Oy to the World

Sunday night was our annual Christmas dinner and gondola ride. It was the usual gang--me, Edra, Monica, her mom Jan, Vic, her mom Kaye and sister Wende, Randi, Dancing Amy and her former roommate Gretchen, Kathleen and Monica's friend Tony.

My mom also joined us for the first time, taking Mark's place. Mark spent the last two gondola rides being grouchy at dinner, then falling asleep promptly after the boat left the dock. This year I figured I'd spend the money on someone who would a) appreciate it a little more, and b) stay awake! Mark was not happy about the decision, but my mom certainly was.

So Mark stayed at home with my dad. They set up Mark's train, watched T.V. and tried convincing my mom and I to feed them chocolate pie for dinner.

I worried all week that we'd get rained out, but the weather held, and it was a beautiful night.

We went to dinner at a local Greek restaurant, which was yum-my! The food was good, the restaurant was warm, the company was great.

After dinner, it was on to the gondola. We rode in the big boat, which holds 14 people and was expertly rowed by one gondolier in back. We covered ourselves up in thick blankets, and passed around champagne and homemade cookies. Kathleen made these amazing 7-layer cookies, and when we passed them to the gondolier in back, he couldn't stop raving. "Those are so good!" he cried out. "My mouth is so confused by all the layers!"

There was also another gondolier in front, but he had the easy job--making us all laugh. He joked the whole time, doing silly poses, and declaring that Monica was the glue that held us all together. He called out to everybody--on foot, or in other boats on the canal--"Hey, here's Monica! You already know her." We couldn't stop laughing.

He also loved the fact that we had one man--Tony--and 12 women. He kept telling everyone that Tony was the man, and calling on Tony to kiss all the women each time we stopped under a bridge. Tony happily obliged. The gondolier even challenged him to a contest to see who could kiss the most women--I think Tony won, because he kissed Dancing Amy, who's pregnant, and was deemed a kiss and a half. It was hilarious, Tony kissing the women in the back of the boat, the gondolier kissing the women in the front, and then they met in the middle of the boat, and gave each other a friendly hug.

Tony was praised and called "The Man" so many times that at one point, another boat chugged by, and its occupants called out, "Where's Tony? Way to go, Tony!"

Oh, and the houses decorated with lights were pretty spiffy, too. There were the usual displays--the giant Santa face made out of lights, and the house with the roller coaster and Ferris wheel. There were some new entries, too--many Jewish homeowners got into the spirit this year!

My dad asked how I knew they were Jewish, and I answered, "They had blue and white lights, GIANT dreidels, blue menorahs, and flashing Stars of David. And one house had a big sign that said, 'Oy to the World!'" (I loved that!) I'm happy to report that Christians no longer hold a monopoly on ostentatious holiday light displays! :-)

The only bad thing about the gondola ride was how quickly it was over. We spent an hour drifting in the canals, laughing, but it didn't seem that long. Too quickly we were back in the open water, heading toward the dock. The funny gondolier asked if Tony was taking all the women out to celebrate afterwards, and Tony answered back slyly, "I was thinking of just going back to my place." He's such a great sport, that Tony!

It was a great night, all the better because the big storm scheduled to hit us, didn't. At least, it didn't start raining until 45 minutes later--and by then, we were all safe and warm at home.