random thoughts – Day 1,378 – (Monday) – Christmas!

A quiet Christmas crept in with the dawn and it was most welcomed after the week of unusual events. I stayed at Mom’s on Christmas Eve and woke up Christmas morning to coffee already made, which was followed later by Mom’s French toast. Gifts had been exchanged the night before, so it was all quiet conversation against a background of morning shows on TV.

Sweets!

After seeing the same success story of an adopted three-legged poodle for the second time, we eventually found our way over to the channel with A Christmas Story. We tuned in as it was in progress, but the 24 hour marathon meant it was on again immediately. After the full run through, we channel surfed through shopping, news, and sport and finally landed on Die Hard in time to see Hans Gruber falling from Nakatomi Tower. It’s my recently acquired understanding from some fans of the movie that it isn’t officially Christmas until this fall occurs, so it was fortunate that we were able to see that important scene so as to avoid having a potentially unofficial Christmas catastrophe. 

Dinner was eaten. Dishes were cleared and cleaned. The tray of cookies and candies and dipped things was unwrapped and set under Mom's new paper tree on the food table. Mom and I played Scrabble. Formal dessert of apple pie and mince meat pie was had. 

Leftovers were packed for transport, and by 3:00, I was on the road heading east towards home, where food and gifts needed to be put away. There were Priscilla chocolates and dinner and pie leftovers from Mom's house, and a gift six-pack of Wachusett seasonal beers and slices of cheesecake from Boston's famed Modern Bakery from my sister's. A sparkly key chain with my name on it from my sister hangs temporarily on the silver tree, not far from the Moose and Winston name tags and rabies and license tags.  

After the minor refrigeration tasks, the rest of the afternoon was leisurely, quiet, and enjoyable. It included a marathon of The Gilded Age, despite having seen every season two episode countless times by now. It's fun to study the costumes and the social dynamics of the time period as the old money people find discomfort with the new. 

Around 6:30, when the bag of trash from the kitchen bin was taken out to the bin for the morning pickup, I noticed (and very nearly stepped on) an Amazon box on the top front step, directly outside the door to the very dry enclosed porch. The box was damp from the weather and small enough that the door cleared it when I swung it open, so at least it wasn’t launched down the steps. 

It was an unexpected delivery with no alerts, and why, why, why, was it not placed on the other side of the door where it would be protected from both the weather and porch pirates? Duh. I get to ask that question for about 50% of deliveries, but usually, Amazon drivers are the most careful and it's the other delivery companies that don't seem to care. The box was wet but the contents were still dry, which was fortunate. Almost as fortunate as finding unexpected gifts at the door, having a delicious dinner and leftovers to put away, and being warm, dry, and watching TV. Merry Christmas!