a lovely Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we had about 10 hours of steady rain. hobbitt and I dashed out in the late evening to give the dog a bit of exercise, as it sounded as though the rain had begun to abate.

Which it had, just in front of the next onslaught. We got soaked - soaked as in our winter coats were soaked through and our shirts were wet. But dammit, the dog got walked.

Today? Sunshine. The Pandammys joined us for a holiday brunch. The menu: champagne cocktails, fruit salad, a salad of tender greens with my own Dijon vinaigrette, and a breakfast strata of mushrooms, sausage and jack cheese, plus a dessert of cranberry bread. It was mellow. Mrs. P made us some beautiful glass garden ornaments. After brunch we took the four-leggeds down to the beach for a long walk. It was doggie heaven down there - at one point, there were six labs and lab mixes running around like mad dogs, and our Inti (who's come a long way in her understanding of doggie ways) and the P's two cocker spaniels were in the thick of it.

Our evening walk was dryer than last night. And there was a scruffy camper parked down at the beach. It's the same camper that got a visit from the local sheriff earlier in the week. The guy is kind of wild-looking, but not threatening, and I've heard he's polite. Evidently it's not a rolling meth lab. But he's trespassing here, and that creeps me out a bit. I thought about taking the license plate number but decided what the heck, it's Christmas. If the guy needs a place to park, as far as I'm concerned, the beach is okay for tonight. I know if he's there tomorrow when the morning dog walkers meet (about 6:30), they'll make sure the sheriff knows.

We've opened one gift each. The remainder are still under the altar table. I don't think we'll be getting to them tonight. Typical. There was one year where the gifts sat unopened until the New Year. I guess we've reached the point in our lives where we can be pretty self-indulgent, and Christmas doesn't have quite the anticipation that it has in the past. I don't know how to fix that, or if it really matters.

So that's our Christmas. And though I missed my sisters (and talked briefly with my brother) it was a pretty good day. I hope you had a lovely holiday, too. Maybe some day you'll spend it with us. Cheers!