception. “Mom, don’t you remember you got me this last year? I still don’t need it.” “You bought this on QVC, didn’t you? Please stop doing that.” My brothers and I have this inability to stick up for my mom, because of the awkward (read: unprecedented) position it would put the other two brothers in. My mom is quite hardened to living with a bunch of boys for the last 22 years.

I got some gifts of replenishment (vitamins, some cooking sauces, soap, etc), a “first edition” (ie replica of the original) game of Monopoly, candy (because I need it), a large rolling duffel bag (thumbs up), and some cash. My parents also said they’d buy me and Danny tickets out to San Francisco for a trip over spring break, with the (both very good and very mildly frustrating) caveat that they’ll be joining us for a few days to visit wine country (it’s only very mildly frustrating because I’d like to spend more than a couple days in San Francisco, but I can’t complain about a trip to wine country on someone else’s dime. I’ll have plenty of time in San Francisco soon enough).

The present of the evening was my idea. My brother and I had already gotten something for my mom (she ended up not liking it, which was very frustrating). But the three of us were stumped on my dad. The obvious answer was to get him a Wii—both he and my mom have been raving about it since I brought mine home over Thanksgiving. It could not be found, though. On Saturday night, driving home from Kate’s very mildly buzzed (don’t worry, there are literally two turns between my house and Kate’s, even though we’re about ten minutes apart), I realized I could always find one on eBay. I logged on when I got home, and played the online auction house for a Wii. It was kind of insane. When I first made a search for a Wii, the first page was full of auctions less than a minute away from ending. More than ten Wiis, selling in the next minute. Insanity. It was immediately apparent what the market price was, within about 15 dollars. I decided to aim for the low end of the range, and tried to bid on one of them. The auction had already ended before I could get a bid in. I searched again, and tried again. Same problem.

I decided to go to the third page of results next, and found an auction ending in a few minutes. I placed a conservative bid on one of the dozens of identical systems, and counted down the minutes. I won.

The Wii got here on Tuesday morning (incredible work, USPS!), and I wrapped it up. My dad was shocked we found one, because my mom had been complaining for weeks about not being able to find one. We’re all glad to have something to do during the day, and my parents can’t wait to show it off the next time they have some neighbors over. Quite a success.

***

I leave for Chicago on Friday. I miss everything about my everyday life while I’m in Ohio, especially Danny and the cats. My family. I’ll be back to it soon.

I hope everyone had a merry X-mas!