Christmas Day and After

Christmas is over and be-done with. We had a good day at the granddaughter's watching the two boys play with their ton of presents and the two boxer dogs helping them. For the first half the day their house looked like a Civil War battlefield with all the toy soldiers lying around on the the floor and the artillery pieces aimed this way and that, and then it moved on to more modern warfare with helicopters, humvees, planes, tanks and more toys cluttering up the place.

Her kitchen also looked like it had been through a war with all the dirty dishes in the sink, on top of the counter, on the table after we finished overeating everything that was cooked and placed out for easy gathering and demolishing. The dessert table made up about half the meal including two cheesecakes, a pecan pie from Cosco (humungous), chocolate this and chocolate that, dip here, dip there, crackers, cookies, coffee cakes, rolls.

This all sounds like a lot or even too much, but there were thirteen of us making gluttons of ourselves and everyone was in a happy, Christmas mood, even the teenagers heaven forbid. They spent time outside throwing the new footballs around in the street and playing with with this and that thing they found under the tree.

Of course, in this land of PC, we had to feel a little guilt about all the homeless people and those out of a job, but there were donations to the Salvation Army, food banks, rescue missions, and others that soothed our collective conscience and were included in a prayer or two for a better year next year.

And yesterday, my wife and her daughter went to lunch and shopping, for what, I dont know. But they called me around 3:30 in the afternoon asking if I would like Chinese food for dinner. I don't much care for it, but I said yes, forgetting the tamales and ham and all the stuff in the fridge leftover from Christmas. They still had more shopping to do, but would be home in an hour or two. So I went back to watching The Big Country with Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives, Jean Simmons, Caroll Baker, Chuck Connors, and others. It was a long movie, and this was the two-volume tape version, and I enjoyed it thoroughly, although it dragged out some, with the end taking a long time to come. By the time it was over, the Chinese food had arrived, so I ate it and watched the news, Mercy, and whatever and went to bed early.