Post-Christmas

We had a nice Christmas Eve and Day, spending time with family. Some highlights:

• After Christmas Eve mass, my musician children gravitated toward the trumpter who had been playing with the choir. Turned out he, too, is a Boston University graduate. He and I reminisced about West Campus and hockey games, talked about all the changes to the campus, and then he revealed that his old roommate at BU had been Jason Alexander, best known as George on Seinfeld, but also known as Albert in Bye Bye Birdie (which meant more to John, being a Birdie alum himself).
• After church, as we were driving home, we pulled over to the side of the road as we saw a fire truck coming at us, its light blazing and spinning. We realized soon that it was moving very slowly, and then realized that it was carrying Santa through the neighborhood. As the truck approached us, Catherine slid open the van door, just in time for Santa to wish her a Merry Christmas, and then to fire a handful of mini candy canes at her. Unprepared, she suffered a small candy-cane-induced concussion. But, with a sticky smile, she reported that it was worth it.
• Christmas morning, after the gifts were opened, Isabel checked on the turkey to make sure it was completely thawed. Instead she found that while it was thawed, it was...well, we can skip the details. But we clearly needed a new turkey. Fortunately, our heroes made to the grocery store before they closed early, and bought a fresh turkey for half the price they'd paid for the original frozen one. A Christmas miracle, and a delicious turkey when all was said and done.

We're at a time in our lives when we no longer have the Christmas morning frustration of trying to remove dozens of twist ties to pry toys out of the packages. Our crisis this year was Peter dropping the mini SD card from his new cell phone and having to take a wing chair half apart to retrieve it.

Time chnages things. But so it goes. It was a happy time for all. Hope yours was as enjoyingly eventful as ours.