25 DEC 25

We're not even to gifts yet that morning and Yali is already giving a punch-by-punch slice-by-slice of his own version of a horror film for me...

Twenty minutes later it's breakfast casserole around the Christmas tree and stacks of bento boxes and costume pieces and survival kits and vintage gumball machines and a hand-me-down PS4 from “Uncle G”... even Justin the snake gets a hand-carved tunnel from a discarded branch off the wind-downed tree still partly hanging out in the backyard... and after an hour of gnawing down the beef stick Patience bought for the dog's gift... she has exhausted herself into a nap under the dinner table...

Remainder of the morning is crashing into projects and viewings and Oxbear stirring a pot of homemade frothy hot chocolate on the stove...

Late afternoon is Number Three Christmas at the Big House where most of the extended crew is chowing down on sandwiches and dip and little smokies and Patience's leftover chocolate cake...

Tiny cousins are zooming around with two-headed dragon action figures and blowing air into empty Mrs. Butterworth's bottles and commenting on the “yucky” factor of sand in the sandbox... “AND I WILL SEND HIM TO THE DUNGEON AND OFF WITH HIS HEAD!” young T declares with maybe some cackle... and something about vomit... as Elmer waves him down with an... “Okay T... people are eating”...

The gift tower is then slowly dismantled over the next hour... from glitter bath bombs to buffalo art... on a day more spring than snow...