What I Did On Xmas Day! For Share Your World, Dec 25, 2023

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The Share Your World questions for today are:

What will you be eating today?  I cooked a spiral-cut ham and made sangria. I also bought a pecan pie. My friend  Brad brought a Caesar salad and cheesy potatoes made in his crockpot. Larry and Elizabeth and Kathy brought a green bean casserole and buñuelos and Dianne brought a mocha flan cake and tres leches cake. 

What was your favorite gift? Elizabeth brought us all tea towels from her line of Indian-created clothing and house goods. She also gave me a wonderful book bag and cosmetic case but my very favorite was an incredible large hand-embroidered silk scarf that is simply stunning. It is large enough to make a blouse out of, but the problem is which side to present on the outside as both sides are incredible and each is a different color. Perhaps I’ll have to have it made reversible.  I’ll show a photo of it tomorrow.

Do your pets get to join in with the fun? My dogs are very very naughty when it comes to guests. They just go a bit crazy, so I put them in the lower garden. (Not the lot below, as they can easily escape from it.). This they did not like, and voiced their protests. Then my friend brought her very large German Shepherd and after a few warning barks and growls, we let her in with my banshees and they seemed to get along all right, but during the day, especially when it was feeding time, it got complicated. I must take them for obedience training or have them take me for obedience trining.  I actually gave them all doggie tranquilizers given to me by their vet, but I didn’t see that it made much of a difference.

Gratitude: For my friend Brad who usually furnishes the solution to my problems and who brought a wall mount for the echo he brought me for the bedroom a month or more ago (which we still haven’t gotten installed) and a scraper to replace what he considers to be my substandard one. (Forgetting that he had already replaced it earlier, but no problem,  because who doesn’t need two good kitchen scrapers?)

Also, gratitude for the good conversation and the contribution to the meal by my friends.

What is the worst bit, if any, about celebrating?  The dishes, but luckily everyone listened when I said I would rather spend our time talking and would not let them help.  When they left, I put away the food, cleared off the table and rinsed off all the dishes and piled them in the sink and on the counter. An hour or so later, I emptied the dishwasher of yesterday’s clean dishes and filled it with our comida dishes, then washed the rest by hand. I used my wooden-handled good flatware, so washed all of it by hand, as well as the fragile wine goblets and my favorite square sangria glasses. Actually, in the end it was very satisfying to end up with the job finished. I have a sneaking suspicion that Yolanda will show up tomorrow since I wouldn’t let her come either Xmas Eve or today…and it  will be fun to see her reaction when she sees I did it all.

After the Celebration!

(You can enlarge photos by clicking on them.)

And now, at 2 AM and 8 hours after the main event—to all a good night!!!

(I know. Very strange to show everything after cleanup rather than during the event, but it wasn’t until afterwards that I actually had time to take photos!)

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About lifelessons

My blog, which started out to be about overcoming grief, quickly grew into a blog about celebrating life. I post daily: poems, photographs, essays or stories. I've lived in countries all around the globe but have finally come to rest in Mexico, where I've lived since 2001. My books may be found on Amazon in Kindle and print format, my art in local Ajijic galleries. Hope to see you at my blog.

21 thoughts on “What I Did On Xmas Day! For Share Your World, Dec 25, 2023”

  4. anntonyjandc's avataranntonyjandc

    Your Xmas sounds delightfully crazy and tasty and fun . The tranquilized dogs added to the merriment. Your adopted family is wonderful and I too sat (invisibly) at your table trying to eat very little so I could completely enjoy those desserts. Flan is a food created by the head god chef and tres leches is my favorite cake. Thank you for the beautifully appointed table, too. The settings were good enough to eat , but alas I was full. And you cleaned up the after-mess yourself. I continue to be amazed by you as I was when I first met you at Patti’s party long ago in Laramie, Wyoming. (With our Gretchen Saint attending in fur.)

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    1. lifelessons's avatarlifelessons Post author

      Really? I brought Gretchen to their party? I think I have photos of that party…I’ll have to look and see. Do you remember the poor taste party we had at Patti’s house in Cheyenne after she divorced Terry and I came back from Africa and lived with her for a year? That was such a fun party.

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    2. lifelessons's avatarlifelessons Post author

      You know when Terry’s beloved aunt died, Patti was out of town. Gretchen and I took a walk over to see him and as he sat with tears running down his cheeks, Gretchen went over and put her paws on his knees and licked his tears away. I will never forget that. I have some on my cheeks as I remember it.

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      1. Unknown's avatarAnonymous

        What a fascinating tale about our Gretchen. She administered to the grieving. When the kids cried, she was always right there beside them. She let little Blanquita, Our first cat, Curl up in the circle of her warmth.

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