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randy_byersBecause I worked on Christmas Eve, I didn't head to the family gathering in Portland until Christmas morning. I caught the first train from Seattle at 7:30am, and because it was only ten bucks more expensive I rode business class. It was very pleasant, and I drank a couple of Irish coffees because it was a holiday. The guy working in the bistro car said he was jealous.
My family had allowed the great niece to open presents Christmas Eve (which is the traditional time for our family to open presents), because she was spending Christmas with her dad, but everybody else waited for me. We don't do a lot of gift-giving any more, at least amongst the adults, but I still got good stuff like three bags of walnuts and a jar of pickled jalapenos. Thanks, Santa! I gave one nephew a collector's edition of C.L. Moore's Judgment Night collection, and I gave the other DVDs of The Warrior's Way ("Cowboys vs. ninjas vs. clowns," I told him) and The Good, the Bad, the Weird.
Other than that, it was good food, lots of beer and wine, and the usual ancient family jokes. We delayed traditional Christmas Eve dinner (cioppino) until the day after Christmas, and ate prime rib on Christmas as usual. On Friday a bunch of us took a nearly six mile hike up into Forest Park and back. Mom and Dad flew back to California on Saturday morning, and the rest of us did a pub crawl in the afternoon, hitting Base Camp, Hair of the Dog, Ecliptic, and Upright. Afterward, elder nephew showed me the Obama episode of the Colbert Report, and also the final episode. I laughed my ass off at the Obama episode, and didn't recognize half the people in the "We'll Meet Again" finale of the finale.
It was all very warm and relaxing. Elder nephew is off to a new job working in a dive shop in Maui in the new year. Everybody else is plugging along pretty much just as before. I'm blessed with a wonderful family.
Pubcrawling: Niece, sister-in-law, elder nephew, brother, younger nephew, yours truly
My family had allowed the great niece to open presents Christmas Eve (which is the traditional time for our family to open presents), because she was spending Christmas with her dad, but everybody else waited for me. We don't do a lot of gift-giving any more, at least amongst the adults, but I still got good stuff like three bags of walnuts and a jar of pickled jalapenos. Thanks, Santa! I gave one nephew a collector's edition of C.L. Moore's Judgment Night collection, and I gave the other DVDs of The Warrior's Way ("Cowboys vs. ninjas vs. clowns," I told him) and The Good, the Bad, the Weird.
Other than that, it was good food, lots of beer and wine, and the usual ancient family jokes. We delayed traditional Christmas Eve dinner (cioppino) until the day after Christmas, and ate prime rib on Christmas as usual. On Friday a bunch of us took a nearly six mile hike up into Forest Park and back. Mom and Dad flew back to California on Saturday morning, and the rest of us did a pub crawl in the afternoon, hitting Base Camp, Hair of the Dog, Ecliptic, and Upright. Afterward, elder nephew showed me the Obama episode of the Colbert Report, and also the final episode. I laughed my ass off at the Obama episode, and didn't recognize half the people in the "We'll Meet Again" finale of the finale.
It was all very warm and relaxing. Elder nephew is off to a new job working in a dive shop in Maui in the new year. Everybody else is plugging along pretty much just as before. I'm blessed with a wonderful family.
Pubcrawling: Niece, sister-in-law, elder nephew, brother, younger nephew, yours truly
