Winter Break Trip - Day 4

[Katie had made Christmas morning very special by filling up Mollie and my stockings with goodies (many of which I had brought with me) - the whole atmosphere was extremely “family oriented” and I was glad to be able to show Mollie what that was like - she and her cousins were up at around 0800 and we opened presents in the living room with my sister's family until around 0930 - Katie's family was SO generous and knew exactly the kinds of things that Mollie loved - after that, we ate a huge breakfast ("overnight French Toast", eggs, bacon) - Mollie and I helped with the dishes but Katie made it difficult for us to contribute in many other ways while we were staying at her house - I went for a walk in the cold, brisk air - then we got ready for our trip to Cape Cod - Mollie and I left at around 1145 (we took Ella with us) and arrived at my father’s house in Sandwich at 1230, just as the Christmas meal was going to begin - Gerard, Judy (Beth’s sister) and Carolyn were already there and the rest of Katie's family (including Aria and Dan) arrived a little later - Beth had made a huge effort to set up a seating chart where (apparently, she thought) no one could disagree - the end result, however, was that Mollie ended up sitting at the adult table (she didn’t like this but I convinced her to “let it go”) - the dinner (turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cinnamon swirl rolls, corn, stuffing, gravy) came from Market Basket and was delicious - Dad and Beth had put a moratorium on gift-giving but there were several floating around (we gave presents to Dad/Beth, Gerard and Carolyn, while other family members exchanged presents) - after the meal, we watched slide shows (“Greatest Hits” and “1977 Summer Vacation”) and everyone laughed a lot - the fun continued with Katie showing everyone the App she had that turned photos into versions of people’s faces as the opposite gender or a different age or hairstyle - we were done with the event by 1600 and left when Gerard was ready - we followed him to his house in Plymouth and figured out how to load up my car with a fragile (100+ year old) set of four chairs that he wanted me to have; we also talked for a long time - Ella started texting Mollie, asking where she was, by 1730 so we headed back to Hanover - when we arrived, we found Uncle John watching a series of Christmas movies (“The Grinch”, “Jingle All the Way” and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”) - of course we joined him - later, I went for another walk and returned home quickly - Katie made dinner (homemade pizza) and we talked for several hours - Mollie really was getting sad about leaving her cousins and didn’t want to go to bed - we said goodbye to everyone because they planned to sleep late the next morning - I excused myself (for packing and sleeping) by 2200 but Mollie stayed up a bit longer]