Meanwhile, on the 24th, Christmas Eve, we hosted a small party and friends came with their families. We had a exquisite arrange of foods: deer in onion sauce, wild pig 'au jus', home-made chicken fingers, deep fried whole turkey, pastry ring of steak, dirty rice, two different types of capresse salad, dirty rice, cole slaw, Hawaiian rolls, and more, brought by everyone, and drinks ranging from the soft drinks - colas, to the other soft drink - light beer, to wine, to the real stuff.
Danny and Donna Authement came with their daughter Denise and her husband Paul who drove in from up-state New York; their son Danny Jr. is on assignment somewhere in the Pacific. Hank and Terri Douglas came in with Mr. D - their Dad, Shelli & Paul, and Shauna & Mark. Fireman Dan and Claudette Hughes came solo as Cassie just got married this past Saturday. Pat Ross was also flying solo since she had an early Christmas with her daughters in Maryland. And then there were us: Alex, Leah, Jan and I. Since Shauna Douglas is with child and expecting in February, and Mr. D is her grandfather, we actually had four generations in attendance: a true extended family affair!
We played lots of pool (I beat pool-shark Danny for the first time! He later avenged that though...); then, after dinner, we played a game introduced to us oldies by Alex & Leah called "beer-pong": trying to sink a ping-pong ball into an array of beer glasses at the other end of the table; if you sink the ball on a glass, your opponent drinks that glass of beer, and vice-versa. FUN! Last, we sang Christmas carols. It was a varied arrange of voices and tonalities. Very enjoyable. We closed a very special and rainy night that way!
Later, in the middle of the night or early morning, Jan woke me up to winds of about 40 MPH that had knocked over all our patio furniture and a camping grill I had in the balcony; it was a little surprising and scary; the house stood well to the challenge; it all finished well.
Santa came on Christmas Day and brought all sort of goodies for everyone; we were all very good this past year! We spoke with all our away family: Clarissa & Valentina - my older girls, my Mother, my sister, and Rick and Pam (Jan's brother and sister-in-law). The rest of the day was a lazy, totally unstructured and enjoyable day, ending it up with a dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes and corn casserole.
The Chargers beat the Titans; that means the Dolphins are still alive!
Merry Christmas!
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