Merry Ho Ho, one and all!
Late last night, I tried to catch a picture of a CN freight train heading west. I tell you this because I was trying to kill some time before picking up Alex.
Her flight arrived just before midnight, quite a bit early due to an early departure and (presumably) less headwind. The clock read 12:01 when she got in the car, but she was already well past zonked from working and still running in a different time zone.
The drive back was quiet, thankfully, with few on the road. No reindeer were spotted.
Christmas morning was slow to start, as there are no little children anymore. I was the first up, with Granny close on my heels. Pancakes were on the menu, so it wasn’t long before Grandpa was up, followed soon by Monkey, Maya, and then Alex. Choo Choo was, expectedly, last to arise.
We were running a little slow, but picked up the pace after we’d eaten. I felt awful that we hadn’t brought Maya anything – I wasn’t even aware that she was going to be there until we’d arrived, and hadn’t had a chance to duck out to find something – but she seemed not too upset.
Dinner was set for 2pm. I am perpetually caught in the different uses of “supper” and “dinner” in this family. For me, “dinner” is the last significant meal of the day, held around/after 6pm. For Alex, that’s “supper”; “dinner” is apparently after lunch, but before afternoon tea.
I swear, sometimes, I feel that I’m actually in a family of Hobbits.
The guests arrived, most of whom we already knew: Dave and Jo, sheep farmers from a few (country) blocks away; Randy (sans Annie, who wasn’t feeling well); and the newest to the fold, Taz (who’s full name I don’t think I ever heard), who Granny met somewhere and invited to dinner. Taz is from Turkey and until today had never experienced a (Christian) Christmas before, let alone a Christmas dinner.
Randy didn’t linger for dessert, needing to play Santa at a family event in Mission.
The bright side of an early dinner is that you can clean up and enjoy the evening. The downside is that the evening goes on a lot longer than you expect.
But it was good and it was quiet. And we finished with A Christmas Story.
