Christmas 2021

These last few years I've whined about how the girls have replaced their believe in Santa Claus with a believe in sleeping late on Christmas mornings.

This Christmas they were true to form. Amanda got up at 6:15 to catch her 6:30 ride to Good Sam Hospital for work. Teri picked Nancy up sometime in the late morning. The girls were up before noon and when Amanda texted asking for ride it was suggested she ask her father who was joining us for dinner sometime around four. She was able to catch a ride from a friend.

Around two in the afternoon, when Amanda was back from work we opened presents. Mesha needed to be in the middle of everything and was in the way until she was let up on the couch in the front living room, between Teri and I. It was difficult to ge to the tree in the corner because of the excess of presents. Teri was concerned tht we were being cheap only giving the girls four presents each. Elena received a new Apple watch, her last one, the face falling off a few weeks earlier. Nastia received a new Apple watch for her birthday. After all presents were opened, a quick clean up and we all took our treasures to put them away.

When I was a kid, I'd store my new gifts under the tree until the tree was taken down two weeks later. It always seemed that was where they belonged. In the present there is just not enough room to do something like that even if Teri would allow the clutter. Dinner was prime rib and it was served around five, so it was Muller four PM light, or in other words we were eating early, Muller time runs about two hours later than real time. there were eight of us in this late COVID omicron environment surrounding our dinner table. Teri and I debated weither to add a second leaf in the table. Teri pointed out it'd make the room too small and space at the table would be fine, happy wife, happy life.

I carved the prime rib into thin medium slices. It cut like butter and tasted as sweet. Potatoes and asparagus accompanied the meat. I was again allowed to cook the asparagus. This time I cooked them closer to the time we were serving and I avoided having dried out and stringy asparagus. If it wasn't for the perfection of the meat, the asparagus would have been the best thing on the table. A little writer's hyperbole(exaggerations not meant to be taken seriously) there, but they were good.The eight of us gathered around the table were Teri, myself, Nastia, Elena, Nancy, Amanda, Donald and Matt. It was a nice gathering and the evening wound down rather quickly after dessert and Teri and I ended falling asleep in front of the TV. /