Christmas 2024

Saturday I woke up and made us some green chili cheese omelette with hash browns. We cleaned and got ready. We had a full day. Make tamales with her parents and my mother. Yes, my mother was joining us this year. It was a good 4 hours of labor and it was fun. The times flies and they did turn out great. I love this new tradition.

That night the kids came over and lola put together a play pin for Alaya. Teegan and I but mostly Teegan changed out some door handles. My interior house had no locks and I knew they would like locks for their rooms. I made an attempt to change the locks but my eyes are terrible and I could not see what kind of bit I needed. His youthful eyes could help. For the most part it went rather smoothly. We watched some movies and it was a good night.

The Grinch. I had never seen this version and it is now my favorite. What was I missing. Such a beautiful film with such an age old classic story. I couldn’t believe I had never seen this version.

The Ice Harvest. this is a dark Christmas movie and one of my mother’s and my favorites. It’s a crime movie. A mob lawyer decides to steal 2 million from his boss on Christmas Eve. It doesn’t work out that well. It’s a good story with a great cast and some real laughs. Just good fun. Not all Christmas movies need to be wholesome.

Sunday Yvette and I got right on the painting again. We got in a groove and lost complete track of time. She had things to do. I decided to meet my mother for lunch and we had a nice visit. I ran a few errands after and went right back to the painting. I also changed the door knob on our bedroom while I was at it. I think I finished the doors. I went to my mother to drop off our frozen wedding cake and I went back to the house for more painting. It was a productive day.

The start of the holiday leave. Since we are all off work I had a painter coming over to do a small job for us, paint the closet door. I’m sure we could have done it but it would have been a tedious sucker. I wanted a professional and I found a guy for a good price. What was suppose to be a short job wasn’t so simple for him. It took much of the day forcing me to find things to do around the house.

My first task was clean my closet. I needed to sort through my shirts. I had way too many that never would see the light of day. It’s hard for me because I Ford shirts. I have memories with so many. When I was finished I freezer up a lot of space. At least 75 shirts to send to a thrift store for someone else to enjoy.

Next I worked in my eBay store. I found a lot of very old Nintendo NES & SNES games from the 80s and 90s. I posted about 15 games and some I had offers within 30 min. Working on the store probably took about an hour. You have to research the prices to make sure you don’t ask for too low.

Next up was yard work. I fixed a few loose fence pickets, partial stump removal and I decided to take and bag leaves. It was a beautiful day so what better time. Not like I could go anywhere and it needed to be done. I cleaned up really good. I’m sure glad leaves are only a few times a year.

With that done I proceeded to organize and clean up my garage. This was in serious need. It was driving me made how nothing was arranged by type. So I made an electric section, plumbing section, paint section, carpenter section, automotive section, irrigation section and tool sections. This will help me greatly. I also cleared up space by tossing junk away. Out of sight out of mind for way too long.

Completed, I worked on cleaning out our cleaning/entry closet. It was a mess. I threw a bunch of empty or mostly empty products away and cleaned the hell out of it. It was scary. Once that was done and I had what was useful left, I organized. It looked like a new closet. I was impressed. This closet was a mess from my ex wife and I never got around to it. I didn’t want to. It now looks great. Yvette will be impressed.

The painter finally finished the job and it looked great. I felt bad because the extra time he required wasn’t his fault. It was the paint he was painting over. I understood because I had painted the doors the day before and it wasn’t an easy task. I gave him a little extra money and got his card for work in the future.

It was a long day stuck at home but I accomplished much.

Christmas Eve!! I woke up and made myself some coffee and French toast. I went to drop off my clothes to a thrift store and ran some final Christmas errands. The grocery store mainly. I also made some hot sauce for the Christmas Eve Tamale feast. Yvette brought me a LOT of meat so I spent some time vacuum sealing most of it. The roast was too big.

After that I ran some groceries out to my moms and then I. Headed home to get ready. Christmas Eve candle light service. This was my first time to go to Yvette’s church with her and my first Baptist candle lighting. To be Frank’s, it was the first church service I had attended in. About 10 years, at least. It was fun and different and I told Yvette I would go with her on Christmas Eve. A new tradition. She was rather shocked when I told her I wanted to go. I think it made her happy.

I went out to my mother’s to enjoy the tamales that we made on Saturday. It was just her, my brother and I. We also made queso and my mom cooked beans for 6 hours. We had drinks, per usual. My mom made a few martinis. I had some scotch and beers. We watched Bad Santa. Had to work that into Christmas. Haha. What a terribly great hard R rated Christmas movie. This was followed with Die Hard. A family tradition started Christmas Eve with my father years and years ago. It must be honors. It was a nice Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas. Busy busy. We woke up and opened presents with the kids. Next I ran to my mother’s for tradition, chocolate and biscuits. After that I went to Yvette’s parents for Christmas lunch and some more presents and football. I was the only Kansas Chiefs fan and they won. After that I went to my mom’s again to help cook dinner. Yvette and the kids came over around 6-7 for some dinner. My diabetes was bad and it was a rollercoaster ride but I had a pretty damn good day. I was exhausted when I made it home.

The following day we were all lazy and didn’t want to get out of bed, but we had to. We had one more Christmas at her parents to be with her brother and his family. He had to work on Christmas Day so he had to make up. Sucks for him to be working and away from the family on that special day. It comes with being a firefighter. They’re mad some Caldo and it was just what I needed. My tummy was a little off from all the rich foods and my diabetes was still out of whack. It was yummy.

I went out to my mom’s after that for a little while. I suppose it was about 3. I was suppose to meet my brother and an old high school friend that I had not seen in a long damn time. He went a little early, I waited. I didn’t want drinks at 3. I did eventually go and I had a good time. It was nice to catch up and talk about the old days. Talk about what everyone else is doing. Have you seen so and so. All good fun. All the same, I was talking to my wife. I do miss her when I am not with her. I think that is a good thing.

After that I went to my mothers for leftovers and hung out a while. I went home. Lola had a “friend” come over. I applaud that. It was another great day. I must say the moth of December was fast. I loved Christmas this year but I also was very happy it was over.

Friday was here. I have no idea how the hell a week went by. I went and had keys made for the kids and I painted. Damn the painting. Window and trim. I’m over painting. I tried to keep Yvette on the phone most of the time. I needed company. I pretty much did the room all on my own except for a day of doors. My mom gave me a little call letting me know that my youngest brother and his family would be in town in about an hour and I lost track of time and was still late to see the kids. They were waiting on me to open their presents form Yvette and I. The Mario & Luigi Lego’s were a hit. So were the many Vaders that Jackson got. Good fun. After the presents we went to eat. Yvette took a break from her Elf hunt mission to join us. In the end she found the elf. It was a success story. I went BACK to my mother’s after dinner and hung out for a little while longer. After my mother’s I painted some more. Damn the painting. It was a very busy week and I have to say that I am exhausted. I sure hope everyone had a very great Christmas! I never saw Elf or Love Actually. Merry Christmas!!

Jalapeño. Lots of food for the holidays.

Lobster mac n cheese.

BRUNCH!! Japanese breakfast with steamed rice, steak and a sunny side egg.

Chicken street tacos.

BRUNCH!!! Chorizo potato hash.

Yvette made Junk Chicken.

BRUNCH!!! French toast.

We ate the tamales made on Saturday. I had one with queso, another with my homemade hot sauce and the last with some hot sauce my brother brought home. Good meal. My diabetes didn’t agree.