Road Trip Ronin

The Christmas festivities continued yesterday with the traditional trip up to my hometown to enjoy an evening of friendship at the Keene Friend’s house.  This is a party that grew out of a tradition at my house the day after Christmas.  When my mother became infirm and eventually passed away we transferred the party to his house and it’s become an indelible part of the holiday season for my family ever since.

Since Hollywood decided to release nearly all of its high powered December movies in the last few days we had to schedule a movie as well.  We took in The 47 Ronin which was billed as a Keanu Reeves vehicle but is so much more.  He’s really just a supporting character and seemingly added to appeal to the Western audience.  This is apparently a very old and honored story from Japan about samurai who were treacherously betrayed and fought back to restore their honor. 

There’s some heavy CGI work here with some obvious literary license taken; unless there were eight eyed, elephant sized beasts in feudal Japan along with witches who could transform into dragons.  The detail and pageantry of ancient Japan is breathtaking and the battle scenes are among the best ever made.  The problem is trying to shoe horn in a love story (with Keanu of course) which slows the pace down when it shouldn’t.  My wife hated the ending but it is line with the warrior ethos (bushido) of the samurai, so appropriate, if a little heart rending (literally).

The drive up to Keene was a little more adventuresome than we planned with a few inches of snow thrown down to make the roads a mite slick.  We were not to be denied though.  I wanted to take my son in law, who’s become something of a beer aficionado, to visit the Elm City Brewery which is one of my favorite haunts in Keene. The last few times he’s joined me in Keene I’ve made him climb Mount Monadnock so I felt I owed him an easier visit.  We were joined by my son and the MEF who were also coming to the party.

At The Elm City Brewery Son, MEF, Me, Son in Law

My favorite bartendress was not on duty but it was fun sharing the place with my kids.  We had to stand because there wasn’t any room at the bar but that was almost better because if made conversations easier.  My wife stated she only had to swing by TJ Maxx and return one purchase and she should beat up back to the Keene Friend’s house (righttttttt!!!!)

One Side of the Gathering

My son in law liked the place and we both were able to cast aspersions on my son’s slow approach to beer drinking which he took well.  During the drive back to Keene Friend’s house I was able to point out the legendary establishments that formed the Pub Crawl itinerary.  In a huge surprise my wife had not been able to extricate herself from TJ Maxx and was absent when we arrived.

The party was everything it should be, my family and a bunch of friends from high school and their families just sitting around and catching up.  The Cantankerous One showed up and immediately tried to argue about why he was labeled as cantankerous.  He provided instantaneous and irrefutable proof as to the accuracy of his appellation, which he seems to stake a sort of perverse pride in.  My wife finally appeared and eventually landed a couple of well aimed blows upon his head and shoulders.

There were a total of four members from my high school class at the party and another one was phoned in from Pittsburgh.  The Cantankerous One mentioned that one of the dream girls from our class had commented on Facebook that she wanted to be invited to the next time we got together.  I was volunteered to make the call and of course woke her up as she was gearing up for an early morning rise to go skiing.  She has entirely too much energy as she climbed Monadnock the day before Christmas and makes the rest of us middle aged laggards look bad.  She was a good sport about the telephoned invite and promised to join the next pub crawl.

Keene Friend on left, Wife in White next to my son, MEF Waving Seated Next to My Daughter

The night ended far too soon but since we (or I should say my wife) had a long drive ahead on the snow packed roads we declared victory and headed home.  We had to say our final Christmas farewells to the MEF and son who went their own way.  My wife handled the drive home very adroitly for someone who usually refuses to even contemplate driving in the snow.  Too much fun.