Update for Everyone VI: What Is and What Should Never Be

[Badger]

Grandma is still in the hospital and still doing better. She'll have to go to rehab to get her strength back and then she's staying for at least a month (hopefully permanently) at my aunts. She's been going through severe nicotine withdrawals in there, but she's going to give up smoking after a 50 year habit. She's breathing on her own and they've got her on antibiotics to clear up the pneumonia. I still can't believe how far from the edge she's come - a Christmas miracle for sure!

This of course means that I too will have to quit smoking. I'm waiting to after the New Year though, since she'll still be in some form of care until mid January.

Hope your grandma continues to get better!

[Badger]

My kids are 9 and 7 and, to my shame, have never woken up in their own beds on Christmas before. We've always gone to my family's in Pittsburgh for Christmas Eve, or once to my in-laws in western Ohio. This year was a long overdue change. My youngest still believes in Santa, and the older to my surprise said he "gets" that all the Santa's in the malls etc. aren't real, but that there's only one "real" Santa. I honestly don't know if he's just humoring us. Yes, he's that bright.

Anyway, it was heaven on earth to have the kids come downstairs and see all the presents under the tree and love opening them. My parents came in for a bona-fide goose and stuffing dinner (plus a dish of briyani with duck eggs--God my wife can cook). And creamed spinach like we had the one time we ate at Delmonico's. And I made gin punch like the Cratchits had (according to a recipe I found on line).

My kids of their own volition--ok, influenced by their father's love bordering on obsession with A Christmas Carol--put on their own production of the story for my parents (well, at least for Marley's ghost and the Ghost of Christmas Past. They didn't have time to prepare the rest and forgot after our dinnertime break). Based on the George C. Scott version and the English Musical "Scrooge!", we played both 20 Questions and The Minister's Cat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Nh7tXEX00

Yeah, a damned fine Christmas.

[Badger]

My first time posting in this thread, but this was too cool to pass up. For visiting my sister-in-law and her husband in the DC area where they both have jobs with the military. My sister's husband has a pretty awesome job where he reports directly to the Head of J5 on The Joint Chiefs of Staff which base was charged of developments in Latin America. Anywho, we're visiting their new home in Arlington which is really awesome and we are literally about 10 yards away from their neighbor's house which is, no kidding, where Aldrich Ames lived and did all his spy work from during the 80s. She's happy that she finally mentioned this to someone who is geeky enough about history to know who and what that means, and I of course have a forum of similar Geeks that I couldn't wait to share that information with!

[Badger]

you know what's hilarious? old bitter people are always giving me looks for being upbeat in public lmao

Everywhere I go I make sure to smile and sound upbeat because these old ass people who are always angry and aggressive because THEY made irresponsible and stupid decisions in their life that brought them to their present condition think no one else should be happy and it pisses them off so much when I act upbeat, because I'm not going to suffer for their irresponsible behavior lol

People hate happy geese.