And a Happy New Year

It's hard to believe that it was a week ago tonight that I sat here with a full house above my head. Tonight is a lot quieter - but that's ok. I've never been much of a partier.

And I'm a little tired tonight, anyway.

So we'll end tonight and we'll end this year, as I think we ended last year - with this song and my best wishes for you in the year, and years to come...

Merry Christmas

As I sit here, it is still Christmas Eve - but only for another thirty minutes or so. I'm sitting here, waiting; waiting for a safe time to check Sam's night table to see if Santa has left him chocolates, and to be able to check it without him waking up.

Sam and Jake and Rachael and Helaina spent the evening making cookies, like they have every Christmas Eve. And before heading upstairs, Sam left his annual letter to Santa. 

There's a lot going on in that letter this year. There's a lot going on inside of him.

The stockings that were hung on the banister earlier this evening are now filled, and the presents are all under the tree. And I wait for it to be quiet upstairs. And I wait to be sure. 

This moment, I think, is my Christmas. To know that everyone is home and upstairs and safe - and that everything is taken care of, at least for one more night. 

At least for one more year.

In a few more minutes, I will head upstairs and hopefully find that Sam is asleep and I will hopefully see some candy on his nightstand - a sign that someone visited him tonight - someone that loves him and thinks that he's special. 

And I hope that he feels that love, and I hope that his brother and sisters do too - even though Santa no longer leaves candy on their nightstands.

I also hope that you have a very merry Christmas and I hope that the coming year is good and kind to you. 

Merry Christmas.

'Tis the Season

Here's some more Christmas music to get you in the mood. This was great stuff... when I was five years old...

Let's start with this one, which currently has a high of fifteen "thumbs up" on YouTube, with one nonbeliever giving it a "thumbs down"...



Then of course, there is this classic, which by the way, has a whopping thirty-nine "thumbs up" on YouTube, with ZERO "thumbs down!" I'm pretty sure that 's some kind of record for a YouTube video. Feel free to sing along...



Before we conclude with one more song, here's a little history of this family calssic: This song you are about to hear was originally written in Latin, sometime in the later part of the first century A.D. For years, it was known only in isolated regions of southern and central parts of Europe.

It is believed to have originated as a personal mediation before slowly evolving over the coming centuries into an early Gregorian chant (circa 635 C.E.)  Eventually, it gained prominence as the centerpiece of annual sacred ceremonies; ceremonies which had first celebrated the winter solstice but later evolved into Christian celebrations. It was at these ceremonies where the chant would be sung daily, beginning with the day of the solstice and continuing until approximately January 15th (of our modern day calendar.)

For centuries, it remained almost entirely unchanged - and largely forgotten.

It wasn't until sometime around 1963 that the chant was finally translated into modern day English, where it was also put to music - becoming what we recognize today as the popular hymn which is still sung every holiday season, in churches all over the world. Enjoy.

Not Before?

Posted over the toilet in a public restroom...

I'm not sure what to say about this. To make it even more confusing, the toilets were the kind that flush automatically.

A Brief Conversation

Sam: (surprised and sounding happy): "So, you’re going to be home on Friday???"

Me: (flattered that he probably wants to spend some quality time together): "Yup! I sure am!"

Sam: "Maybe you can cook me some bacon!"

Wrapping Up

I've been spending the last week or so wrapping presents off and on, in preparation of Christmas. Even though I've cut back some this year, there's still quite a bit to wrap. At least it feels that way,

All the presents are here with the exception of one or two. One of them, which I ordered online, is late. Thankfully, it has a tracking number, but every time I look, it seems to be moving all around the state and nowhere near our house. I'm not quite sure what's going on. 

First it arrives in the central part of the State, where it seems to have parked itself for a few days, then it gets delivered to another post office - in the opposite direction from where I live. It gets parked there for a few days and then for some reason, it gets delivered back to the other post office, and it's been there for another three days.

A few years ago, I ordered some boots for Rachel and they somehow got shipped up to Alaska -and I don't live in Alaska. Fortunately, they eventually ended up at our doorstep in time for Christmas. I'm hoping the same holds true this time. We'll see.

Some Christmas Music

Let’s listen to some Christmas music!

I bought this CD, I think about twenty-five years ago- back when they used to have actual CD stores. I picked it up for a few dollars, thinking it might be something the kids would enjoy, and I was right. It quickly became a favorite.

I would sometimes play it in the house, but I would almost always play it whenever we would go on one of our may rides together - often just to look at the Christmas lights. The kids would sing along belting out, “Us be Santa…,” which I still feel is not only better, but somehow more appropriate as well.

I never would have imagined that after all these years later, I would still be listening to it. But Sam likes me to put it on when we run errands or when we are also looking at Christmas lights together.

And while he doesn’t belt out the tunes like his siblings did, it’s nice to hear him singing along, quietly to himself, stopping only to point out some more pretty lights. And, just like with his brother and sisters, if a song isn’t over when we pull into our driveway, we sit in the car together and listen until it ends.

I kind of like that, too.

Catching Up

My apologies for being so late. I'm going to blame it on the holidays, which I think is a pretty good excuse because it's actually at least partly true. So, what's been going on? Glad you asked...

Thanksgiving came and went in a whirlwind. I picked up Jake and his guinea pigs, on Wednesday. His car is out of commission - permanently, as it turns out, having been driven into a misplaced tree. This event took place several nights before, when Jake was driving down a dark road and swerved to avoid what turned out to be a dead deer that that was lying in the road. I'm guessing that the deer didn't die there of natural causes, but there was no other car around- except for the car in front of Jake which swerved in the opposite direction- so who knows. We are, by the way, referring to the deer as "an object" when talking about this around the house, to avoid upsetting individuals who shall remain nameless (Sam).

Anyway, Jake swerved to avoid "the object" and he hit a tree - and in the battle of tree versus car, the car didn't stand a chance. So I picked up Jake and his guinea pigs and a couple of days worth of necessities and we headed home.

That afternoon, I cooked the sweet potatoes - since the oven would be tied up with the turkey the following day. And that night, I cooked the pies and set them out on the semi-cold, enclosed back porch to cool.

On Thursday morning, I prepared the turkey. This was the first Thanksgiving in I don't know how long, where I didn't get up before dawn to get it going. I started later this year because Rachael was taking the bus up from the big city and while she was projected to get in a little before noon, I figured the traffic might be heavy and it was possible that it could be substantially later.

On most Thanksgivings I try to aim for eating somewhere around one o’clock - which means that the turkey could possibly be ready anytime between noon and two thirty. This year, I figured I would shoot for two o’clock
.

Every year, I cook a twenty three pound turkey. This seems to be the largest turkey I can fit in my tiny oven without it scraping the sides. And it is also in keeping with my cooking style, which is, if I’m going to cook, then I’m going to cook the maximum amount possible.

So, in the morning, I gave the turkey his final baptism and proceeded to pack him tight with the maximum amount of stuffing possible (see above). Then, I lathered him up and squeezed him into the oven.

Every year, I find myself constantly adjusting the knobs on the oven while the turkey is cooking. I think part of this is a throwback to the years where the meal would have to wait for the kids to get home from the High School football game. I would try to anticipate when the game would be over and as the game dragged on (or not), I would find myself constantly standing at the oven, slightly adjusting the knobs in an effort to either slow the thing down or speed the thing up. I felt like a shortwave radio operator trying to pick up some distant signal.

This year though, I actually managed to leave the thing alone. This was a first for me and it wasn’t easy. I have to say that I’m pretty proud of myself. No guarantees about next time, though.

So, the turkey was cooking and I was getting the five pounds of white potatoes ready when, by some miracle, Rachael actually made it in and the projected time. We went down to the bus station to pick her up and back home again to finish cooking. I checked out the turkey and continued to fight my worst instincts and managed to not adjust the temperature, which meant that we ended up eating more or less when I planned on eating. Another first.

After the meal, Rachael made an apple pie, some of which we ate along with some of others. Later that night, Helaina, Rachael, Jake and I played a board game that Jake had brought home. I'm not sure whether it was the game or my exhaustion, but I couldn't follow the rules, let alone the goals, of this game at all. I felt like everybody else was speaking some kind of language that I didn't understand, which I think is how Sam often feels with a lot of things. (Thankfully, he was in bed at that point. There would have been no way that I would have been able to explain it to him. Then again, I may be underestimating him. He would probably be better at it than I was.) But I made it through the game - losing, by the way - though feeling like a winner for not having fallen asleep.

It was raining on Friday morning, but it didn’t stop us from going to go get our Christmas tree. We did, after all, have a schedule to keep. Like last year, the day after Thanksgiving was going to be the only time before Christmas where all of us would be together, so if we wanted to pick out a tree together and decorate it together, it had to be today.

So we headed down to the tree farm in the pouring rain and bought a tree that was pre-cut and we headed back home with our soaking wet trophy, tied to the roof of the car.

The tree fit in the house just fine, with minimal pruning - just a little clip off of the top as opposed to the usual major surgery at the trunk. But it was so wet that after we strung the lights and plugged them in, they blew a fuse. But a quick run to the hardware store, while everyone else stayed home and kept to the decorating schedule, took care of that problem.

With the tree decorated, it was time for Rachael to pack up, grab some food and head back to the bus station, or in this case, the train station - where she grabbed the eventual train, and headed back to the Big City and I headed back to my Rachael-less home.

Friday night was spent like most all Friday nights, with Sam and I going out to get him something for dinner and then later, eating popcorn and watching Monk together.

On Saturday morning, I drove Jake down meet his girlfriend. His girlfriend was meeting us halfway between her home and ours, which seemed more than reasonable to me, and was better than making the six hour round trip that I had made on Wednesday. So Jake and I left, Jake grabbing a leftover piece of pie on his way out - and we made the hour and a half ride drive together. We found his girlfriend and I dropped him off and then I headed back home, just me and the stray pie crust crumbs; back to my dwindling household, making it back in time to run Saturday errands with Sam.

Helaina was home on Saturday night and we spent it, like usual, watching our TV show together - before collapsing. Well, me anyway.

And on Sunday, I took Sam into town to do some Christmas shopping. More on that later. Maybe. 

For now, that gets us close to being current. And since it’s Friday, I'll be leaving in a minute or two to bring Sam to the grocery store, to pick out something for his dinner. And then later, we will of course, be making popcorn, because tonight is Friday night and every Friday night, at least for one last season of DVD's, is Monk night.