So It Begins

Surviving the lonely Thanksgiving is one thing but it also marks the start of my absolute favorite season of the year, that of course, being Christmas. My Favorite Panamanian and I set out on Saturday to buy the Christmas tree because we only do natural. I think I am one of the few last holdouts within the family to forsake artificial trees for the real thing. There’s just something about the smell of pine sap that signals Christmas is coming. In a major, and I mean on a cosmic scale, surprise my wife was happy with the very first tree we saw. This is truly unprecedented territory, worthy of enshrining the date in shopping history.

My Favorite Beachgoer

FBR and Buddies at the Shore

We traveled back to our old Charlton haunts to buy the tree which brought with it the attendant nostalgia. We drive by the old house which reminded us we’ve been gone for nearly five years now with the trees we planted now towering. There are lot of great memories at that house. It was where we first met both Wingman and the ABFA and site of too many parties to adequately chronicle. I specifically did not look at the driveway from hell because that was the beast that convinced me to move.

A Pandemic Family Outing

The Gang

I guess my wife’s unprecedented shopping decisiveness led me to make a rookie mistake by allowing her to accompany me to Home Depot on the way home. Shopping with my wife is not for the faint of heart and it proved her earlier velocity was indeed an aberration. I went in thinking I was only picking up a couple strands of lights but we were there for a full hour and a half. We left with an impressive collection of additional items, including a yard sized nativity scene. My wife has never met a nativity scene that she doesn’t want. I thought I was in luck when the only one available was the display set. That was until I saw one of the Home Dept employees mounting a ladder to take the display set apart and handing it down to my wife. So it goes.

FBR Beaching It

We’ve established clear hierarchy when it comes to Christmas decorating, well, it’s the same for any kind of house decorating outside the Man Cave. I perform any actions requiring brute force and ignorance while my wife does everything else. I think it has something to do with my complete lack of a sense of style. I sawed off the tree stump and got the tree up and then lugged the various boxes of decorations up from the basement to equip her for the task at hand. I then beat a hasty retreat to the Man Cave before she could ask me for an opinion which she would then summarily ravage.

The Tree Awaiting My Wife's Attentions

Sunday meant football in the afternoon so I was out in the yard early that morning. I positioned the new Nativity Set (with some close supervision) and then set about getting all the other external lighting projects arranged. Since it was a fairly warm day my Favorite Panamanian stayed out there and came up with her usual dozen or so good ideas on how we should modify things. I rangered on to get my part done ahead of kickoff and got the arcane electrical connections set up. I really missed having access through the still defunct garage door. After we finished with that my wife forbid turning anything on until her various side projects were finished.

FBR Also Met a New Dog 

Which She Proudly Proclaimed Really Liked Her

I slunk down to the Man Cave just in time for the game while my wife continued her decorating deliberations upstairs. At half time I came up to find she had asked various friends about her ideas and learned that they didn’t like her choice of white lights for the tree so she was rethinking the part she had already finished. Luckily half time was only ten minutes long and I had a ready excuse to retreat again before she engaged me as a target of opportunity.

My Latest Puzzle Completed - The DUKE!!!!

The rest of the family were likewise involved in Christmas decorating. BR3 acquired her first ever cold and proved to be a real trooper. The BRS has decided she’ll throw an absolute melt down anytime she is thwarted which, for a two year, happens regularly. The FBR headed to the Jersey shore with her parents and the other kids in her day care bubble. It turned out to be a magical day at the beach as they picnicked with the other families and felt the joy of escaping the confines the pandemic has imposed. It’s weird that even a trip to the grocery store is now something to look forward to simply to get out of the house.

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RECURRING CHARACTERS                                            

BR3 – granddaughter #3, BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter, ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law; Wingman – my son in law; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd musquetera (musketeer); Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; PanaGals – female relatives /friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member, Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in Brooklyn