Christmas 2022

Well believe it or not, Christmas is upon us. Life gets into a routine,It's Monday, let me just get through Monday. Then it's Tuesday, almost half way through the week and so on, Wednesday, bowling, Thursday, last day until casual Friday. Then it's the weekend.This how the weeks mostly go and then suddenly it's Christmas. It seems like just last week I was looking at Christmas in the rearview mirror and now the weather is colder and it's suddenly past Thanksgiving, but wait, slow it down. I need time to get the tree up and the decorations outside up and I want to make cookies!!

With Elena's help and encouragement, sorta, a light that showed Christmas pictures on the side of the house and the light up deer were put on the north lawn. I was going to put up actual lights, but I got Covid after getting

a cold and Teri got Covid the same week. She could work from home, I said I couldn't. I checked when I went back and yes I would have not been able to work from home. Through all of this Nastia and Elena didn't get Covid or a cold or the flu. Nastia did get a cough and it got to the point she went to the doctor and got medicine for it. Neither Teri or I went to the doctor even though we both had Covid, mild cases.

Christmas Eve was a nonevent, nothing exciting happened. It was a Saturday, the weather was cold, below normal. I wrapped Teri's gifts. As good as I did last year, this year her gifts were all impersonal and functional (a soap holder for the tub, vacuum bags for the rumba- I'm embarrassed to even write them down.) My whole problem with what Christmas has become

was on full display this year. No one needed anything, but gifts you must buy.I feel that a gift to the 'Human Fund' would have been better then what I got her.* Now as far as the girls go, Teri came up with the idea to get them remote car starters. I thought they would be, "oh, thank you" and move on to the next gift. I was very pleased to see Nastia (who now goes by Anna, if I haven't said) was very happy to get one. Elena, I don't remember. I guess she opened it after Amanda's big reveal. I don't remember much after that. I was surprised.

Amanda had just gotten off a twelve hour overnight shift at Good Sam. She wanted to open presents as early as possible so she could get some sleep. The girls got up grouchily, oh for the days they'd wake up at 6AM and run down stairs when I told them Santa Claus had been her in the night. They don't even remember the story I told them about how I saw Santa when we lived in the Nyack House. Or when I told them I heard Santa and they better get to bed quickly and they did. They did get up and came down stairs. Everyone sat down and Elena and Teri started handing out presents. I didn't notice anything strange about the way Amanda was acting. She hands Teri a box to open first. I saw the corner of the picture, but I was always told Amanda didn't want kids. I guess everyone can change their minds Elena, and I guess she did. Neither Teri nor I knew what to say. Congratulations were handed out and the grandma joke started toward Nancy. I wish them well and I hope they can financially pull this off. Having kids cost so much and the costs seem to all be hidden, at least to me they were.

When we got the girls, the money started to flow out with the trip to Russia and for a while afterwards it didn't stop and I guess that was one of the things we did wrong. The other was a few poor financial decisions I made. The biggest was not wanting to refinance the house because I wanted the mortgage to end when I was still young enough to enjoy life. We finally refinanced just prior to Covid and I'll be 76 when it ends, if Teri doesn't insist we go south or I pay enough extra to end it earlier. Good luck to them, they'll need it, it's not easy to do. After presents Teri and Nastia made pizza-frete, you know fried pizza dough. It's always good.

Teri planned Christmas dinner for 2PM. It got tangled up in Muller time(still not patented) and we ate a little after 3:15. The meat thermometer, it turns out, didn't work and quit registering at 120. So our $5.99 Roast that we wanted medium rare came out medium well. It was still good, just not as good as it could have been. Dinner guests were only Nancy this year. Jessica (not the one with the son) had gone home on the 23rd. Sean spent time at one of his parents. Matt, who Teri was really looking forward to having him suffer, no that doesn't sound right, experience sounds nice and neutral. Teri wanted him to experience his second Christmas, but positive Covid tests were still happening around here. So he missed out. After dinner, Teri realized the dogs hadn't gotten their gifts. Athena really got into it, while Mesha and Bandi both looked at us with the expression, 'What are we supposed to do with this'. Mesha got so frustrated she left to find her ball. *What is the Human Fund from Seinfeld? Image result for Seinfeld- the human fund "The Human Fund" is a fake charity used by George Costanza. After getting a similar gift from his friend Tim Whatley, George gave out cards to his co-workers stating that a donation had been made to a charity called "The Human Fund", with the slogan, "Money For People." /