Christmas Recap

Well, the yearly global period of madness is almost over.  My faith in humanity is returning.  We at Case de Oso had a good Christmas, but I was reminded again why my ancestors spent the winter huddled around a fire drinking. 

As I mentioned earlier, Boo had a solid case of the ick, but antibiotics and prescription strength decongestants are kicking strep throat's butt.  By Christmas Eve at 7 PM, he was ready to take on the world.  By which I mean he was ready to enact flying headbutts to my thighs in order to get me to wrestle with him.

Christmas Eve evening found me starting to not feel well, and by bedtime on Christmas I was well and truly sick.  A quick trip to the doc in the box on Sunday found me with a raging case of strep throat (hooray for parenting a sick kid!) and a sinus infection.   I'm not surprised.  The treatments I get for my arthritis work by suppressing parts of my immune system, so I'm quite susceptible to whatever bugs come down the pike.  Also, having at least one family member sick is a family Christmas tradition.  I'm on a pretty strong antibiotic to kill whatever is at work.  In order to feel human while the immune system does its magic, I decided to get some good cold medicine at the pharmacy.  After going through the criminal background check to get sudafed, I am reminded again why I hate meth.  The paperwork to get Aleve Cold and Sinus pills was almost as onerous as the one I fill out to buy a gun.

Christmas Eve afternoon found Little Bear, Girlie Bear, and me in Walmart doing their Christmas shopping.  Boo was given a talking Woody doll from Toy Story to match the Buzz Lightyear he got for his birthday.  He was also given a Viking combat kit, which consists of a horned helmet, a war axe, and a shield.  He took to that like a duck to water.  It's good to see that some of the ancestral memories live into the next generation.  The kids picked out a purse for their mom, and found a very nice flannel nightgown for Irish Woman.  Now I don't normally purchase clothing for any woman.  Finding something that A.  looks nice on them and B fits is too much of a mine field.  But I figured it's a nightgown, what could happen?

Christmas Eve dinner at our home is traditionally Swedish Meatballs.  Been that way since before I was born.  This year we broke tradition and made pasta and marinara sauce with spicy Italian Sausages.  Why, you might ask?  Well, when one wishes to make Swedish Meatballs and goes to the store to buy groceries for said meal, it is usually a good idea to actually purchase the meat for said meatballs.  But the Italian food was good, and no-one complained. 

That evening, we let the kids open the bulk of their presents.  All of the presents from parents and to each other were opened on Christmas Eve, while stockings and "Santa" gifts were opened on Christmas morning.  The older kids had already been given their big Christmas present, so they mostly got books and clothes.  I gave Little Bear his first Heinlein novel, The Green Hills of Earth, and Girlie Bear got the "Olympians" trilogy, which she squeed over.  Apparently I'm a cool dad for letting her read sci-fi that doesn't include sparkly vampires.  As a side note, I'd like to thank all of you who made suggestions on what to get a young girl to get her into sci-fi.  It worked.

Irish Woman was very happy with the nightgown the kids bought her.  That is, until she tried to put it on for bed.  Apparently we bought it two sizes too small.  Ooops.  And this children is why DaddyBear doesn't buy women clothing.  She was a good sport about it, but I could tell she'd rather be wearing a new nightgown rather than the sweats she changed into.

BooBoo, being the only Santa believer in the house, made out like a bandit on toys.  He got himself an easel for arting, oodles of books, both reading and coloring, and a Radio Flyer tricycle.  To say that the trike is a hit would be an understatement. He climbed on it first thing Christmas morning, and had to be coaxed off of it to open his other presents.  I'd like to put a shout out to the engineers at Radio Flyer: Thank you so much for not messing with a good design.  In an age where I budget three hours to put together stuff on Christmas Eve, that little trike went together with a hammer, a crescent wrench, and a screwdriver in less than 20 minutes. 

After taking the two older kids over to their mom's for the rest of Christmas break, we trundled over a friend's house for Christmas dinner.  Our friend provided the hall, drinks, sides, and dessert.  We provided Beef Stroganoff.   A good time was had by all, and Irish Woman was able to imbibe since I didn't feel up to drinking.  She sampled a new product our friends had found, which was Woodford Reserve Maple Finish Bourbon. Basically, Woodford Reserve took several barrels of their single barrel bourbon, and after appropriate aging in oak barrels, let it sit for a few months in a maple barrel.  Irish Woman reported that it had a very snappy finish, and the maple really came out in the end.  I will have to try it next time we're over.

Yesterday was spent doing not much at all other than cleaning up the inevitable mess of dishes and such.  I did get to take a nap for almost an hour, and that luxury reminds me how precious sleep is.


Today, it's back to the old grind, but it's a short week, and I hope to be well enough to have a few drinks to bring in the New Year. 

I hope everyone had themselves a good Christmas!