Christmas night

Here's a first blog post. (Nervous.)

My 88 year old dad, sans wrap, walked me and my smallest-haul-ever bag of presents out to my car. "Frances doesn't understand that I don't feel the cold right away" and it was 40 F after all.

He thanked me for all I'd done, and I smiled, said it was easy, gave him a hug.

Perhaps 'easy' didn't sound right - I certainly didn't mean anything dismissive, and adjectives meaning 'good, fulfilling, I'm so glad for today', would have been better. But this Christmas has been easy, whereas all in the past have been stressful. Gosh.

Today, there were no stresses. There weren't! It went like this: Stockings first, completely filled by me this year (I've been contributing for some 25 years to the stockings, but this was the first time no-one else played Santa). Sweet-roll brought yesterday by Betty (herself 85) for breakfast. Dad and I to church (Frances napped).

Best of the service was where we all said 'Baa!' following 'sheep', and 'go, sheep!' following 'shepherd', etc. when the Jesus birth story was told. And the congregation got to suggest carols, 6 in all. My dad, I, and two friends accounted for 4 of them. What does that tell us?
Mine was 'It Came Upon A Midnight Clear' - subversive Unitarian text! No mention of Jesus Christ - rather, it argues for peace among us as our product of human love.

When Dad and I got home, there were phone calls from family and to family. And The Presents - best were the ones I'd bought for her from him; and for him from her. There were others from family, and I got some given me by the folks who knew I'd be there. My wonderful coat, paid for by the parents 4 weeks ago, was nestled under the tree.

There were naps all round, only two phone interruptions.

Christmas Dinner was bought-in-and-microwaved - try it! SO easy! I even had time to make some basil butter for the carrots. Heart warmed by Frances, 'I love carrots!'. Heart warmed by appreciation, praise. It's so easy.

Appreciation, expressed or not. My dad worked at the Sudoku book during all the TV ad breaks until he got the first one; and he charged his Palm Z22 then put it aside to Learn tomorrow. The Palm Z22 is to his old 'PDA' as Windows is to DOS..., and the lid hinge on the old one broke, and tape repairs only last so long. I think he's excited about the Z22.

Frances can't persist like that. She exclaimed with pleasure at the green of the new outfit, but didn't try it on. She read one picture-page of The Meaning Of Life with cute animals and pithy sayings - 'I don't like animals much, you know'. She did like the finger cymbals in the Belly Dancing Kit. She didn't eat her asparagus as it was 'al dente' and she's Southern, likes all veg mushed!, can't change now (at 78, 79 in 9 days). She did all the dishes, tho', and has given me this 'Christmas' sweater - she's got so many, she 'won't miss one'. She lets me confine her to her 'lazy-girl' chair with double pillows under her calves, for circulation and keeping the almost-bed sores on her heels swinging in air.

I've almost lost my place - is all blogging like that? I was saying, today was easy, no stress. We watched TV after the meal - I do like Gray's Anatomy! And I've come home to my little apartment. All I want for Christmas is a plan with them, for them, for what to do when I go back to the U.K.

Henry Penguin says it's okay....