The Liquor Talking

It’s Friday, December 25, 2009. Merry Christmas!

It’s a little weird, not having our oldest daughter and our granddaughter here. They were here last night for dinner and to open the Christmas Eve presents and they’ll be back this evening when mom gets off work to open presents here. It’s just not the same without watching her come down the hallway to see the Christmas tree with presents piled to the ceiling. Santa came!

The granddaughter is making out like a bandit this year. She gets to open presents at her house (Santa having received the proper change of address form AND having been notified in person) then gets to go to her other grandparents house to spend some Christmas time and then here for the final round of giving and receiving. Basically, three Christmases in one day.

The best Christmases I’ve ever had were when they were still living here. There’s just something about Christmas, where being part of a child’s experience makes it extra special.

This also marks the first Christmas I can recall where the tree hadn’t been knocked over at least three times. Last year, the cat’s favorite game was to climb up into the tree and then taunt the beagle (then about six months old) until he tried to climb it as well. I finally installed wires to stabilize the thing. They still managed to knock it down one more time.

This year, we kept the catnip dispenser stocked at all times. Whenever the cat would head toward the tree to deal with all the stuff hanging from it, he’d catch a whiff of the dope and immediately lose all interest in molesting the offending ornaments. He’d then lay beside the dispenser for a spell and stare at the tree with an “I’ll deal with you later.” look on his face. He’d eventually get up and stagger away to find a warm place to sleep it off.

The only mishap of note was when I put a box of Sees chocolates under the tree, only to have them discovered by one or both of the dogs. My son called me at work and asked who was to receive the now plundered sweets. Fortunately, neither dog ingested a fatal amount and the expensive chocolates were replaced in time.

No, Captain. Most of the readers like him and say:

Okay, I’ll admit that the creative staff is pushing him and he’s getting more exposure than the rest of you. I’ll have another word with them. As you can see, not all the readers are thrilled with him.

Or maybe they are. It’s hard to tell when Iranians get all dressed up like this and go around yelling with signs. In any case, this isn’t gonna turn into The Random Fact Guy Talking.

Now I can’t remember what I was gonna write for the rest of this. Oh well, I think I’ll go back upstairs, stoke up the stove again and crawl back into bed. Yeah, I’m pretty sure the world can continue just fine without my active participation until at least, oh noon or so.

Merry Christmas again!