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We had planned to go right to bed when we arrived, since it was 1am and I'd been up since 6am. But we'd gotten an artificial tree for Mom since Dad had been sick in the hospital and was unable to go out and hunt down a real tree for them, and I was buzzing from the coffee so I decided to take a look at it. We set it up in about a half-hour, quite a lot less than it takes to set mine up. It's in three parts, with the lights already on it, so you just have to fluff out the branches and plug the lights in. Not too shabby.
Both Mom and Dad have gotten pretty deaf, so when they wake up, they bang around the kitchen quite vigorously. Said kitchen has a pass-through to the living room, where we were sleeping- so we woke up pretty early. But that was okay- the weather was beautiful, the tree was up, and Mom was delighted with it. I was worried it was a little sparse (it wasn't an expensive tree) but that meant more room to hang things. Breakfast donuts and cookies and brownies were offered- neighbors have been good to them when Dad got back from the hospital (Smfmd. Wssoinm.). Dad announced he was going on his daily walk, and I asked to go along.
Despite the fact that he told me 3 days prior that a walk around the block would kick his ass, he was still driving to the north end of the county just to get out in nature and walk as far as he could. Saturday it was a good half-mile, probably. It was super windy but clear as a bell, maybe 65 degrees. We talked about his hospital stay, and his conclusions about how he must really take that Serenity Prayer thing to heart, specifically the part about accepting things he can't change. So he's resolved to quit listening to all that political stuff that just makes him mad. He claims to have called the Republican Party and told them to fuck themselves, and quit asking him for money. He's still got some crazy-ass conservative beliefs but he just doesn't seem willing to wave them around and snark about them as much. He still made jabs at Hillary Clinton (I'll never understand why he loathes her so much) and make jokes about training dogs to attack Democrats, but he just seems a lot more relaxed about the whole thing. He'll tease 'til his dying day, but as long as he's not getting so anxious or angry about it all, that's fine by me.
Mom and Elaine decorated the tree while we were gone, and Brö arrived. Elaine doesn't have fond associations with xmas, but she seems to be warming up to the idea which is a happy thing. Mom just seems to be so happy with all this, I can see where it can be infectious.
Hub got volunteered to fix dinner, which only involved a little actual cooking and more heating things up- but he was happy to have something to do, he tells me. We dined and watched Brö's favorite xmas shows- the Charlie Brown one, and the Rankin-Bass Rudolph one. Then Dr.Strangelove, which is funnier every time I see it... then an old Richard Pryor tape- one that I hadn't seen in years, but that was so familiar I felt like I could almost recite the whole thing by heart. He was a really funny guy. *sniff*
The grown-ups went to bed and us kids smoked up and watched Adult Swim until a little after midnight and then headed off to bed.
Both Mom and Dad have gotten pretty deaf, so when they wake up, they bang around the kitchen quite vigorously. Said kitchen has a pass-through to the living room, where we were sleeping- so we woke up pretty early. But that was okay- the weather was beautiful, the tree was up, and Mom was delighted with it. I was worried it was a little sparse (it wasn't an expensive tree) but that meant more room to hang things. Breakfast donuts and cookies and brownies were offered- neighbors have been good to them when Dad got back from the hospital (Smfmd. Wssoinm.). Dad announced he was going on his daily walk, and I asked to go along.
Despite the fact that he told me 3 days prior that a walk around the block would kick his ass, he was still driving to the north end of the county just to get out in nature and walk as far as he could. Saturday it was a good half-mile, probably. It was super windy but clear as a bell, maybe 65 degrees. We talked about his hospital stay, and his conclusions about how he must really take that Serenity Prayer thing to heart, specifically the part about accepting things he can't change. So he's resolved to quit listening to all that political stuff that just makes him mad. He claims to have called the Republican Party and told them to fuck themselves, and quit asking him for money. He's still got some crazy-ass conservative beliefs but he just doesn't seem willing to wave them around and snark about them as much. He still made jabs at Hillary Clinton (I'll never understand why he loathes her so much) and make jokes about training dogs to attack Democrats, but he just seems a lot more relaxed about the whole thing. He'll tease 'til his dying day, but as long as he's not getting so anxious or angry about it all, that's fine by me.
Mom and Elaine decorated the tree while we were gone, and Brö arrived. Elaine doesn't have fond associations with xmas, but she seems to be warming up to the idea which is a happy thing. Mom just seems to be so happy with all this, I can see where it can be infectious.
Hub got volunteered to fix dinner, which only involved a little actual cooking and more heating things up- but he was happy to have something to do, he tells me. We dined and watched Brö's favorite xmas shows- the Charlie Brown one, and the Rankin-Bass Rudolph one. Then Dr.Strangelove, which is funnier every time I see it... then an old Richard Pryor tape- one that I hadn't seen in years, but that was so familiar I felt like I could almost recite the whole thing by heart. He was a really funny guy. *sniff*
The grown-ups went to bed and us kids smoked up and watched Adult Swim until a little after midnight and then headed off to bed.
