Christmas Morning Excitement, Afternoon Quiet…

Winter Holiday Village (Photo credit: Mairead Fitzgerald)

 

Christmas morning. Up early and down the eleven miles to our son and his wife’s place for breakfast and to watch the two grandsons open their gifts from Santa. It’s always a hectic flurry of excitement as the wrapping is removed in record time and what’s inside is quickly  shuffled aside to make way for the next one. When this routine is finished, everyone goes their separate ways to attend to whatever plans are at hand for the rest of the day.

 

As it turns out, the son and wife and the two grandsons will be going to one of her aunt’s for a large family gathering and dinner and more hubbub for the rest of the day. The wife and I are home and enjoying the quiet and warmth of our home. No place to go and no place we want to go! I have writing to do, blog posts to update, and some much-neglected reading I want to fit in. The stereo plays some nice Christmas music while I work here, and our dinner of ham cooks slowly out in the kitchen (Its wonderful aroma is very tantalizing already!).

 

I’m not sure if it’s another sign that I’m getting older, but I have been looking forward to this after-the-gift-opening time very much. True, I love my kids and grandsons, but I don’t feel one bit guilty for savoring this peaceful time–just the wife and me–and time to do what we want to do today! I really don’t mind being left to my own thoughts and tasks on this Christmas Day.

 

I think of family and friends who are spread out all across this country, and I wonder if they are having a nice day as well. I wish for them much peace and happiness in whatever way they are celebrating this day. I hope their day will be as nice as mine has been so far: Morning excitement and anticipation full of smiles and loud voices; Afternoon and evening quiet and restful. Merry Christmas…CortlandWriter

 

Quiet and Alone (Photo credit: IzaD™)

 

Thanksgiving Week…my favorite!

Weber on fire (Photo credit: brendonjford)

Well, we’ve reached my favorite holiday of the year, and not just the day (Thanksgiving), but the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday leading up to it and the Friday and weekend that follows it. Over the years it has become a special time here at our home, first for many, many years in Naperville and now out here in the countryside of northern Illinois.

I can’t remember the last time I spent Thanksgiving at some other relative’s house. It has always been here at ours, mainly because we love doing it every year and our location puts us between the folks who live in Ohio and Nebraska.

As the years have wound and twisted along, we’ve watched the kids (ours and my sisters’) grow from little ones into “married-with-their-own-kids” people! The fun and tradition–usually full of laughter and all sorts of nonsense–has been a staple here year after year.

Some years have been fully attended; others have been minus some. Now that the younger kids have grown, married, and moved to their various places on the map, it isn’t as easy getting everyone back the way it was when we were all younger. But time marches on, and our Thanksgiving Week is getting into full swing tomorrow (Wednesday).

The turkeys have been thawing in the fridge and the first one, a twenty-two pounder, will get going on the Weber charcoal kettle early tomorrow. I’ll get up and do a smaller (fifteen pounds) on Thursday morning. There will be, it goes without saying, plenty of wonderful turkey for the dinner and those tasty sandwiches later on! There will be lots of cold beer to enjoy in the garage–our sanctum–and many a tale and yarn will be spun with those around us.

Meanwhile, I have accumulated over 30,000 words on my novel for the NaNoWriMo project. Shooting for a completed 50,000 word novel by the 30th of this month. I’m feeling good about it, even though I’m fighting for every piece of “writing time” between now and then. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the days ahead and savor the turkey and the goodness of family and friends who will begin gathering tomorrow.

Metra train No. 1292 arrives at Naperville station (a bit late) on this late Tuesday afternoon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Happy Thanksgiving to you, readers!…CortlandWriter