It’s beginning to a look (and feel) a lot like Christmas ’round these parts. Although the snows haven’t returned - at least any that felt like sticking - and it got up to nearly 50 degrees at one point, the bitter cold is now back, the stores are packed, and holiday celebrations have begun. My first Christmas party was a nice dinner with my work cohorts at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen on Wednesday, December 19. We had a great turnout and lots of great food. I had some of the alligator (for the first time since 2000) and calamari (squid) appetizers. The squid was awful chewy. For dinner, I went with the seafood platter and rounded out the meal with their famous banana pudding. There was a gift card drawing and I got a $25 card to Kohl’s.
Friday, December 21 was Jackie’s birthday. To celebrate I got her a little Kroger birthday cake and a cheesy gold anklet that says “Princess.” We also went to our traditional hangout Olive Garden and she had the Tour of Italy. I stuck with the Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo. Always quite the treat, despite the garlic breath.
Jackie and the li’l old birthday cake
Anxious to devour
Saturday was a bit more lazy, but I began the preliminary stages for Christmas clean-up between getting the website caught up, sending a frustratingly huge mass email with a link to the Christmas Newsletter posting, and watching some Christmas fare like A Charlie Brown Christmas and The Muppets Christmas Carol (oh yeah, and about six episodes of our new favorite show The Office). Billy and Jill brought Briana over that evening at about 9:00pm for her standard Chrismas visit, although this one came quite a bit later and will hence be quite a bit shorter than years past. I dozed off to the sounds of Rich Little’s A Christmas Carol on TV.
The Bengals were playing the Browns in Cincinnati on Sunday and I watched the game as I continued straightening the house and trying to get some photos organized. I didn’t finish the game and left them at 19-0. The Bengals actually ended up winning, but not before letting Cleveland score two touchdowns, netting a score of 19-14. It was all for naught though as the Bengals are completely out of playoff contention. Jackie and I left to run some errands, stopping by her Mom’s house to drop off gifts, swinging by her apartment (which she forgot the keys for), going to McDonalds for gift certificates…and food, and fighting our way through the mall, where I had arranged my 15th reunion of the year (more on that later).
That evening Jackie, Ashleigh, Briana, Grace, and I all headed to Marion’s in Englewood for a pizza party thrown by Bill and Dottie. They were celebrating an early Christmas with their kids who were home briefly for a holiday visit. Rob and his wife Amber were in the States from their home in Germany, and Lora, Todd, Ben, and Domenic had come down from Bowling Green, Ohio. It was great to see them at this large gathering that included my family (Dad, Denise, Aaron, and Adam) and several other friends and relatives of Rob. We were all treated to pizza that just kept getting refilled by Bill, and Dottie brought along her traditional array of Christmas desserts (I’ll never get enough of those pecan tarts!)
Rob and Amber - back from Germany
Amber greets her nephew Domenic
Briana and Ashleigh with their teenage ‘tudes
Rob’s friends Joe Filbrun and Scott Morgan come to greet him
Lora and Todd…
…and their boys Domenic and Ben
Denise and Ashleigh light up the room
Two of many pecan tarts, ripe for consumption
Jackie makes eyes at the cameraman
Bill gathers our family together for a photo op
The four F*rrell cousins: Denise, me, Lora, and Rob as we are now…
…and as we were in the Summer of ‘76
All in all, it was a very nice party capping off a very nice day. Christmas Eve would begin a few hours. We were all poised and ready…
Next up: my 37th annual Christmas…
Leave a Reply