It is Christmas day in the Beck/Anderson household. The day started well, I slept until almost 5:00 AM, not bad for me lately, some fresh coffee, and about 6:00, I was lobbied hard for a walk by Tate. Today, Garrett didn’t join us, so Tate got a 3.2 mile walk in. That should tire him out!
Since the boys aren’t too kind to trees, we don’t do a lot of internal decorating, and we never really got into the habit of really hanging lights when we lived in Arizona. However, we finally have a house, in a neighborhood, and it already has hooks, and an outdoor outlet for lights, so we did some decorating.
After Christmas, we will buy more strings of lights, as they go on sale, so next year will certainly be more elaborate, but this is a start.
Without kids, Christmas morning is rather sedate, we are sitting here, sipping coffee, listening to classic Christmas songs on Pandora. The station is pretty kick ass. Later, I will toss up my Merry Axemas and Ho Ho Hoey! playlists, but for now, this is quite relaxing.
As money is a bit tight, we didn’t buy a lot of gifts this year, but our big splurge was having some landscaping done. The southern edge of our back yard is perpetually in shade. That means even in the depths of Summer, there is about a 3 foot strip that is perpetually in the shade. Thus, grass doesn’t grow there.
Since this was all an agricultural area originally, the soil is very clay-like, and in winter that strip is a muddy bog. This wouldn’t be tragic, if we didn’t have dogs, but alas, we do, and they like to do their doodies there, so the quantity of black, sticky, messy mud tracked in was awful.
With the profit sharing payout this December, we splurged, and had that clay bog replaced with compressed, decomposed granite. Like what is used for high traffic walkways in parks, it is a godsend for us and our dogs. Now the amount of muck tracked through the house is almost nil (there will always be some, but it is now manageable).
And it looks nicer to boot!
We will be watching the usual Christmas movies, “Christmas Story”, “Christmas Vacation”, “Life of Brian”, and the first “Die Hard” movie.
Dinner will be a roast turkey breast, roasted Yukon Gold potatoes, and Broccoli. A nice bottle of wine, and the begging of the boys.
We do love our neighborhood, and are humbled by the number of neighbors who brought over gifts. Next year, we will reciprocate.
Tomorrow, we will host the local family for a brunch. The traditional Eggs Benedict, Applewood smoked bacon, hash browns and mimosas will be freely handed out.
For now, we hope you all have a Merry Christmas, and that all your wishes and dreams come true.
