Larry's 26 Post: My Kid's Christmas Visit

Hi guys, it’s Larry this time and I’m gonna write about Christmas 2022.

Before I get to what I want to write about, I thought I’d share something with you guys. I have a new FaceTime friend now, it’s the guy we call Uncle Bill, I wasn’t expecting that at all. I guess after our little talk back on Thanksgiving he kinda thinks of me a little different now. He even asked me if it was okay that he used FaceTime without asking me. Sure why not, I like him a lot better now that we know each other better. Bill said that maybe I could help him over some stuff he’d going through with Tony living with him all the time now. Oh ya, I’m gonna be an expert on that subject; don’t go believing me on that B.S. He said maybe if he took me out for lunch we could talk better in person than he can over the phone. And then he said I should clear it with Al first, nah, I don’t need to do that at all, but I will tell him what’s going down between us though. I never had anyone wanna take me out for lunch just to talk; well don’t go counting Marc and Pops though because they betta do that, or I’ll be pissed for sure.

We still haven’t had our lunch out yet, but I did see him and Tony when they came here for Christmas. Bill said he hoped we could still get away for a while to talk, now I’m hoping it’s not gonna be something like Tony can’t keep his hands off me kinda thing. That would be really weird to talk about for me. I think I know Tony a lot better now after talking to Marcus about the conversation he had with him, I bet he’s a lot like me. Bill knows that Marcus and me have our differences, but we get along great. It’s okay to be different and still love each other, that’s what you guys have been telling me in letters. Maybe it’s probably scary as all hell for Bill if he is worried about what people might think about the two of them living together now that his wife has died. Man, if you saw them when they are here with us, you’d think they were just old card playing buddies and nothing like the two of us. I don’t know what kind of neighbors he has up there, we have a few people we don’t trust at all. We kinda watch where we are when we go on our walks, Marc just isn’t as ready as I am to tell people to mind their own damn business.

Man, it’s kinda hard to believe a guy like Bill would ask me for advice; fuck, I’m the one usually asking all the questions around here. Anyhow, I’m glad I reached out to him now, but I can’t stop thinking for Bill’s whole life he’s been a professional musician, probably played to a ton of people in his life, and here he is asking me for advice I guess on stuff I hardly know a lot about myself. It’s great that he kinda trusts me to tell him the truth the way I see it, but it’s kinda scary cool for me to think that.

KIDS ON THE WAY STARTING EARLY WEDNESDAY
I got a call from Ryan on Tuesday saying they would be leaving early in the morning, and they were so looking forward to coming to visit us. We’ve been talking, mostly FaceTiming lots now and I told him about Bill and Tony and how much I wanted him and his wife to meet them before they left for home.

Ryan told me that they rented a big SUV for the trip, since they had baby stuff to take with them and he didn’t trust his car for that kind of trip. I told him please let me pay for the rental, it’s the least I could do. He told me not to worry, he’s got it, besides we were probably gonna give them too much to take back home with them. Well he might have that right, but I’m not gonna say anything to him or you, right now.

He told me that the boys ride pretty good in the car, mostly fall asleep as soon as they get in. He laughed at that and said that the new baby was 3 and 1/2 months old now, and they were a little concerned about traveling with him so young so they have him in a carrier that can be used in and out of the car. He also told me that his big brother loves him so much and watches over him like a little daddy. That’s so damn cute to know, I couldn’t wait to meet them in person, but I’ve seen them on my iPhone lots of times though and his wife too.

I think it’s about time that I tell you their names, I don’t even want to figure out how I’m gonna tell you stuff about them without doing that. You should know that Ryan is my son and he’s 34 now, he is married to a really pretty lady, her name is Ashley, and she is a couple of years younger than him, and she is as cute as her name too. I don’t know any Ashley’s, but I do now. I can’t wait to meet her in person, and I hope she likes everyone who will be here. I guess you want to know about my grandsons too; my first grandson ever is 2 years and 10 months old, and he has talked to me on FaceTime, he’s so cute and a little blond just like his daddy and me. His name is Noah and I’ve never known anyone named Noah too. My newest grandson’s name is Liam, another new name for me. From what I’ve seen of him on FaceTime he is starting to look a lot like his big brother now. I think I got him to smile at me once, but Ryan said, it might be gas. I can’t wait to hold both of them, and hug my son again, and Ashley too if she’s okay with that.

I’m glad I told you about them, it’s gonna be so much easier talking about them now. It’s like how easy it got once Marc let you know what the uncles names were. I thought Uncle Tattoo and Uncle Ponytail was cute until it started to sound like a kids story or maybe a cartoon show. I’ve got some stuff to write about them too before I call it quits on the chapter. I used to worry about writing too much stuff and making my chapters too long to read. One of our followers named Joey writes me often and I write him back too. He told me not to worry about long chapters, he also told me he’s older than both of us which makes him super cool in my book. He told me he likes reading what I write and sometimes doesn’t want the story to end too soon. (I think that’s what they call a shoutout to Joey, now he has to write me back thanking me for putting him in my chapter. See I’m not that stupid you know, hahah.)

MEETING MY FAMILY AT THE FRONT DOOR

It was so much later than we expected for them to get here, the poor kids had so much bad weather to get through with two little kids in the car too. The kids were asleep when they arrived, I think it was around 10:00 at night, but we weren’t concerned too much because Ryan called us a couple of times letting us know about the delays on the road. I know I shouldn’t worry but we kept getting calls about the problems, especially once they were in Nevada near California. I almost thought they were gonna spend another night in a motel, but Ryan said they would be here just a lot later than they thought, and maybe we could have where the babies were going to sleep be ready for them. I told him that was done a long time ago, which was true.

When my son finally got here with his family, they looked like they all went through hell just to get here. I heard the bad weather made that true for just about anyone traveling during Christmas time. I’m so happy that they decided to drive here instead of flying, especially after hearing about all the grief people were going through. I know they would have flown with Southwest Airlines since you can fly direct to Sacramento from Denver, Colorado. But man what a nightmare that would have been for them, they might never want to visit us ever again if they tried flying here. I don’t mind flying but not during the holidays, that’s really the worst time to fly. I’d go earlier or later, but not when everyone wants to fly. Anyhow, since I’m writing this chapter after Christmas was over, I keep hearing about all the shit people have been going through with Southwest Airlines; man they were always my favorite way to fly. I don’t think so anymore though. 

The boys were still sleeping when they took them to the bedroom, and then Ryan and Ashley came back to meet us in the kitchen. We offered them some food if they were hungry; Ryan was a little but not Ashley. He found a banana on the counter and asked if it was okay to eat, sure. Ashley just wanted to call it a long, long day and go to bed with the kids. She said she’d be a lot more company for us after a night’s rest. Ryan said he should also go with her, and we could all catch up in the morning. Anyhow, that’s how much time I had with them on their first day here. Marc told me maybe we should go to bed ourselves so we can be up early in the morning to join them. Hahah, Marc up early, now that’s a riot.

UNCLES ARRIVE ON FRIDAY TO HELP POPS
Pops after the fact, kinda asked us if it was okay with us that he invited Bill and Tony to come for a few days to help him set up what he has planned for Christmas. We both said no that wasn’t gonna be a problem and I told him I talked to Marcus about inviting them a while ago. I can’t imagine not having them with us for Christmas, besides they are Pops good buddies anyway.

If you are wondering where the hell we were gonna put everybody since my son will be here with his family too. Pops knew we were planning on letting the kids have the room Bill and Tony used the last time they stayed over here. It’s way big enough to hold them all. I asked Pops where he was gonna sleep, on the family room couch? He told us that he rented a couple of roll away beds, one for him that he can put into his bedroom and one for your kids room. That man is always a step ahead of us, kinda figures if you knew him like we do.

 Marcus had a better idea and told him to just put his roll away bed into our former office, there’s more than enough room in there and then he could have his own bathroom and shower connected to the room. Once I heard that, I kinda flashed on I sure hope that bathroom has been cleaned, we do a lot of stuff in there! I bet you can guess what or have read something we wrote before. I hope you appreciate how hard it is to remember all this shit and then try to write about it. Maybe you would hope I wouldn’t do that, hahah.

 Anyhow back to our uncles before I forget why I’m talking about them. It seems Pops had this plan he wasn’t gonna be telling us all about, it’s a Pops kinda thing that I’m getting used to now. He wanted his buddies to help decorate the great room which we were not allowed to see it before it was time. And to plan a special dinner too. Well I got to know all that afterwards, Marc said don’t sweat it, Pops knows what he’s doing, trust him. Sure why not, if Marc says so, he should know.

 When they arrived at our house, we all went to the front door to greet them, all but the little ones who were in bed for a nap I think. Marcus introduced them to Ryan and Ashley before I had a chance, I was busy giving them each a hug, I think I wanted my kids to know I wanted them here as much as Pops and Marcus. Pops said maybe we could come into the house a little further so we could keep the outside, outside. Not a bad idea since it wasn’t warm outside. After we all got to say hello and whatever else came outta our mouths, Pops said that they have a lot to do and please forgive us for a while. And then he had the uncles off to the great room with him and he closed the double doors behind them. He didn’t lie about being gone, but it was longer than a little while. Ashley said our uncles were “cute,” not exactly a word I’d use, but what the hey, and then she said she was glad our Pops had some help doing whatever he was planning. After that we all headed to the family room to just talk and get some adult time while the kids were sleeping. Marcus set up some of his Alexa Echo equipment to monitor the kids bedroom so we could hear what was going on. I promised them that they could take the Echo thing with them and put it anywhere they like. I was afraid they might think we would listen in on their room, but I kept that to myself.

I HAD A JOB TOO
Anyway, my job, I gave it to me, myself; I was to make some Christmas cookies for everyone. Actually, it was not my first idea but, if you remember from the last time I wrote that I made some pies for Thanksgiving, that idea came from writing to Michael who follows us on our journal, and I think of as a friend now. (Okay shoutout number two, man I’m on a roll now, hahah. See if you write me we can become friends too, just saying.) Anyway, back to baking, Michael sent me a recipe for chocolate cookies and suggested maybe I start baking with the easy stuff first. Man was he ever right. Baking cookies are easier and a lot more fun eating them hot outta the oven! Well you should let them cool a little bit first, gotta watch out for hot chocolate chips and the roof of your mouth.

Anyhow, wanna guess who joined me doing that? If you thought Marcus, nope it was Ashley, she came in the kitchen and said, “Dad, would you like me to help you?” YEAH I would, but I kinda got caught up hearing her call me dad in person, not just on the phone. It was so cool, I really think she likes me a lot, I sure like her a lot. I told her I would be happy to have a couple of extra hands helping me since I’ve never baked cookies before. And we do have a lotta cookies to bake!

After we made a batch of chocolate cookies and sampled some, well I kinda ate more than just sample, she made me promise to stop doing that, I tried but I’m bad around fresh smelling cookies, hahah. Ashley suggested that we mix it up a little and asked where we keep most of the stuff to cook with, I pointed at the pantry door, and she was gone! After a little while she came back out with lot’s of stuff to mix it up for us, hey, I’m willing to be the taste tester. I was too. Probably not the best thing to do to my stomach though. Anyhow, I really liked that she wanted to spend some time with me in the kitchen, that was a lot of fun.

TIME TO WORK OFF SOME OF THOSE COOKIES
After I gave my belly a chance to recover from cookie overload, ya, that’s a real thing you know. I may need to find a support group for cookie over-eaters, there must be a group out there, I can’t be the only one with a problem! Okay just joking around with you guys, but I may need to find a bigger pair of pants in Marc’s former clothes closet! I usually head to the room with my workout equipment if I think I won’t be able to zip up my pants without a struggle, hahah. You know after I moved them outta my garage into this house, I use them a lot more now. Well I eat a lot more now than before, so you figure it out why I’m in there more often. Anyhow, I asked Ryan if he’d like to come with me to work out a bit just for company. I haven’t gotten Marcus in there as often as I’d like yet. My son was willing to join me but when he saw some of the equipment he wasn’t sure what to use. I figured the cycler or treadmill was pretty safe, but he thought the dumbbells looked more of a manly thing to choose. I told him to use the lighter ones if he doesn’t want to hurt like hell tomorrow.

It was fun having my kid in there with me, I know he’s trying as hard as me to make up for so many bad years between us and I can’t be more grateful. Considering how many different directions this house can take you, somehow Ashley found us in that room and joined us. I told her, “You gonna work off some cookies too?” and laughed. She said no she was way better than me back in the kitchen and told us that she was gonna just watch or maybe try the cycler. I said I’d reset it down to a level that she could actually use. I hope I didn’t insult her because she said that wasn’t necessary. Okay, we’ll see soon enough. She went for it and eventually just sat on it watching us. I kinda giggled to myself, just inside though. 

Ashley asked me when will her husband grow into my body type, will that happen when he’s old too. Okay, I laughed at that, but come on, OLD? I’m only 21 years older than him. Ryan told her, “Ya one day I’ll wake up old and look just like dad.” And we all laughed, I think Ashley was just trying to let me know she liked how I looked and I’m sure Ryan wasn’t that offended, I hope so anyway. She did ask how long it took me to get the way I look, I told her it was a very long time, and I still work at it. I also told her about being super thin when I was younger, and if Ryan wanted to bulk up at his age now, that shouldn’t be a problem; he’d probably do it faster than I did. I think that’s the truth too. Ryan just said, “Thanks Ash! I’ll work right on it for you.” Was that sarcasm? He laughed though, probably to cover his ass with her I bet.

AND THEN A CHANGE OF PLANS CAME UP
I kinda thought we’d be having Christmas dinner together, and on Christmas Eve the kids would have dinner at Ellen and Lisa’s place. That was changed to we would have a special Italian traditional dinner on Christmas Eve here instead, and then we’d all get up on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought. Maybe he’d even still be here! I didn’t want that plan to change. Anyhow, Pops goes right to my kids and says, “You guys must like Italian food that’s not pizza, right?” Like they had a chance to tell him no, we just like pizza. My kid poured it on good with, “That’s our favorite to eat out!” I think that his Marcus-like kinda response comes from him being a teacher like Marc; ya it’s gotta be that. Well I’ve sure love the pasta I’ve eaten so far.

Anyhow, what about Christmas Day, will they spend it with the wives, or just have dinner there, or if Pops has his way, everyone will have dinner here with us. I’m starting to understand Pops as much as Marcus now. He does like to run things his way, well as long as he makes everyone happy, why not I guess. 

Pops called me out on something I’ve been saying for a long time, especially in front of him and the uncles lately. Marcus calls me a “Wannabe Italian,” well I am, not gonna deny that and I got me the best looking Italian here for myself too; I hope that came out okay. Anyhow, Pops said that Italian Americans have a very special tradition on Christmas Eve and if I wanna be a real Italian like I say, I should really experience it with them. Great! Of course I want to, what do I havta wear, like an Italian costume or something? Do they even have something like that? Pops said, “No, it’s nothing like that, just bring a big appetite, it’s all about food.” Well hell’s bell’s, I’m all about good food, especially Italian food, bring it on baby. Ya, I might have wanted to ask more questions first before I jumped right in there. I do think Pops tried to pull one over me with this; the hell with try, he just did.

 Good old Uncle Tony was Pops sidekick on this one, I’m surprised that Marcus wasn’t involved too, but he said it’s been years since he attended one; this was totally on Pops. I found out Bill knew about the tradition, how could he not, there are all these Italians he’s been hanging around for his whole life. Bill said, I will love the food. Ya, I don’t think he knows a lot about me and food yet. Anyway, the uncles brought some of the food already cooked with them for that dinner. There was a reason why they had it already cooked, I’ll tell you about it in a minute. Anyhow, this was all planned some time ago for us to get to experience with them. Like I said, I’m getting to know how Pops and this Italian thing works now!

Anyhow, this is how it went down. Everybody got told that we will all have a special Italian meal on Christmas Eve instead of the kids going to Ellen and Lisa for dinner. Our wives could have Christmas Day dinner with the kids after they open Santa’s presents. And then Pops said, “Or we could invite them over for dinner with us on Christmas.” Marcus jumped in and said that maybe the wives would feel hurt if the kids don’t spend any time with them over at their place. He had a good point I guess because everyone agreed with him, I didn’t say boo though, I’d be the only one with the nay vote. Oh ya, something else came up, maybe the wives could be invited over for the gift openings. That got voted down because they may have planned their own special time for that. I know better, Ellen has always gotten along with the kids, it’s always been me that was the problem. I’m glad that’s over and done with now.

THE CHRISTMAS EVE TRADITIONAL FEAST OF SEVEN FISHES

I know there’s a whole bunch of you guys who know me now are laughing your asses off after reading that heading! Good old Larry is gonna have a fucking heart attack and the house is gonna stink like a dead fish factory. Well I didn’t have a heart attack, or you wouldn’t be reading this, but the house, that was a different story. I may need to avoid the kitchen for a few months, or stuff cotton balls up my nose! And we couldn’t even open the windows to air it out unless we get all dressed up for the North Pole. The exhaust fan over the stove was working on overtime, poor fan didn’t have a chance!

When it came time for dinner, Pops and Tony read from some papers what the traditional dinner was all about. They did a great job telling us about it and I learned more about what it’s like being an Italian American. I’ll tell you some of the stuff they said, but don’t think I memorized this stuff, Pops gave me the papers to read because I asked him for them. I hope you don’t mind that I’m doing that.

Okay this is what I got out of it. The Feast of Seven Fishes is not a religious thing, even though it’s done on Christmas Eve. It’s just a big fish fry meal that has roots back in Southern Italy. Well that makes sense with these guys, Pops and Tony are Sicilian and Marcus is half Sicilian and half Italian, although I thought Sicilians were Italian anyway. I think I heard them say that there are no real rules for the feast, you just gotta have fish for the meal, and there better be seven of them too or it doesn’t count, or something.

Tony told us that Roman Catholic people have a practice of not eating dairy or meat on the eve of some holidays. And since there were many very poor areas in Italy and fish was plentiful that’s how it got to be fish. And then he said there was some mentions in the Bible about the number seven, well that’s something I’ll have to trust them on since he didn’t tell us any more about that.

Well Pops knows how I feel about fish, although for my birthday this month we did go to the Red Lobster because I asked to go there, and I actually ate some salmon. You know, it was a lot better than I imagined it would be. Anyhow, I don’t want to write a ton about the 7 fish dinner, but the guys did try to help me out by not going crazy with some really strange looking fish or smelly shell fish. Ya, remember when I said I’d tell you in a minute why the uncles cooked them at home, I’m gonna try and be polite, because I like Italians and maybe I really am a wannabe one; but those guys had little fishes all battered up with the tail still on and I think the head was too. I could barely look at them. You supposed to eat the whole damn thing, maybe not the tail, IDK but my instinct was to head for the hills off to the sunset, you know like get the fuck outta there quick! Best thing about that dish, no one said I should try it, I bet they thought I’d barf right at the table if I did, hahah. I can’t tell you if my kids tried that dish, I couldn’t look at it and still be there, I’m serious!

Anyways, they did make some appetizer things I could try, the first one I remember was shrimp cocktail, so I drowned one totally in cocktail sauce, which was kinda spicy. And somebody made little crab cakes, so I used some of the extra cocktail sauce to cover it, but I didn’t need it though, it didn’t stink like I thought it would. I’ve been to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, so I know how stinky crabs are! They had two kinds of salmon one was uncooked and sliced really thin, Bill called it Lox and I should try it with cream cheese on a little piece of crusty bread they had with it. I told him maybe I will after I finish the crab cake. I’m not totally convinced you should eat raw fish, and it did look raw. I guess you know that you’ll never meet me in a sushi place! But I did have a small taste of the baked salmon though since I already had that at the restaurant. I wanted to see if it was as good, it was okay it had lemon slices and little green roly poly things all over it too. I didn’t want to ask what they were, but I didn’t think they were from the ocean though; Marc told me they were capers, like that was supposed to mean something, I’d call them salty. They had some linguini with teeny tiny shrimps and not clams, thank you very much. I have no idea how they take the shell off the tiny shrimp, maybe with tiny tweezers, hahah. I was so happy to see that they had onion rings, my favorite way to eat onions there too, only I found out that the onion rings were not onion rings, but some squid fried into little rings, now that was damn sneaky. Actually the bread coating tasted good, and I didn’t taste any squid in it though which was a good thing. I don’t know if everything they had made counted as 7 fishes for them, but I know they were thinking about not grossing me out too much. That must count as a present for me. I don’t know if I’ll get away with complaining about fish next year, just don’t bring in tiny octopus arms and stinky mussels; I think I can make it through another traditional dinner with some of the stuff they had this year. You know I’m almost afraid to write this because “you know who” will read it and make me do it again. I actually kinda almost partially liked some of the stuff.

     

Okay, so now I’m gonna quit talking about this, I don’t want to be remembered as the guy who used to hate fish. I reserve the right to say that anytime I want to! Anyhow, the uncles made a dessert cake in the shape of a fish as part of the meal too, although I don’t think that really counts as part of the 7 fish count. I think the hardest part for me was watching my kids, even Noah liking everything served; that was a hard act to follow, but I think I did a great job of not making a scene, bellyaching, or acting like a child in front of my kids and grandson, and the rest of the guys. At least, I won’t have to do this again for a whole year unless we book a cruise to the Caribbean for Christmas. Which is not such a bad idea after all.

ENTERING THE GREAT ROOM ON CHRISTMAS MORNING

I can tell you one thing, the only thing we put into our stomachs early on Christmas morning was coffee or tea, and some cookies left on the counter for just that. And if you didn’t walk by the stove area you could miss the left-over smell from last night! Breakfast will happen after presents opening time. The only people missing from the kitchen were the uncles and Pops, they were the ones up early to make a big pot of coffee and put some tea bags out with the cookies. I know where they are, but I bet the kids thought they were sleeping in after last night’s big fish thing.

All my kids were still in their pajamas, but we got dressed before leaving the bedroom. I don’t think anyone, but you guys would appreciate seeing us walking out to the kitchen the way we go to bed at night! Anyhow, it wasn’t long before Tony came out from the great room with a Santa’s hat on and a bright red shirt to match. He invited us to quietly follow him to the great room because Santa Claus was still putting presents under the tree with his Elf helper. He told us not to scare Santa off and maybe he’ll stay and have cookies with us before leaving up the fireplace the way he came in. (You know I always wondered how he used the fireplace especially when it’s got a great fire going on. It must be magic, huh?)

I was holding little Noah’s hand as we walked through the dining room area and into the hallway to the great room, the cool part for me was Noah chose to hold my hand for the walk through the house that morning. When we got there, Tony slowly opened the double doors very quietly and in front of our very eyes was the biggest surprise of all. A big Christmas scene was created by them around the fireplace area for us. There was a glowing beautiful fire made and the mantle was decorated with some kind of garland with lights. And best of all, there was a kid-sized colorful train set that was already going around all the Christmas trees and it made train sounds too.

That was all it took for Noah to release his grip from my hand, and he headed right over to where Pops was sitting as Santa Claus. I thought he was headed right to him, it sure looked like it, but the train was way more important to him. I guess as a toddler, Santa might not mean that much yet. By the time he got to the train, the little caboose was all that he could grab, and he got it too, right off the tracks. He just plopped himself down, like no adult could ever do, still holding the colorful caboose and totally forgot the rest of the train that was now off it’s tracks. Bill was the helpful Elf there and reset the train back on the tracks without the caboose, and off the rest of the train went for another trip around the trees.

You know for me, it was everything I ever wanted as a kid and never got, and now thanks to Pops, my grandsons will have the memories for themselves; I sure hope they will. That whole area they decorated looked so beautiful and the trees had to be real, but they weren’t. I didn’t know how they could have pulled this off in such a short time. Maybe it was really magic. (I found out later that the magic was Pops finding the Amazon app on his iPad and used it a lot. I knew there were a lot of deliveries that only Pops wanted to handle for days, he should get a personal call from Jeff Bezos for being his best customer this year.)

Anyhow, Pops was in his Santa suit, and he had gained a lot of weight or maybe used his pillow for a belly full of jelly. I’m glad he went for the pillow, Santa ought to be jolly looking. Bill was in a bright green sweater and had a green Santa hat to match, he was moving presents under the biggest tree all lit up in twinkling white lights. Santa went to sit down as we entered the room. There were two more trees in the room, those had colored lights, and were very tall. The great room has a two-story tall ceiling that’s part of the reason why Marc calls it the great room, I don’t know how tall the biggest tree was, but it was very tall maybe 12 feet tall. The other two were tall maybe 9 feet I guess. I thought they were real but there wasn’t time I guess to go find real trees; these were the best-looking fake trees I’ve ever seen too. You gotta know I had to ask Pops where we were gonna put them later, he said he had it covered don’t worry. Probably gonna be stored in one of those rented storage places. Pops told us that he did not want to decorate the trees with ornaments, that we should pick out what we want the trees to look like ourselves for next year, he just made sure the lights were LED and easy to connect. I think that was very kind of him to think that way.

Santa's chair with milk and cookies

Pops made a great looking Santa Claus and I bet he’ll remember the moment forever when little Noah finally wanted up on his lap. I bet Pops had second thoughts about stuffing that pillow into his pants, there wasn’t a lot of lap left for him, hahah.  Anyway, the first thing Noah did was pull on Santa’s beard, oh it was real, and I bet Pops was glad of that too. I’d love to know what Noah was thinking about the big guy in a red suit and white beard, and then I knew what he was thinking, he spotted the milk and cookies on the side table, and he picked a cookie in his little hand and tried to feed Santa with it. Pops didn’t disappoint him; he took a big bite outta the cookie before putting it back on the plate.

My son Ryan and his wife Ashley looked like they had entered wonderland and couldn’t believe their eyes. Well I couldn’t either, Marcus on the other hand probably already knew what his Pops could pull off with little time. Marc would say you ought to see his Rolodex file. (Yes I know what that is, although we all have them on our phones now.) I asked Ashley if I could hold baby Liam for her so she could go look around the room with Ryan and Santa’s Elves. It was her first time seeing the room, and it was the first time we’ve ever seen the room as a Christmas wonderland. I don’t know how he pulled this off behind our backs. I do now of course, he had a ton of help from some of his “Rolodex” party people. He’s been planning this since he heard about the kids coming. I looked at Pops as Santa while holding the baby from across the room. He was still holding Noah and I guess me staring at him got him to look over to me, I gave him a big smile with a thumbs up with my free hand. I told him thank you with just my lips, he’d never hear me from across the room, he nodded his head for me when he got the message. I finally got what family is for real, I mean I know what family is supposed to be, but that moment it just got so real, it gave me goose bumps.

POPS AS A FIRST TIME SANTA CLAUS 

I was amazed at the presents all wrapped perfectly and I’m thinking, I know how difficult it was for us to wrap what we bought ourselves, how did he… and then I remembered how much help he had. He was the mastermind that was pulling all the strings needed; now I know how Marcus has learned how to do the stuff he does, he was a good student. I can’t wait to learn from the master himself now. It turned out all the presents under the big tree were toys for the little ones. I have a feeling Ryan and Ashley will ask us to keep some of them here for the kids to play with on the next visit, and they did too. Well, that felt good to hear, another visit, yay! But I mean where they were gonna put everything, the rental car was big, but not that big! Anyhow, Pops’ best presents were easy to wrap in small boxes. He set up trust funds for the boys so that when they are old enough for college it will be all paid for. And for Ryan and Ashley he set up a cruise to the Mexican Riviera from the port in Galveston, whenever they want to go, hopefully soon. He included the airfare too, and then told them it was to be their shakedown cruise to see how they liked it, because he wants to have a big family cruise in 2023 for everyone. That’s worth a double hurray!

Our gift from Pops was for the both of us, and it was something that Marc and me just gave up on trying to find. If you remember that we were making a home theater room, and it was designed by Marc as “Art Deco;” ya, still don’t ask me what that is because I’ll screw it all up, ask Google if you want to know. Anyhow, back to the gift, not that it was here in the room or in the house yet. Pops found someone who could use Marc’s drawings for all the glass light sconces needed and reproduce them for us. I don’t know how Pops does the things he can do; I still think he has a magic wand  or a genie in a bottle that he can use. Marcus almost cried that Pops wanted to make his dream for the room come true. I get it, maybe I didn’t want to cry, but I get it big time. Pops is an amazing man.

PapPaps special scrapbook present

Since none of us were allowed into the great room except Santa and his Elves, the rest of us had to go to our rooms and bring out the presents we were giving ourselves. It didn’t take long before we were all back in the great room again. Ryan and Ashley’s gifts to us were the best ever! I was given a big square package and Marcus was given a very heavy box, maybe it’s a box of coal? Nah, he’s been a good boy. I figured mine was a big square book, something you are supposed to put on a coffee table. I opened mine right away like a little kid who couldn’t wait to rip off the paper. The only difference, I was ripping it off in my mind while I was carefully taking the tape off like I was gonna save the paper. Marc told me to speed it up because if I didn’t he was gonna open his before me. I ignored his threat, he won’t do that, I know when he’s bluffing. Anyhow, I got a big square scrapbook, I never had a scrapbook before. On the cover it said, “Memories for PapPap”. That’s nice I thought, I wonder what I can put in it. Ashley told me to open it up there’s something inside. There were pages and pages of cut out pictures of them and the boys that they printed out and pasted them inside with some writing too. Ryan said to keep going that I could spend time later on to look at the pictures better. I did what he told me and after a whole bunch of pages there was a page that said, “Ryan and his Dad”. Ryan took pictures on our camping trip and some outside at the pool. Thankfully none of them were naked pool pictures! After those pictures were lots of empty pages for me to fill up for one day to pass on to my grandsons. I know I said thank you, I’m so sure I did while I put the book against my chest and just hugged it until Pops said was I ever planning on sharing the pictures with them. Maybe I will if he’s a good boy, hahah. I can laugh at that now.

Marc's Fig Jam present

Marcus couldn’t wait to open his present, maybe it was getting too heavy on his lap, anyhow he ripped off the paper and found a box of canning jars. I bet he thought those were the heaviest empty jars ever. But they were not empty, Ashley made him 12 jars of fig preserves herself. She said Ryan helped too, and that he told her how much Marcus loved fig jam but never could find any in the jam section of the store. Marc said that he couldn’t wait to taste it and maybe he might share some of it, but he might need to put them under lock and key. He might just do that I bet; I know how much he likes that kind of jam. He did open one to let everyone taste and he gave me two to hide somewhere so he’ll always have two more when his stash is gone. I now like fig jam too, maybe he shouldn’t have trusted me to not eat them myself. It’s nasty he’s making me go through that, after all she is my daughter-in-law, that ought to count for something, right? BTW, I decided to take a picture of what was left of the jar he let everyone taste and the two he gave me to hide on him. Like I gotta find a place to do that now.

They didn’t have anything for the uncles, maybe if they knew them or knew they would be here, they might have something for them. But they had a small box for Pops to open, it was a coffee mug with the boys picture on it and the words, “World’s Best Great-GrandPop.” Well they did have two more boxes to give us, I bet you know what was in them, we got cups with the kids pictures too, only mine said “World’s Best PapPap” and Marc’s was “World’s Best PopPop.” I guess they thought that each cup should be a different color so we could find our cup easy. I think we should pack up all the coffee cups in the kitchen and just put these in there. Ya, but the way we go through coffee here, we might wash off the pictures trying to keep the cups clean. Well maybe we can pack three cups away to make room for these instead.

Before you get really bored reading about this, I’ll tell you that we got the uncles and Pops the same things, really soft bathrobes like the kind you get on the cruise ships and slippers. Marc said we should have their names on the robes to make it personal, I thought that was a good idea, so we did. Maybe we should get our names on the robes we have. So far we just grab one when it’s cold after a shower, most of the time they just hang in the closet when the weather is warm.

TIME TO GET SOME FOOD IN OUR BELLIES

Santa told everyone that he had more stops to make yet, but he was hungry and wondered if we were hungry too. Maybe we should go to the kitchen and get something to eat. I just wondered who was gonna be on duty to make breakfast. That was planned out too for us, he just bought a lot of Danish sweet pastries, just what my Sweetbabes really needs. Maybe one day he can just relax from worrying about his diet, it’s gonna be back to normal around here soon anyway.

I did think it was cool that Pops was willing to stay as Santa Claus for little Noah and have some Danish and Christmas cookies with him; Pops can be his Great-GrandPop after Santa leaves us. I hope little Noah will have the memory of Christmas morning with Santa Claus and the rest of us too. I told everyone in the kitchen that I wonder how much an almost three-year old can remember forever. Pops was listening to what I said, and he was still in his Santa suit, he told us that he can remember lots of stuff from when he was little, even as a three-year-old. He said that he was three in 1943 and he missed his daddy because he was in the Navy during the war. He said they were living in Lawrence, Massachusetts where he was born and that his family didn’t move to California until 1950. Pops said that during the war his momma had to be both mom and dad, but he was around five when he understood more about that. Pops said that they didn’t have a lot of money or food available during the war, but he remembers the only presents were long stockings from Santa filled with the stuff he loved best of all. He remembered because he got them for a few years in a row. And then he said that Santa must have gone to California first because he got a couple of navel oranges from there, I loved them because they had no seeds inside and were so sweet. And Santa put some walnuts still inside the shell to fill the spaces and a couple of tiny metal soldiers, not plastic; that didn’t become available until he was a teenager. Pops finished his little story with how funny that he can’t remember what he ate yesterday, but he could remember so much from when he was so young.

TIME TO RETURN TO THE GREAT ROOM

Bill and Tony's Christmas Concert for us

After we all got something in our bellies and something to drink, our uncles said that maybe we should all meet around the Christmas Tree again, they have something planned for us there. Hey, I’m game, this has been a great morning. Pops and our uncles sure made Christmas as magical as they knew how, their kindness blew me away, but there was something else that Bill and Tony wanted to do for us yet. They planned a Christmas music concert as their gift for us. Bill brought his keyboard and amp, and had it set up behind the big Christmas tree where we didn’t notice it; at least I didn’t. Uncle Tony showed us that blowing a horn wasn’t the only musical instrument he was able to play; he brought and played his own guitar because he thought a loud trumpet might scare the little ones. I never even thought about what else he might know how to play in the band. 

They had some of the chairs in a circle in front of them and near the fireplace. That was important, that room is hard to heat quickly. Anyhow, us old guys sat on chairs, but Ryan and Ashley decided to sit cross-leg on the floor in front of us. Ryan turned around to ask me if I minded if he used my legs to save his back. I told him, “No prob, I wasn’t using my legs anyway.” I was trying to be funny about something that sounded so nice for a father and son to be comfortable doing. I got a good look at the top of his curly blond head and realize the only difference between us was no little bald spot staring back at me on his head like ours do. Ashley was using Ryan’s shoulder to rest her head on after he leaned back on my legs. Now all I could think about was moving my legs and not making him think I didn’t want him to do that. And then I thought about pee, but it didn’t want out yet; now I’m thinking about it. I had to have a little talk with my brain and told it to just shut the fuck up and stop thinking. It worked; I surprise me all the time now. 

After I had my little talk to myself, I looked over to Marc and didn’t want to say it out loud for the kids to hear me, so I just said with my lips, “Cool huh.” Marc shook his head ya, and then told Ashley if she wants to she could use his legs for her back. Ashley accepted with, “Thanks, maybe your legs won’t be as bony as his shoulder.” She giggled about that, but I don’t think she’s seen his legs yet, just thinking about that.

Noah was interested in everything going on just like a toddler would I guess. He tried putting his fingers on Bill’s keyboard while they were playing, but Bill smiled really big and let him do it too. But Noah had a train to visit and take off the tracks yet; the music almost covered the banging of the train on the floor. Don’t think that Pops didn’t notice any of that because he was sitting next to me and told me, “Look at the little guy, he likes the train best.” I agreed with him and told him thanks for thinking about a train, that I loved the train as much as my grandson does.

Anyhow, the great room made their music sound big and incredible and those were just quiet Christmas songs. They mostly played songs everyone kinda hears around this time of the year, but they had a few that Tony sang for us. He gave us some printed pages of song lyrics before they ever started playing so we could sing along with him if we wanted. Well we wanted and I think we sounded pretty good too, even Santa sang, and it sounded like he’s done some singing with them before. I don’t think I have a good voice, but I did try. At least I followed the words on the pages and kept up with everyone else. The kids seemed to know the songs because it didn’t look like they needed the pages as much as me.

I never even thought there would be music, oh I was sure that we’d have the Amazon Echo speakers playing some Christmas music all around the house, but live music from professional musicians was just so much more. If it was just the two of us watching the uncles playing one of us would be snuggling the other, probably me since I always love doing that with Marc. He does that too, don’t think he doesn’t. Because how we were sitting, we couldn’t do that, but Marc reach out to hold my hand the whole time. You know what, that was good enough because it helped me believe everything that was happening was real and not a dream to wake up from and be disappointed again.

We all had such a great time singing Christmas time songs, not just the regular Carrols I thought they would play for us. After we kinda got used to singing together, we started to sound much better, at least I think so. And go figure that’s when my son got a text message on his iPhone, not hard to miss the alert since he was sitting in front of me. He lifted the phone up to where I could see the screen, it had a picture of Ellen as the one sending the text to him. He told me that she texted him that they were wondering why we weren’t over there yet to open presents. Ryan looked over at his wife and then told us that they were so sorry, but they needed to go over to mom’s place. I told him not to be sorry, I bet they have planned something nice for you guys too. Actually, I never heard any of their plans for them, but she is his mom and they always got along. Of course Marc heard what was going on and told Ryan, “Why don’t you see what they have planned for dinner, maybe they’d like to spend it with all of us.” Ryan asked him if he was sure about that, and I told him, “Ya, Marc never says things he doesn’t mean.” We got an okay if that’s what you’d like to do and then before you knew it, all four of them were gone for a while. I had to interrupt our uncles for a minute when they finished the song they were playing when Ryan got the text. I told him we need to get the kids next door to open presents from his mom and Lisa. 

Tony asked if they should just call it quits on the music after the kids leave, and all three of us said together, “No!” They played a few more songs but I wasn’t feeling like singing anymore, so I just listened. I know Ellen needs her time with the kids, but it doesn’t mean I have to like that. I tried to keep it to myself, since Marc already was holding my hand again, he just squeezed it to tell me he knew what I was feeling inside. Ya, that happens a lot between us now.

AFTER THE KIDS LEFT FOR NEXT DOOR

I think everyone here will have great stories to tell one day about our first Christmas together. I guess it was time for Pops to be a part of the day and not just Santa Claus; he kinda asked me if it was going to be okay for him to put Santa Claus away for the day. I told him sure, that he was the best Santa ever, and he thanked me, he really was you know. But then I kinda hoped he’d trim back the long Santa beard he was able to grow in time, it’s starting to look like Bill’s long beard. I told him we don’t want little Noah to think that he was Santa, not for a long time yet. He agreed with me and said he’d shave it all off before he returned. I told him not to shave it all off please, he looks great in a beard, and I meant it too. He has a great thick beard just like me only my beard is curly not straight like theirs. Hell, everything on me is curly, I should be surprised that my dick didn’t turn out to be all curly like a pig’s tail; it’s the only thing not curly on me, hahah! I told him to just trim it like he’s been doing since he started growing it, and then Santa will be safe for another year. I’m pretty sure he’ll do that for me. Anyway as he left the room where we were talking, he turned to me and said, “If I’m gone too long, you might need to send one of my Elves in to help me!” I just automatically said, “Or me you know, I can help too.” He just gave me a big smile. Maybe I didn’t need to say anything, maybe he was just making a funny for me, it just kinda came outta me without thinking. After what he said to me, I knew it was just him being funny. He said, “Right, just another ass grab opportunity for you, huh.” And then he laughed a big Santa “ho ho ho!” as he left me for his room. 

Ya, I can’t say something that’s not really true, I love the dude so much to do that to him, I can’t let you believe he said that to me. Actually, the only thing real was the Santa laugh as he left me. Oh I did offer to help, that’s real, but the ass grab part just was in my head at the time and I kinda remembered thinking that when I started writing this section. I mean it coulda happened that way you know. I guess the towel accident we talked about before is stuck in my head for good, I mean he handled that situation so great. They call guys like Pops and Tony, “Sexy Senior Citizens” for a reason I guess. Although hands-down, Tony is the big winner there. I always thought sexy was how you looked on the outside, I was wrong, it’s on the inside and how you think. Okay now Marcus is gonna think he’s not sexy on the outside. He’s sexy all over, and inside too. Okay, Marc I hope that saves me! Now I realize I didn’t put Bill in there with them. Bill will get there one day, he’s just got lots of stuff he’s going through right now, sexy ain’t one of them yet. Since I seem to be off the holiday topic for a bit, I never thought I was sexy ever. I loved being married to Ellen, but she never made me feel sexy, not like Marcus does. That’s probably the biggest change I’ve gone through since living here with him. I know I’m sexy and I don’t mind letting some people know it too.

I hope I gave you a little idea of what it was like for us that morning, there was so much more but I should let Marcus have something to write about if he wants to next time. And there were so many moments that I want to keep just for myself if you don’t mind, like the presents Marc and me exchanged before leaving our room. I’m building new memories to fill the emptiness I have from losing so much of my memory years ago. Now I have my very own album to fill with new memories. I guess I’ll be printing out a bunch of pictures to paste in there now, that might be strange for me, looking at pictures in a book instead of my iPhone or iPad. I bet Marc and Pops would like to help me though.

CHRISTMAS DAY DINNER OUT

After a very big, complicated Christmas Eve dinner, I’d like to tell you that we couldn’t imagine what dinner would be like on Christmas Day for us. But I can’t say that, because we knew dinner was gonna be outta the house for sure! Or eat a lot of Christmas cookies, I hope there’s no leftover fish in the refrigerator, I didn’t think about that! Well Marcus made the suggestion about going for Asian Food because it’s his favorite and it’s getting to be mine lately too. And really guys, who wants to spend so much time making all that food and then cleaning it up all over again, eating out is the only sane thing to do. Well, thankfully everyone likes that kind of food, and fortunately, the restaurant is also in Granite Bay not that far from home, and they were open too. I think a lot of people like to eat Chinese Food on Christmas, because they were all packed in there, but we were smart enough to reserve the big round table for our gang. That gang included Ellen and Lisa; they were okay with going with us but wanted to drive the kids in their car, that was okay, we will take Pops and our uncles. We would have taken Marc’s crossover but it’s designed for two in the back seat, not three big guys. I suggested we use my truck instead even though it’s kinda tall and not easy to climb in. We had to help a couple of them up into the back seat, not telling you who, just saying a little push up on their butts got them in there! I don’t think my truck is gonna be a favorite with them after that. Oh well, what can I say, at least there was a lot of room once they were in. Now we have to worry how they are gonna get out of the truck.

Back to Ellen, she told me what they had planned for their Christmas dinner with them will hold for tomorrow, when the kids come over there. I knew we weren’t gonna have the kids all to ourselves, it was okay, besides you’re supposed to be nice at Christmas time or you get a lump of coal next time, right? Anyhow, I’m not sure exactly how Lisa is acting with the kids, I guess they’ll let us know if there’s a problem. I can tell you that Marcus has loved every minute with my kids and the babies, no wonder he’s being treated so nicely by them.

After our dinner out was over and we all returned home, our uncles had to pack up their gear and head to their place. Pops spent some time in the great room with them and helped them with the packing. I know Pops will miss them, we will too, but he’s probably gonna go up and visit them in Auburn soon. The guys are all tight buddies again now. My kids were still going to be out here until Thursday, so they can visit Ellen and Lisa a few times, but they will be sleeping here at night, it’s just gonna be easier for them to do that with the babies. Besides when they get back here and put the kids to sleep, we can talk and eat a ton of the Christmas cookies we made so poor old Marcus won’t have a fucking heart attack that we still have so many cookies still in the house. Knowing him, he’ll be packing them up in the box the fig jam came in to give to them to take home, I betcha!

Anyhow, the kids will leave for home sometime on Thursday morning; they have a good couple of days traveling time ahead of them maybe more with all the snow we had up in the mountains. And they have work the following week too. Ya, I remember work, that’s a nasty four-letter word around here now. I’m kidding, I’m still not so sure about retiring so young yet, we’ll see one day.

WRAPPING IT UP FINALLY

I’m going to leave some stuff for Marc to write about if he wants to, I don’t want to write about the kids leaving for home, it wasn’t a good time for me or them. I’m sure they would love to be back home for New Years Eve with their friends or whatever they like to do. One day I will want to write about the emptiness you feel when the people you love need to leave for their own homes far away. I think that can wait for a while. For now I just want to be held by my Sweetbabes and remember every little detail of every little moment we had together. 

I know I’m trying hard to wrap this up and then another memory hits me, like the time I asked Ashley if I could change baby Liam’s diaper, don’t even ask why, I just did and she said, “Sure, be my guest dad!” I did, but she watched over me and kinda coached me too. But I did it! Ya, sure did and I lucked out too, it was only a wet diaper he was fussing about; I have no idea how I’d handle a number two diaper, probably just hand the baby back to Ashley! Later on when I was bragging to the guys what I just did, it made Pops remember the time he got to change little Al’s, whoops he meant Marc’s, (Pops is trying to honor my request of using our new names but slips sometimes), diapers at the times when he and his wife were babysitting him. Now I can say I have changed a diaper too. That’s probably silly to write about, but it’s my memory to own and I have a special memory book now to put it in. I even took a picture with my iPhone so I can print it out and paste it in there. The biggest complaint I can see coming my way, I took the picture when his diaper was off, man you sure can tell he’s a boy. I bet he’s gonna love seeing that picture when he’s a teenager, hahah. Ryan was listening to me bragging about changing a diaper and told us that little Noah is totally potty trained now, but still wears training pants for accidents because when he has to go, it’s right now! I told him I was with him once when that happened, but he had time to use the potty to sit on. I laughed because he tried to stand up and pee but isn’t tall enough yet. Ryan told me that he let’s Noah see him pee standing up if he’s around so it’s like a natural thing for him to do. I said so that’s where he got that from, that’s so cute. Maybe next time you are outside you could teach him to water a bush and I laughed. Maybe that’s not such a bad idea, huh? Anyhow, maybe the next conversation I’ll have with Ryan will be about both boys being left natural. They sure as hell won’t match their father or grandfathers or uncles down there. I figured I’d try to work it into a conversation with him sometime, like that’s gonna be easy to do, hahah. Anyhow it kinda figures that I don’t remember having a choice when Ryan was born, he got snipped just like everyone here. All except my friend Joe, but he’s in a whole different ball park anyway so that don’t count.

Okay, enough silly stuff I guess, maybe after the kids are long gone from here, the old horn dog in me will come back next time I write, you could only hope. I have to learn how to make a scrapbook now, I’m heading to YouTube when I get done here. You can learn everything there. 

Love you guys still reading this; I hope you all have a way better New Year in case this one sucked for you!

Larry

itslarrybro@gmail.com

Here is a link to the next posting:

https://brosgonerogue.blogspot.com/2023/02/ch-89-so-whats-sexy-anyway.html