Monday, December 30, 2013

So, what did you get for Christmas?

It's been a few days. You've had time to recover. Somewhat.



Now that the mess is all cleaned up ... or at least pushed aside so it's not completely in the way ... let's share our Christmases. I want to know what you got for Christmas.

I'll start.

I got time with the children, and with my grandson.

My son and his wife live in Brunswick, in coastal Georgia, about 20 minutes from his mother (X1). He worked every day but Sunday and Christmas, and I managed to spend some time with him, but not a lot. They were doing the thing where you spend one evening with one branch of family, another with a different branch, and so on.

My daughter, her husband, and son live near Boston, where my son-in-law is now attending business school. He's a former Army officer. They are spending the holidays (Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, St. Basil's Day, the Epiphany, and whatever else is going on) in southeast Georgia. I drove over last week and spent several days there. I haven't had the opportunity to spend much time with my youngest grandson. He was born in Germany last year when his father was stationed there. I had the chance to visit when he was only a couple of weeks old. I saw him in July at my birthday when they moved back stateside. They've been in the Boston area since then, and this was the first face-to-face visit since the summer.

He was a little wary, and always clung to "Mama" and "Dada" when I approached. It wasn't just me. He did his grandmother (X1) the same way sometimes, too. After a couple of days, though, he didn't mind me holding him. And, the day after Christmas, when his mother and father wanted to go to the movies, he and his Papa got to spend some time together. We took turns pushing his stroller, walked around the mall for a while, shared a sandwich, and played Talking Tom on the iPhone. He likes it when Tom screams after you punch him in the foot.

After taking him back to his Granny's house, we played for a little longer. When it got to be late, I said my goodbyes ... he told his parents and grandmother "bye bye" and walked to the door with me. That was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. The next day, his other grandparents were driving down to St. Simons, and they certainly deserve to spend time with him without my gumming up the works. So, that concluded the Glynn County portion of the trip.

Afterwards, I thought back on the time I got to spend with him, with the children, and with the rest of the family. I smiled, but then uttered the words that are often happy words, but on that day, seemed so sad: "Siri, drive home."

I had a good Christmas.

Now, tell me about yours.

18 comments:

  1. My brother called the local liquor store and had a fifth of Maker's Mark and a fifth of Wild Turkey 101 delivered to my home. I've been enjoying both of those. My neighbors invited me to have Christmas dinner with them. One of the others present was a girl born this past April. The two of us had a wonderful time playing a game in which I put a towel over my head and she pulled it off and laughed, and then I laughed, and then we both laughed together. Babies and small children are wonderful.

    There is also a set of recordings of Haydn's London symphonies that will be arriving here whenever amazon.com gets it back in stock.

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  2. I took my 92 year-old mother out for prime rib, but since she can't chew it, she had salmon. The next day, I took #1 son out for gourmet burgers, and fortunately, he could chew it. That's it. It was a nice, low-key Christmas.

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  3. A DVD of Hogan's Heroes to share with my 10 year old. :)

    Fun way to teach some history and have a few laughs. Best of all she really liked the episodes.

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  4. Got the kids the new X-Box 1. My wife always picks out her own presents. She got herself some new outfits. I got a microwave thingy that lets me cook 15 slices of bacon in about ten minutes. Doing ham leftovers research currently. Potato—and ham—soup, ham salad, Little Caesars five dollar cheese pizzas—with ham and pineapple, ham egg and cheese biscuits. Now...what do I do with all these mashed potatoes?

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  5. @5: Oh, Jack. We need to have a serious talk!

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  6. i got a shadow box from my soon-to-be-5 y/o special needs foster niece.

    it has pictures of her and a note that says i'm her favorite uncle. :)

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  7. Sounds like Basil had the best, but a close second for Iowa. Low key here too, my last grandfather went home to the Lord the day after thanksgiving, which made things bittersweet. I'm grateful that most of my family lives in close proximity so we see eachother regularly

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  8. @8 Steve,

    if this is a competiton, i won. :)

    but it's ok if everybody else thinks they won, too.

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  9. Didn't see yours when I was writing jw, dratted cell phones anyway.

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  10. I got to spend Christmas with my brother and his family. It was nice. Really. Nice.
    Happy New Year, Basil.

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  11. I spent time drinking with friends, got some pistachios, we went on road trip to a Walgreens and I found an animated duck that sings "Freebird" and my Dad is letting me go to Vegas without him so I can party with my friends on my Birthday next week. Oh, and I crushed my enemies beneath me and heard the lamentation of the women.

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  12. We had the usual three hour mob scene with fifty or so relatives eating burgers, veggies, junk food, and donuts. My cousins' grandchildren acted out the Christmas story while three or four adults narrated, as we have for sixty-seven years. Most of that side of my family is very local so almost everybody made it except a few moderately sick and the cousin's son who married a girl from Mass; they made it in Christmas night.

    The other side of the family got together the Saturday after Christmas at an out of town cousin's house; not everyone made it since three families are out of state; but at least some of us are out of nuclear bomb blast radius, just in case someone tries to take out of the local military bases.

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  13. Oops; [take out] ^one [of the local military bases]

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  14. Christmas Eve: Worked until noon. (Lost 4 hours, 30 minutes worth of wages).
    Visited wife at nursing home. Read to her, sang her Christmas carols, prayed, kissed her goodnight.
    Went home. Fed the dogs and cats. Ate 3 day old chili.
    Read kind comments at IMAO regarding my last post at Little Worlds.
    Went to Midnight Mass, sang with choir.
    (voice almost went out because of the reading and singing I did earlier in the evening, also my lingering cold, but I muddled through).
    Went home. Went to bed.
    Christmas Day: No work today. (no wages).
    Attended mass at 10am, sang with choir, did the second reading as lector.
    Used gift card a guy at work gave me for Christmas to go see the Hobbit, part 2.
    (card paid for my ticket and a $3.00 box of candy. I sprang for the popcorn myself.)
    Didn't buy anything to drink because I heard the movie was long and I didn't want to have to take a bathroom break in the middle.
    Called my mom. Wished her a Merry Christmas.
    Visited wife at nursing home. Told her about the Hobbit. Read to her from The Hobbit. Prayed, kissed her goodnight.
    Went home, fed the dogs and cats. Ate 4 day old chili.
    Drank home-made wine. Tried to open Ebay account. Failed.
    Went to bed.
    Next day: back to work.

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  15. 4of7--self employed or part-time?

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  16. #15 - CCO,
    Full time, except for bank holidays.
    Plus my part-time job on the weekends.
    (Sorry folks, I shouldn't gripe - I actually have a lot to be thankful for.)

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  17. @4of7: God grant you strength.
    In a more just world, you'd already be a millionaire from your art.
    But I guess it all unfolds per His plan.
    Peace!

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