2023

Year's End

For Christmas I decorated my house all in blue lights
which I tell people is because my Christmas gives me the blues

My birthday, December 22nd, fell on a Friday and my sister Beth and her husband Mark treated me and my brother David to dinner at the Korean Barbeque restaurant.  It was a nice experience with the four of us sitting in a booth with a sunken grill in the middle in which you grill your own food.  After dinner we walked out to our cars where Mark gave me a birthday present of a cordless power tool set which he said was in appreciation for all the work that I had done for him on their lake house.

On Christmas Eve the family and friends gathered at my niece (Mark and Beth’s daughter) Coral’s house for dinner, which was very nice.  They all gathered again on Christmas day at Zack’s house where Beth and Mark have been staying since their house burned down two years ago but I didn’t go as they were all exchanging gifts, and I haven’t done gift giving in many years so I just stayed home and enjoyed the solitude.

The year ended as it had started with Brenda and Tom visiting. The Wednesday after Christmas Brenda and Tom arrived from North Carolina and planned to stay several days with me and have a 50th wedding anniversary party at my house the coming Saturday.  Brenda and Tom’s were married on my birthday in 1983 at Westside Baptist Church here in Gainesville.  We spent Thursday and Friday preparing for the party which was from one to four on Saturday.  On Saturday David was the first to arrive around 12:45 then promptly at 1 pm our nephew Josh showed up.  Beth wasn’t feeling well so she did not come but Mark and his kids Zack and Coral with her kids came.  Brenda said she had invited around 20 people, mostly family and friends that had come to her wedding, so we were expecting more to arrive but by three in the afternoon no one else had showed up then Dan Mixson and his wife Judy arrived.  By four when it was to be over no one else showed up and Josh was the last to leave.  Brenda was disappointed, not even our childhood friend Janice who was in the wedding and lives in the area.  On the positive side we had lots of shrimp, cheese and fruit left over which we ate over the following days.

New Years Eve was on Sunday the 31st so Brenda and Tom went to church picking up David on the way.  They went to Westside Baptist Church, the church they got married in 50 years ago, but the church is at its new location and was not much the same as it was when they got married.  After church they met Dan and Judy for lunch at 43rd street deli.   While they were at church, I began preparations for dinner.  I had bought a small ten-pound turkey when they were on sale at 99¢ a pound and prepped the turkey and dressing which I put in the oven early afternoon so it would be ready around 5:30.  David had given me a jigsaw puzzle of Van Gough’s Northwest Starry Night last year and so Brenda and I started putting it together in the afternoon.  David came around 5 o’clock for dinner and stayed for New Years Eve which we watched the Dick Clark New Years show on TV until ten PM when we opened a bottle of champagne that I had got. (I knew we would not make it until midnight).  After the round of champagne, David went home, then Brenda, Tom and I stayed up until 11 and then went to bed reasoning that it was midnight and the new Year somewhere in the world. I had also planned to go to bed but did a bit of seated yoga in front of the TV for a bit when my cats Buddy and Alley came out wanting attention.  They had been hiding in my bedroom since Brenda and Tom arrived with their dog Books. By 11:30 to went to bed with the cats following me.  You know you are getting old when you can’t stay up until midnight.

2024