I left for my brother's (continuing to listen to XM 107), and since I had arrived there entirely too early, I decided to kill some time at the mall nearby. I am a fan of observing the human condition, and I enjoyed watching the people running themselves ragged on Christmas Eve trying to finish up their shopping. Of course everyone knows that anything bought in that kind of frenzy will be returned first thing tomorrow morning.
As I promised, I went to my Kyle's house, and let myself in, as they weren't home from their errands. I came in to find that their XM boombox was also tuned to XM 107. Since I was listening to it in the car, I kept it on, and helped myself to some cookies.
Kari, Kyle, Josie, and Inese came in shortly thereafter, and I was put to work wrapping gifts (all the while eating cookies and antipasto). Back when I worked at Hecht's, I worked in the gift wrap section for my last holiday season there. So I was pretty quick about wrapping. Then dinner was served, and that was when things started to get melancholy.
As I mentioned in yesterday's entry, Kari's father passed away a few months ago, and Christmas was always his favorite time of the year. At dinner (which was beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, and asparagus), Kari and Inese were sharing stories of Christmases past with Kyle and me, and then Kari asked if we had any traditions in our family for Christmas Eve. Kyle and I said in unison, "we would go to church", and then when pressed, Kyle responded, "we went to bed." I am sure that Kari noticed the distant, unhappy looks on both of our faces thereafter, and she realized that she had touched a nerve.
I actually continued to talk about how I felt, telling them that one particular time when I was a teenager, my father was laying some guilt trip on me for some reason, asking me why I didn't want to help the family, and I responded "because we're not a family." Kyle said that he didn't want to go there. But the fact is that whether he wants to "go there" or not, it's true. Every single Christmas was so tense, because Bette and my father did nothing but fight, and I only realized in 2004 what a stress-free Christmas could be, when I was with Diane.
By the end of dinner, it was nearly 10:30, and I opened my birthday presents. I got a picture of Josie, a nice sweater, and a book called "Penis Pokey." It is a bunch of illustrations through which you would complete the picture by sticking your erect penis through a hole. This was the "limited audience" gift. Very cute.
Speaking of cute, Josie was a lot of fun. She warmed up to me quickly, and she was so busy and active. But we ate so late that she fell asleep in her high chair.
After dinner, I started to move gifts out from the sofa (where I would be sleeping) to the Christmas tree. Once I was done, there wasn't a lot of room for much else. We were all dog tired, so at about 11:30, I took a shower, went to the sofa, and I think I was asleep about five minutes later.
We will continue with today in my next entry. It is almost ten o'clock, and it is time for me to settle in for the night. I work at eight tomorrow morning, so I am heading toward the bedroom.
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