Christmas for me began a few days ago when my Christmas present from Betty arrived.  A box of a dozen perfect pears from Dave and Harry.  She enrolled me in the fruit of the month club.  I am  fresh fruit addict.  I start with a bowl of fruit consisting of a half an apple, and small orange, and a few grapes with my breakfast every morning and I munch on fresh fruit throughout the day.  So it was a perfect gift and fit just right.

This afternoon for Christmas dinner I made my signature rare roast beef and grilled carrot halves, potato slices, and Portabello mushroom slices on the stove top grill.  It was done just in time to watch A Christmas Story on television.  I watch it every year.  It's a compellation of several of Jean Sheperd's short stories he wrote for Playboy (sandwiched between the artful photographs) and later the collection was published as a book called In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash.  If you like a Christmas Story you'll love the book.

Watched what happens when you stick you tongue on a frozen flagpole.  Watched Scut Farcas get his comeuppance.  Saw Ralphie get his mouth wash out with soap  for using the F word.  Laughed when he choked up telling Santa he wanted an Official Red Ryder Carbine BB-Gun with a compass and sundial on the stock and get told he'd shoot his eye out.

Then when Ralphie open his premier gift and got his Red Ryder BB-Gun and started outside to try it out Betty walked in with the phone and said, "Your Granddaughter wants to talk to you."  So I missed Ralphie shooting his eye out and breaking his glasses and playing the icecycle card and the Bumpass dogs stealing their Christmas turkey and having Christmas dinner in a Chinese restaurant and the staff singing, "Deck the halls with boughs of horry, fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra."

But granddaughters have priority over everything.  The Queen of England.  The President of the United States.  And even your commanding officer.  Especially when they're the mother of your great grandson and two great grand daughters.   We had a nice chat.

My granddaughter and I have a special relationship.  Almost a bonding.  When she was born her mother was down with the flue.  So they quarantined her new daughter from her for a few days until there was no danger of infecting the baby.

I was working as a development engineer at the time and I took off early every afternoon and went to the hospital to visit my daughter.  And when they announced for all the new mothers to line up at the nurse's station to get the bottles to feed their babies I would get in line with all those ladies in their slipper and bathrobes.  I'd pick up a bottle and a nurse would lead me into the room where the isolettes and incubators were.  I sat down in the rocking chair and the nurse would take Havana out of her bassinet and place her in my arms and I would feed her.  Maybe there was kind of a bonding there.

Ya know?  On second thought, it was a perfect Christmas after all.

Noel

 

That was a Christmas !!!!

Thx for sharing :-)

That's awesome... really nice!

Cute story!! And even your topic's spelling was almost perfect!