Christmas 2017

Cousin Jay cooks our Christmas dinner every other year. He sent me the grocery list, but I had no idea what gravy master was. He sent me a link to the product at Publix and sure enough, we found it!

Every year we say we won't buy so much and every year we do. This year because the tree was in a different place it looked like we were even worse buyers this year than in the past. We weren't. It was actually a tame year.

We did a holiday stroll through the botanical gardens where all sorts of performers put on a show. We saw a belly dancer, a juggler, two opera singers, and a teen band. The lights were stunning, but the crowd was massive. I ended up finding a family of Steelers fans and chatted with them most of the evening.

The first nephew arrived and we immediately went to Grandma's house to decorate her tree. It was a live one this year, and the four cousins knocked it out in no time.

One of the activities we did early in the week was watching my other nephew, he who now lives in LA and is pursuing a life of acting, in his straight to DVD role, Crowning Jules. His role is small, but he is hilarious, probably because we felt he acted like himself.

My family arrived on Christmas Eve. They stay on the beach and so we played card poolside, walked the beach, and had wine as we said goodbye to the sun as it set. Then we ate pork roast and had more wine.

We love the stockings. We open those first thing as we juggle cups of coffee. Last year my stocking was sparse so I made sure that Santa filled it up this year. So did everyone else and my stocking overflowed. Actually, everyone's stockings were overflowing this year. We all got lots of great goodies!

My brother drew Jay's name this year. Rusty Susan got this little gem from Jay's Amazon wishlist, a dinosaur patch that read, Never Forget. It was his favorite gift and he pulled it out frequently to remind us not to forget. His wife wanted to know where he was going to put it. "Somewhere," he said, "because it's awesome!"

Cousin Anya received a tarot reading set and we all had our fortunes read. I also asked if the Steelers would win on Christmas day and the answer came back along the lines of playing aggressively. I think that was true.

Elliot enjoyed the crowd of family, the leftover chocolates left at his level, but he didn't want to pose for this photo with Ewan.

We had a standing rib roast which I discovered is the same thing as prime rib. Who knew? Certinaly, not me. I learned this from my Merry Christmas phone call to my cousin Joyce. They were having the same thing. Jay did another top notch job preparing, loving, and cooking the roast. We ate it and all of its sides in approximately ten minutes.

At this point, wine had not been consumed. Or had it? We did receive little bottles in our stockings.

In the afternoon after our meal, we gathered in the Steelers room for the game. Jay and Ewan had watched the Steelers/Patriot game last week in a bar in Boston. After much brainwashing, they have jumped on the Steelers bandwagon, and so their lives had been at stake that day in the bar in Patriots territory. Eventually, the others trickled in to join us and I admit there were a few moments where I thought I might lose it, but I adjusted and enjoyed myself. Of course, we were winning.

Another fun-filled, family gathered Christmas in the books. Merry, merry to everyone. Hope your day was the same.