Christmas can be summed up in one word …
Woo-ee!
I had a very compartmentalized Christmas this year. Friday, the kids went to the office with me and got to experience first-hand what the working world is like … well, at least what it’s like on the day before a holiday when half the staff is on vacation and the rest are busy exchanging gifts and homemade goodies up until 1:00 when the entire remaining staff is allowed to leave early.
Their highlight of the day was the tour – I took them all around the train station including down to the track level. Alex had never seen an Acela before from any vantage point; we were on the platform as the Boston-bound high-speed train left the station. He was quite impressed. Emily proved to be a wonderful filing assistant. I hope she thinks back fondly to these days when she is a top executive … perhaps she’ll grant her admins the occasional afternoon off.
After the strenuous half-day of “work,” we did lunch, then did some last-minute card shopping. Emily picked out one for the X that I had to buy. It was so much funnier for me because I know so much more. Humor is all relative (and relatives are all humorous).
The kids and I then went to a lovely candlelight church service. In one of those Hallmarky-type touching moments I passed on the importance the song Silent Night has in our family to Emily. After service we called my folks. Emily specifically brought up Silent Night and made my mom cry a happy tear. Go me.
After church, we visited the neighbors. Alex and Genevieve, the neighbor’s daughter, tried to “have some privacy” as they went into her room and closed the door. Go Alex. Just wait until you’re older. Perhaps 12.
We then put out the reindeer food, left the cookies and Gatorade (milk goes bad by the time these guys get to sleep, plus all those trips up and down the chimneys builds up a deep-down body thirst) out for Santa, and went to bed. The kids were overly excited, but went to sleep quickly which was good, because Santa had some wrapping to do still. And he wanted to munch on those cookies.
The X showed up bright and early and we had the traditional dysfunctional family Christmas. The kids had fun – and that is what’s important. And I got a happy reminder of how much better off we all are now that the X is an ex. And then at noon I got to send the kids off for their other Christmas.
Then came my second Christmas. The woo-ee was up in Brooklyn to visit her family (gee … who would think that a Puerto Rican girl would have family in New York?). She stopped by Exit 4 on her way back. Merry Christmas to me!
She brought with her some traditional Puerto Rican dishes including one that seems to me to be the PR version of haggis. “It’s an acquired taste,” she says. The taste wasn’t that bad, really. I’m just surprised that the first people ate enough of it to acquire the taste. Aesthetics are not a selling point, here. But who am I to criticize? My ancestors ate fish soaked in lye. When the Vikings terrorized northern Europe and England I don’t think they were after riches or power, I think they were more in search of culinary relief. They didn’t “sack Rome” as the historians claim; they just went out for some Italian.
Her visiting made this a wonderful Christmas. We drove around looking at all the lights put up on houses that I would have no possible (legal) way to afford within the next year or so, at least, then we went back to my apartment and she at least acted impressed. It was a joyous evening. She’d better watch herself. She’s running the risk of making me a happy guy, and I know she doesn’t want that on her conscience.
Sunday morning it was back to the X’s to get the kids. Their uncle gave them a Habitrail hamster cage and accessories for Christmas as part of a room-cleaning arrangement he made with Emily a few months back. Today we set everything up and went to Pet Smart to get the newest additions to our family, Spongebob and Snowball.
Spongebob made an amazing debut into the family. As I was putting him into the top of the cage, he got spooked and did a Matrix-style flying leap out of my hands. It was really cool, what with the mid-air leg kick and all, but the landing was not quite what he bargained for. One impromptu rearranging of the furniture later, the little dude was quite scared, but safe in his cage nonetheless. He’s been a bit more on the nappy side than Snowflake. I hear concussions will do that.
I had a very compartmentalized Christmas this year. Friday, the kids went to the office with me and got to experience first-hand what the working world is like … well, at least what it’s like on the day before a holiday when half the staff is on vacation and the rest are busy exchanging gifts and homemade goodies up until 1:00 when the entire remaining staff is allowed to leave early.
Their highlight of the day was the tour – I took them all around the train station including down to the track level. Alex had never seen an Acela before from any vantage point; we were on the platform as the Boston-bound high-speed train left the station. He was quite impressed. Emily proved to be a wonderful filing assistant. I hope she thinks back fondly to these days when she is a top executive … perhaps she’ll grant her admins the occasional afternoon off.
After the strenuous half-day of “work,” we did lunch, then did some last-minute card shopping. Emily picked out one for the X that I had to buy. It was so much funnier for me because I know so much more. Humor is all relative (and relatives are all humorous).
The kids and I then went to a lovely candlelight church service. In one of those Hallmarky-type touching moments I passed on the importance the song Silent Night has in our family to Emily. After service we called my folks. Emily specifically brought up Silent Night and made my mom cry a happy tear. Go me.
After church, we visited the neighbors. Alex and Genevieve, the neighbor’s daughter, tried to “have some privacy” as they went into her room and closed the door. Go Alex. Just wait until you’re older. Perhaps 12.
We then put out the reindeer food, left the cookies and Gatorade (milk goes bad by the time these guys get to sleep, plus all those trips up and down the chimneys builds up a deep-down body thirst) out for Santa, and went to bed. The kids were overly excited, but went to sleep quickly which was good, because Santa had some wrapping to do still. And he wanted to munch on those cookies.
The X showed up bright and early and we had the traditional dysfunctional family Christmas. The kids had fun – and that is what’s important. And I got a happy reminder of how much better off we all are now that the X is an ex. And then at noon I got to send the kids off for their other Christmas.
Then came my second Christmas. The woo-ee was up in Brooklyn to visit her family (gee … who would think that a Puerto Rican girl would have family in New York?). She stopped by Exit 4 on her way back. Merry Christmas to me!
She brought with her some traditional Puerto Rican dishes including one that seems to me to be the PR version of haggis. “It’s an acquired taste,” she says. The taste wasn’t that bad, really. I’m just surprised that the first people ate enough of it to acquire the taste. Aesthetics are not a selling point, here. But who am I to criticize? My ancestors ate fish soaked in lye. When the Vikings terrorized northern Europe and England I don’t think they were after riches or power, I think they were more in search of culinary relief. They didn’t “sack Rome” as the historians claim; they just went out for some Italian.
Her visiting made this a wonderful Christmas. We drove around looking at all the lights put up on houses that I would have no possible (legal) way to afford within the next year or so, at least, then we went back to my apartment and she at least acted impressed. It was a joyous evening. She’d better watch herself. She’s running the risk of making me a happy guy, and I know she doesn’t want that on her conscience.
Sunday morning it was back to the X’s to get the kids. Their uncle gave them a Habitrail hamster cage and accessories for Christmas as part of a room-cleaning arrangement he made with Emily a few months back. Today we set everything up and went to Pet Smart to get the newest additions to our family, Spongebob and Snowball.
Spongebob made an amazing debut into the family. As I was putting him into the top of the cage, he got spooked and did a Matrix-style flying leap out of my hands. It was really cool, what with the mid-air leg kick and all, but the landing was not quite what he bargained for. One impromptu rearranging of the furniture later, the little dude was quite scared, but safe in his cage nonetheless. He’s been a bit more on the nappy side than Snowflake. I hear concussions will do that.
posted by Kev at 9:36 p. m.
2 Comments:
Haggis?! Oh no you didn't! Thanks for giving everything a try at least. That is all that I could have asked for. And yes I did love your place and the wonderful milkshake :)
I don't want to know anything about a milkshake, but I am intrigued by this haggis-esque dish. Go you!
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