Due to some Covid Cowards in the family, we reorganized Christmas a bit this year. To save Daughter & SIL one stop on Christmas Day, we decided that we would do Christmas Eve.
So much for the “stay home, shun your family and friends” thing. That has been totally blown off for the last two days. If I get Wuflu, so be it, but I’m going to see my family and friends as long as they want to see me.
We start with supper. Son’s work passes out hams for Christmas, so it was ham, macaroni and cheese, the best baked beans you’ll ever eat and a lot more. And desert. Can’t forget desert.
We then opened gifts. SIL got one of the 12″ DeWalt sliding miter saws, which we all chipped in to buy. Son got wall art-hey, it’s what he wanted. Mrs. Freeholder got an iPad to replace those craptastic Amazon Fire tablets she has fussed about for months. (Again, we all chipped in on that one.) Each kid got one of my large custom IFACs and a 30 round customized/collectable/ceremonial/thumb-in-the-eye Pmag.
I got cash, a Hartford Whalers jersey and a power ratchet, which I immediately dubbed “Nurse Ratchet”. At least my daughter got the joke.
We mentioned to the kids that we were going to host a couple of the neighbors and grill out Skeenburgers. Son said he could come and eat, which was fine with us. Daughter was all “We-e-ell, it seems some of our Christmas plans have kinda fallen through…” and so we bit the hook and invited them as well. That put us at 9 people and a fire truck for Christmas supper.
No, I did not set the place on fire. One of the neighbors was on duty at the local volunteer fire department and had to bring the truck with him. But I bet there were tongues wagging….
I do take a bit of a shortcut on the burgers these days, and grill on my Blackstone rather than charcoal most of the time. And yesterday, I was glad for the speed, because a cold front had blown through overnight and we were on our way from the 60s to 18. Kinda nippy to be grilling burgers, but it was kind of a “July in Christmas” sort of gathering.
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it felt normal, something that has been in short supply and may never be seen again if Some People have their way. Thank God, we don’t live in one of those lovely places like New York and didn’t have the cops busting in because we were violating some BS statist and unconstitutional rule.
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and that it was as socially distant as you wished it to be. Now if it will just warm back up. Please.
