December 26, 2362

Christmas morning is chaos. You could not have such an event with Klingons. My brothers and I probably would have killed each other. I was surprised by the energy Andrea and Grace exhibited in opening all their presents.

Their presents seemed to have doubled over night. When I asked about it, Grace told me all about Santa. Such an odd tradition, a jolly fat man in red delivering toys to kids for being good? Clearly parental bribing to make the kids behave well.

The gift I'd gotten for Travis was a thumb ring that had a compartment for a static holographic projector in it. There was a holoimage of Travis and I that Blue had snagged after one of our cargo runs where he and I had fallen asleep curled up together, amazingly enough without being naked from having sex before hand. Being the sentimental dork that he is, Travis loved the image so I figured he'd enjoy having it on hand. He put it on right when he opened it, and I haven't seen it off his hand since.

I got some nice things. Wendy gave me a blue silk dress, sleeveless, actually fits real nice. Alice found me a metal wall hanging, it's a semi-three-dimensional representation of earth rise on the moon.

Another tradition seems to be a stocking hung up and filled with all sorts of small trinkets and sweets. There was even one for me. It was filled with all sorts of chocolate, some other candies of the fruit flavored and hard sort, and a little palm sized plush cat. When I commented to Travis about how I'd been wanting a cat for a while now, he grinned and said “Santa always knows.”

The little plush cat has been in a pocket or sitting on my shoulder since. It's cute, an orange striper with a white belly and paws. I've named it Buttercup.

Breakfast was Gingerbread pancakes, bacon, and fresh fruit. I'd never had gingerbread pancakes before, but they're certainly worth having again. I was also reintroduced to an old favorite from my time on Luna, cantaloupe.

That afternoon, we headed out to Travis' grandmother's house for dinner. I wore the dress that Wendy gave me. I was introduced to so many extended family members that I couldn't keep anyone straight. I was also the only person there who wasn't human.

Before dinner, Grace still was running around with her toy biplane. I made a suggestion to her, to try to teach her how they really fly, and she challenged me, asking how could I know? When I explained I had flown one before, she was suddenly attentive of whatever I wanted to say. I notice a few other family members turned their attention my way also.

Conversation over dinner touched upon my flying experience a few times. I guess Travis had mentioned in passing what my position on the crew was, but his immediate family hadn't passed this information onto the rest of the family. When the Cerulean Comet came up, I got a few questions from the more technologically informed family members, but otherwise it was mostly awe.

Towards the end of dinner, Grace asked if I'd take her out flying. I knew better than to tell a child yes to anything without checking with their parents first, but when I looked to Wendy, she nodded, so I told the girl I'd take her out some time before Travis and I were to leave again. We'll probably go tomorrow, as today seems to be wind down and clean up from Christmas day.

I think it was clear how much I enjoyed having cantaloupe again, as another melon was served up with breakfast today, even though we'd finished all there was yesterday.

Travis took me out to show me the sights, as I hadn't been to earth since I'd lived on Luna, and only then I'd only visited the big cities like San Francisco, New York, Paris and London. Travis' family lives in Boston.

While we were out, Travis thanked me for agreeing to take Grace flying. He's been encouraged by her enthusiasm on the subject, and worried as some of the family had been negative on the subject. Seems the cousins, grandparents and such want to see her become a doctor. I hadn't realized that Travis had been the one to give her the Biplane, but his name and mine had been on the from part of the tag.

I'm still grinning from ear to ear about that.