1998 december 14

a belated saint nic

i love the new york giants.

previous to today, i was rather indifferent to them, but i now adore them. quite frankly, i believe i'd adore saddam hussein, at least for the moment, if he had managed to stop the march to an undefeated season the denver broncos were making. there is no rationale behind my hatred of the broncos. it started when i was younger and decided they had the most hideous uniforms ever; i absolutely detest the orange and blue combination and will sometimes pass on drinking the otherwise delicious orangina just because of it. then there is the whole john elway thing, he just rubs me wrong. plus, he has a big butt and he runs funny.

my st nicholas box arrived this weekend. a little late but better late than never.

since i was a child, i have received st nicholas gifts, first from my grandmother and now from my mother. when i was very small, i would put my red rubber boots outside the front door before i went to sleep on december 5th, and would rush to the front porch as soon as i woke on december 6th to gather my loot. it was always so exotic; the chocolates came from germany and france and austria, the toys from england. it absolutely convinced me that saint nicholas was real since i knew perfectly well none of these items could be procured in my local grocery.

in an effort to save postage, and get everything out in one fell swoop, this year my mother sent the christmas prezzies at the same time, along with a little note that said, "anything in pink or purple is for st nicholas, the others are for christmas."

there was one obviously pink package, hot pink with intricate letters printed all over it, and there was one obviously purple package, tissue paper in a dayglo lavender. fair enough. then things got a little trickier. there were two packages wrapped in a purple paper decorated in gold angels and stars that looked awfully christmasy. then there was a package addressed to both gene and i that had not only pink and purple in the wrapping paper, but also green and gold and blue. discretion being the better part of valour, i opened the pink, the purple and the purple and gold packages, but left the multicoloured one until the 25th.

i also ripped open the purple wrapped bar of milka chocolate. chocolate was always the best part of saint nicholas day, even the year we accidentally got the liqueur filled chocolates that had been meant for my parents. my siblings and i were very happy on the way to school that morning.

i think i am getting a cold. my nose is starting to run and there is an odd pressure in my sinuses. i am going to very annoyed if i am sick; i hate being sick during the holidays. i'm going to go rifle gene's closet for his fuzzy fleece pullover and his drawers for thick woolen socks; bundling up is bound to make me feel better.

aaaaaaaaaah-choo, claire