The End of the Christmas Season

I have been pretty busy the last few days.

I took my dogs up to my parents house on Thursday evening. They always love going there and when I am ready to take them, I love to just say “who wants to go to the lake”? That phrase, more than any other produces a frenzy in my house that just cracks me up. The dogs snap to attention and then start running around the living room in circles while making excited dog noises. In the car on the way there, they jump up and down the whole way like kids on the way to DisneyLand. It always makes me laugh.

Friday evening was the Russian Christmas Eve dinner with the family which is fun. We did the trational dinner on Dec 24th too but it still was nice to repeat it again on the actual holiday. Russians still celebrate Christmas on Jan 7th. When I was a child, my grandparents did Christmas on the 7th and refused to celebrate on December 25th. I honestly used to believe that there were two Santas. There was the regular Santa who brought presents to everyone but there was also a special Santa: Russian Santa who brought presents on January 7th to all the little Russian children who also, luckily for ME, also brought presents to half Russian children who lived in the United States.

So...this year Russian Santa kind of made a return but in the form of a bald man visiting from San Francisco who brought gifts of Scharffenberger Cocoa Nips. I spent Russian Christmas with good old verlaine and his family and kate too. His family is sooooo fun. I had such a good time. We had glorious dinner of the best take-out fried chicken I have ever had. Then we sat around and opened presents from verlaine and kate. And we talked and talked until late in the evening. Good times.

And today? A movie and lunch with my friend Andee. Life is good.