Christmas

My alarm went off this morning at 4:40 a.m. and I snapped it off, more by reflex than anything else. Then I lay in bed, wondering why it had gone off. I'd completely forgotten I had to work today - and the best part is, I didn't drink yesterday aside from a couple glasses of wine and let's fac it... that's nothing. I was just dog-tired and apparently, sleeping well so it took a bit for my brain to come around. When I finally realized I had to get up and that the alarm was legit, I got out of bed to start the day.

Two days off preceeded this, though. I had Christmas Eve day and Christmas off this year. I'm not sure when I got to spend the last Christmas holiday at home with my family. Maybe two years ago? Three? I really can't remember.

It was a good day, though. Trish and I actually made it through the day without fighting for more than about 25 seconds. Merry Christmas.

The kids had a blast and I think they were all happy with the gifts they got. Jackie asked me if I really believed in Santa Claus somewhere late into the night, which was odd but inevitable, of course. I can't tell if Nick still believes, although I suspect he does and Grace - little Grace - she's still ensconced within the Santa trance, lock stock and barrel.

Christmas part 2 is coming for them on Sunday when we wake up in New Jersey. My mother has already informed them that Santa dropped a few things off at her house. Way to go, Ma.

Trish loved the diamond earrings I got for her and the photo albums were a staple-hit. Trish's gifts for me actually brought me some happiness this year - not that I'm a fuss-budget, but I just don't get much "joy" overall from getting gifts. I have a much better time watching people open theirs and like a parasite, absorb my joy from basking in theirs. That sounds gay but whatever. It's just the way it is for me, usually.

Trish got me some good shit, though this year. A 1-hour massage at a massage place. This'll be my first ever massage and I'm looking forward to it. I got a Tom Tom GPS, which is kick ass. And she's gonna get me a digital camera after January 1, so Erich can use his discount. That's bad ass, the whole package.

We were up about 7 a.m., let the kids open their stockings in our bed 'til around 7:15 and then went downstairs for the main haul. The kids enjoyed each present they opened and all told, we were finished somewhere around 8:30. That's a lot of presents. And I really don't think any of them were ranked as a dud. Even the clothes they got were appreciated. I went back upstairs at 8:30 for a nap (cuz I still felt a little hung over) and slept 'til near 11:30. At that point I was wide awake and ready for the day. Amazing what a little Gatorade, a vitamin and a couple extra hours of sleep can accomplish.

We left for the Wiggins' house around 12:30 and really had a deent day there. Everyone got along rather well, all told but as luck and life would have it, quite a few people were [acked into their home and much alcohol flowed throughout the day and sure enough - some sparks flew by the end of our night out.

I had a good time chatting it up with George, Erich's brother-in-law - actually, I guess I'm Erich's brother-in-law also being that he's married to Trish's sister - and I even had a good time chatting with Pat, Erich's mother. I think George is a seriously good guy and I appreciated listening to him yesterday. I actually had fun debating the No Child Left Behind program with Pat, although "debate" is a loosely used word in this context. Pat has a set belief when it comes to her mindset on the issue and there's no swaying her from that belief. In a way, she's a lot like my grandmother from my mother's side. She was the same way - set in her way when it came to expressing an opinion and fuck all who try to poke at it from a diffeent angle. It was hard to get my side of the discussion in but I did. And in the end, we had a good dinner-time chat. All the while, Tara kept piping in with her comments, "Can we talk about something else?" - even though she wasn't part of the discussion; "I think we might have to separate these two." - another asinine pipe-in from the land of non-sequitir; "I'm not being a snob but can you talk about something else? I don't know anything about what you're talking about." - fine, then shut then fuck up cuz you weren't part of the discussion anyway.

Yeah. The reality of that situation is - she could feel the peck of heated tension involved in our discussion, a good heated tension - and she felt it was her duty to insert herself to try and take control of her own perceived situation. She got under my skin yesterday.

The star of the program was DiDi, though. She took the cake. All told, she seemed to have a decent night right up to the time where her daughter needed to go home. It was late somewhere around 9 p.m. And yes, I know, 9's not late but for her daughter who is 4, that's late. Same as it was for my kids and if it wasn't Trish's family, we would have left already. Anyway, Elizabeth was heading home and Pat was chosen to drive because everyone else had been enjoying the bottles of wine. George got in with Elizabeth and I went out to move my car since Bob was getting ready to leave with his kids also. DiDi made it almost to their car when she stopped and saw that her daughter was no longer crying - she'd pitched a fit about leaving because she and Grace were having such a good time together - when she turned to me and asked me if I thought she needed to get in the car and go home. I told her it wasn't my say and she looked at her car again, saw them (George and Elizabeth) having fun in the backseat and decided she was going to stay. That was that. Pat pulled out, followed by me and then Bob pulled his car into the street. And that's when things started to get interesting.

DiDi kept drinking and after a while, it became pretty obvious she had a way of setting her sights dead ahead with the blinders on, just like her mother. DiDi, however, made it personal. And the biggest piece of that had to do with Tim and Meredith's dog, Keating.

The family played charades, something Trish's family is wont to do when there's a big get together. It's kinda fun but I usually don't play. It's probably a vanity thing but I just feel awkward getting up in front of people and acting shit out. Reality dictates that no one could give two shits what I do in front of everyone but well, yeah. It's a vanity thing. I need to get over myself. Anyway, back to the showdown.

Tim brought his dog to the house, a big 7 year old Akido named Keating. Keating had a pronged collar around his neck, one of those restraining collars used for walking the dog and the sight of it caused DiDi to launch into an "I'm an animal lover and this is abuse. Do you watch Cesar Milan?" fixation. Apparently, she pissed Meredith off, which I didn't see but I was in the kitchen when she brought her do-good agenda in with Tim and the dog.

Now, Tim, in my opinion, is one of those easy going guys who always has a joke at the ready and is much more comfortable making light of any situation at hand rather than engaging head-to-head. Nothing wrong with that, just an observation. DiDi, however was relentless, tossing that accusation of abuse at him in regard to the collar around the dog's neck. Tim finallt told her he was really starting to feel offnded by what she was saying because he and his wife both love the dog and have been good masters to him for the past 7 years. Finally, Erich jumped in to tell his sister she was way out of line. It didn't change her opinion or her direction, of course (Pat) but she did manage to back away from directly attacking Tim somewhat. Her final statement after everyone walked out of the kitchen was - "Now, I guess they're mad at me for my little comments about abuse, huh?"

I told her everyone had different opinions about what constitutes abuse and that her dog, which is overweight, might constitute abuse by some people. She agreed. And I told her the bottom line is whether or not a dog is skittish around others, shies away from people or shows obvious signs of neglect or being beaten - none of which Keating has. And that it's not cool to just outright bash someone just because they're not raising a dog the way YOU want to.

And then I went and got some Trifle because in the end, that shit's good. We left soon after that and got back to the house somewhere around 10, put the kids to bed after a bit more blah-blah-blah and once again, I didn't get sex before drifting off to sleep.

The day really was a good day, though. All that other stuff aside, had a great morning with rish and the kids and the time we spent at Trish's parents' house really was a lot of fun. And now today is the 26th. Christmas has come and gone for yet another year.

Merry Christmas. New Year's Eve - coming up.