27 DEC 25

Heavy mist stamped on cool dark earth that morning... heavy enough to obscure the Missouri as we cross over to St. Charles County for Christmas Number Five...

It's a merry pop of activity throughout the morning and afternoon with all present except for Z&M over in the Czech Republic... of brunch casseroles and mounds of gifts including "Jane Eyre" and Fiestaware in Scarlet and there are tile games and LEGO builds and shrimp and lamb and pizza and dill pickle salad and three kinds of homemade cookies and laughing with minimal yelling between all cousins...

Slide back home again with two of my crew while Oxbear and Yali hang out longer in that same silent mist...

Patience is sprawled next to me in her oldest brother's antique art camp tee and cheetah-print shorts and her new fuzzy pastel zipped hoodie hair still wet from the shower eating chocolate cake sent back from Nana out of a disposable casserole pan watching “The Middle”... in an explosion of PS4 controllers and boffer swords paint tubes cement glue wads of masking tape and more LEGOS that is the face of Christmas break...