Monday December 25, 2017

Monday December 25, 2017

Merry Christmas to everyone and Peace On Earth;

It was still snowing and cold when I first went out this morning.  Heavy winds are creating big drifts.  The temperature all day today will remain in the teens but will fall to single digits after midnight.

Missy and AJ are arriving in GR near midnight.  We hope their flight from LA is uneventful.  

We slept in this morning.  Nancy fixed me her world famous poached eggs this morning.  I had mine on a waffle.

I did go out and shovel our walk this morning.  Hope the street is plowed today.

Memories of past Christmas’s

Nancy’s first gift to husband Bob.  A Rolex watch.  I am still wearing it after 52 years.

Number of Christmas’s without family.  Two, both while in Navy, Midway Island and Vietnam.

After opening presents and breakfast our family: Mom, Dad, Helen and yours truly would visit my Uncle Jim Scott and family, Uncle Bill Hughes and family.  At each stop we would look over their presents and have cookies, peanut brittle and fruitcake.  Mom and Dad would have a cocktail at each stop.  Mom and Dad and their siblings were not opposed to having a drink and sometimes two.  Neither my Scott or Hughes Grandparents drank.  A sign of the times.

When I was eight my Dad spent hours making a dragline.  The dragline was on rollers so I could move it around.  The boom of the dragline was identical to a real one.  I could open and close the bucket.  Dad put some peas on the floor and showed me how to pick them up.  It was a work of art.  An exact replica of draglines you see in large quarries or gravel pits.  I was a real jerk because I never played with it or appreciated Dad’s efforts.  I was fifty before I told Dad what a great gift it was and thanked him.  

One year Dad taped 100 dollar bills together, folded them and placed them in a box with a slotted top.  When Mother grabbed the end of the stack she kept pulling and pulling until all bills were withdrawn.  I thought it was a clever idea.

Strange gifts:  one year when I was in my late teens I was given a full size double sided axe.  I worked on a survey crew and we would spend a lot of cutting and trimming trees along a survey line.  My Grandfather Scott customized the axe for me.  He took a razor blade and shaved the handle near the axe.  The reduced area of the handle gave it more flexibility.  Grandfather said all the lumberjacks would do this on their axes.

We spend a very quiet day.  I did walk around the block.  It snowed all day and our drive had not been plowed.  We had to pick up Missy and AJ at 2330.  I was worried we could not get out of the drive so I spend an hour shoveling.

Missy’s plane arrived on time.  She said their trip went without a hitch.  At home we opened presents and had an early morning snack before turning in.  God Bless You All!