Merry Christmas!

It's Not My Usual Celebration, But I'm OK With That

I went to bed early last night - around 10 pm. I’d been up and working most of the day, taking care of financials (RMDs, Required Minimum Distributions, from our sheltered investments, started this year for me for the first time), texting/phoning to solidify plans for Christmas Day.

That part - plans for today - is what is different this year.

We’re not going to be visiting the kids (nor they us) this year. One of the families is still quarantining from Covid. The grandson went straight from pneumonia at Thanksgiving to Covid just before finals. He’s a little like President Kennedy, who as a child was so sickly and prone to catch every disease flitting by, that his family used to say, “Pity the mosquito that bites him - that mosquito is a dead bug!”

But, he is on the mend, and the plan is for all to come together on the weekend. We’ve already packed the bags for the trip.

We plan on traveling to a different church for mass this morning - ours will be celebrating mass at 4 pm, when we will be sitting down with brothers and sisters at a local Red Lobster.

Yes, we are breaking the traditional meal at home/family home for a meal in a restaurant. None of us felt like hosting, and to be honest, I’m just as glad to avoid the frenzied cleaning/after-meal cleanup.

We kept the gifting to a minimum this year - we set up a smaller budget, and kept to it. We’ve started focusing on smaller gifts, with family gifts for the kids, and using most of the budget for the younger ones, whether grandkids or great-grandkids.

I did most of my buying online, other than 1 trip to a local store. I bought American, when I could (some electronic gifts/components have no American equivalent). Most importantly, for once we kept to budget.

We also have a trip today to visit a family member in hospice. He can only handle short visits, so we will be spending most of that part of the day traveling to the distant facility. The good part of that is time with each other in the car.

This is a calmer Christmas; with Trump headed for his return in January, the world doesn’t seem as scary this year. Yes, there are Can’t-tell-the-truth-Jihadist-attacks worldwide, posturing and missiles between combatants at hot spots, and the every popular Leftist demands, screeds, and Mostly Peaceful outbreaks.

But, for once, actually Mostly Peaceful in the World.

Enjoy the break, and rest up for the coming End of the World Predictions of The Left.