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It was a busy holiday over Christmas. The California bunch
(2 kids and a boyfriend) flew in on schedule, youngest
daughter drove in from Austin, and I drove home on the 23rd.
While the kids were in Houston, they went shopping at the
Galleria and had their car broken into, losing a couple of
i-pods, a digital camera, and son's entire suitcase full of
clothes. Welcome to the city. But nobody was hurt, and we
acquired more socks and underwear for the boy at Wal Mart.
After yet more shopping on Christmas Eve (does the shopping ever
end??), all six of us went to church. I hadn't been to the
Catholic Church in several years, but M has gone to the
Unitarian Fellowship with me several times. I thought it was
about time to reciprocate. The boys wore suits, M and I wore
pants and sweaters on account of the sub-freezing temperature,
and the girls wore nice dresses (ah, youth!) If anyone there
knew who I was, they didn't show it. Everyone smiled nicely
during the greet-your-neighbor hand-shaking time. There
was some discussion about whether the boyfriend (we'll call him
A) should go up to the front during communion time, and make a
sign that he wasn't Catholic, but he decided to stay in the pew
like I always do. According to the rules, we "heathens" aren't
supposed to participate in the wine and cracker ritual. Not
knocking the Catholics - most religious sects treat outsiders
the same way, hence my interest in the Unitarians, who don't
make any distinctions like this.
My mom has cooked a big spaghetti dinner on Christmas Eve with a
gift exchange afterward for many, many years. For quite a few of
those years, the strains with my sister's family have either
been palpable when they came, or they just didn't come. To my
mom's credit, she has been steadfast in welcoming any who wanted
to come. This year, my sister's family all showed up, with their
two sons and one girlfriend. The evening was pleasant, with none
of the usual tension in the air. We all enjoyed a few glasses of
wine, played some little party games my mom invented, and left
in good spirits, to await the coming of Santa. I'm cautiously
optimistic that we can get together more often as one big family
again.
A had fun with all of the festivities. On Christmas morning, he
kept asking us to slow down and open only one gift at a time.
We've always been more of the "how fast can we rip all the
wrapping paper off" mindset. Three minutes is a typical gift
opening time for our gang, start to finish, but we slowed down a
little for him. After a big Turkey dinner, the wine and
tryptophan pretty much knocked us all out, and we napped until
my parents came by later in the afternoon. The kids made us all
play a game of Cranium to wake us up again.
A couple of son's former college room-mates showed up on Sunday
to stay overnight, bringing the tenant count to eight. They
spent the evening partying with a bunch of friends out at the
lake in spite of the cold before coming in after midnight. On
Monday afternoon, we all went to the boats for a little fun. M
and I hadn't been in a year, since last time our luck was pretty
bad. Son and friends wanted to try their luck with low stakes
Texas hold-em poker on the top floor, oldest daughter headed for
the nickel slots, and A landed with M and I at a blackjack
table. The table had some lively characters, and the dealer for
most of the couple of hours we were there was an old guy who
kept us falling off our stools laughing. I think I was the only
one who quit while I was ahead this time. A and son are both too
impatient and impulsive to win, ignoring the statistics the
professionals use in favor of playing by their gut. Of course
that feeling in their gut that tells them to make a foolish
wager is probably just gas. But c'est la vie, we had a lot of
fun, which is the point after all.
Youngest daughter headed back to Austin on Tuesday morning in
order to fly out with the band to the Rose Bowl. I don't usually
watch New Year's day parades, but I guess I will this year. She
will be the tall one at the front of the marching band carrying
a flag, early in the parade.
I left for the city after lunch, since I had to "work" two days
this week, though with only a couple of other people there, it
was very quiet, and I have to admit I spent a lot of the time
surfing the web for information and video footage of the Indian
Ocean tsunami.
I drove back north last night, and we'll see what we can find to
do to celebrate New Year's. The default is to just go to bed
when we get too sleepy to stay awake, but I'd rather not become
an old fogie just yet. Maybe it isn't too late :) |
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M and all the kids were in the great white north for the wedding
of a nephew the first weekend of December, and M stayed there
the remainder of the week to visit her ailing mother. She
flew in last Friday afternoon, and since I'm close enough to the
airport to watch the planes coast in from the south out my
balcony door, I waited for her cell phone call from the taxiway.
Retrieving a passenger at a major airport is an exercise in
precise timing, as you are barely allowed to even stop rolling
as you pass by the baggage claim area. The security folks
keep everyone moving, so if your passenger isn't standing by the
curb waiting to leap in the open door, you have to go around
again.
When we got back my abode, we were both tired and uninterested
in cooking, so we ate out and turned in early.
On Saturday, we did a lot of Christmas shopping, then walked
around in the sunshine in my neighborhood in the afternoon.
There was a Christmas craft fair in the little park down the
street, but we didn't see anything we wanted. M left early
Sunday to get home in time to take care of a week's worth of
pending chores.
I headed out to look for one more Christmas gift on the other
side of town, and the weather was so nice, I wasn't about to go
home. I drove by the zoo to see if it was open, and ended up
spending the afternoon there. The temperature peaked at 82F and
most everyone (including me) was in short sleeves. One of the
great things about living in the south is you can count on a
warm day every now and then in-between cold fronts all winter
long. When it happens, lots of folks get out to take
advantage.
The zoo was nice considering it is kind of small. Most of the
expected animals are there, though nothing too exotic. I
was disappointed when I went to see my favorite animals, the
large gorillas. It seems their one gorilla died last May at age
50. I think gorillas fascinate me because you don't have to
watch for very long to see that their behaviors are very like
humans. Actually, they behave more sensibly than a fair
number of humans.
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We had a busy weekend back home getting ready for Christmas.
Youngest daughter is home from college, so we drove down the
road to the local tree farm and picked out a nice 9-footer.
Everything went smoothly setting it up, and we got as far as
putting the lights on before it was time to go to the annual
Christmas party for our Unitarian friends. We used to go
to other parties, but this is the only one we were invited to
for this year. It was always the most fun anyway. M says we are
all egg-heads, drinking wine and talking about "intellectual"
stuff. But we relax on this night, sharing lots of hugs
and personal joys. The heavy stuff can wait for the next sermon.
I ended up with a life sized Indian head carved from a block of
wood in the white elephant gift exchange, a coveted item all
night. It took a last minute trade for an emptied ostrich egg to
seal the deal. If this was a white elephant, bring on the
herd... I have it sitting on the mantle here in my home away
from home to remind me of everyone there last night.
This Christmas should be fun, since when the other kids fly in
from California, oldest daughter is bringing her boyfriend. We
all like him a lot. Being the son of immigrant parents from a
non-Christian country, he doesn't have any direct experience
with family Christmas traditions. M is knitting a personalized
stocking for him to hang on the mantle along with all of ours,
which she made with love many years ago as each child celebrated
their first Christmas. Maybe we'll teach him how to roll, cut,
bake and frost sugar cookies - a personal favorite tradition of
mine. He seems excited about seeing and participating in all the
things we do every year, and has been buying presents with a
little coaching from the kids. It should be a great time for
all.
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