Christmas, sis's b day party, good written's 2013

12/30/2013

Christmas Eve
My friend Zach, the kid I went to the World Series games with, his aunt, the one I visited in FL the last few times I went down, hmm so her name is Phyllis. So Phyllis is up for a few weeks on her winter break. She’s a 5th grade teacher. She asked me what I was doing o Tuesday night, (their family is Jewish too, so it was just another Tuesday night for them as well) I told her that I was going to work but after that, I had no plans. She said ok, Zach and I will pick you up at work for dinner. (Their favorite Chinese restaurant is the same as mine so I knew where we were going without even asking)

However, it wasn’t just them, it was Zach’s sister Rachel, who if she wasn’t 13 years younger than me and didn’t have a boyfriend, I would so go after. And their grandfather Morris, who sadly has Alzheimer’s. He use to be a baker and the best one around. Now, he is like a 3 year old, it is so sad. Unfortunately, half the dinner was spent keeping him engaged and making sure he doesn’t put soy sauce in his tea.
Like aunt like nephew, Zach and Phyllis eat basically chicken and rice for most of their meals. They both, don’t like vegetables at all or any other type of meat. Zach asked me what I wanted and I said welllll, dumplings, teriyaki and scallion pancakes? He said that he’s sure Rachel would eat some of that. (she was in the bathroom at the time) Zach: Rachel what do you want? Rachel: what are we getting so far? Zach: Chicken fingers, rice and Jonathan wants dumplings, teriyaki and scallion pancakes. Rachel: oo that sounds good. That will be enough.
I had brought a little gift for Zach… After we ordered I reached under the table, grabbed the bag and handed it to him. Phyllis and Rachel were like …why does Zach get a gift? Where’s my gift. …
I had learned that Mo Vaughn, a former baseball player for the Boston Red Sox was his favorite player growing up and when I had to move from my room for a week, one of the things we came across was a few Mo Vaughn Starting Lineups. Toy figures. And they were still in the package. So as my mom was packing them away, I told her to hold one out, I wanted to give one to Zach. …
He said “wo, cool, it’s Mo Vaughn.” I then told him the story. Rachel told me how she had some silly nickname for Zach when they were little kids and part of the name was Vaughn, after Mo Vaughn. It was cute.
I was telling Phyllis what I have been up to with work and stuff. I told her that she still has to tell me when I can come down. She said that she has to check her school vacation. I told her that she already told me it was the week of March 21. She said I don’t know, let me check… She checked on the city’s website and said yup, you are right. I was a little… hmm not mad but I don’t know, I told her that I told you so. and you didn’t believe me. She sarcastically said nope, I didn’t believe you. (I want to go down to see the Red Sox play a spring training game) The appetizers came out and the chatter died down to asking for food and saying how yummy the food was. I was sitting in between Phyllis and Rachel with Zach and Morris on the other side… so I was leaning forward and one point I sat up… wrong time on my part, Rachel handed the waiter her credit card. Phyllis got mad. She said Rachel, did I see what I think I saw? Rachel you didn’t do what I thought I saw you do right? Zach, did you see what your sister did? Zach get your sister’s card back. … ME: Phyllis, can’t you just say thank you? Phyllis, No, she shouldn’t have done that. I’m going to make sure I give her back the money… I turn to Rachel and say “thank you” and she responded with “you are very welcome. I’m glad you could join us”  I turn back to Phyllis and said, ok, your turn to say thank you… she kept going off…
We ordered for our main course white rice, chung fong, and I got aromatic vegetables. (spicy veggies, my favorite) We chatted a bit more till the food came and we ate. The waiter came with the fortune cookies and the slip for Rachel to sign… Phyllis sorta put up another fight which wasn’t heard and I opened my fortune cookies (who remembers when fortune cookies were not individually wrapped?) I handed mine to Phyllis to read as I was eating mine. She said “you are sitting next to the most amazing person to your (rachel right. I agree, she is pretty amazing. Phyllis was kidding said that’s it, I’m not letting you come down to Florida. I said fine. And smiled at her. She couldn’t open her cookie and Rachel couldn’t open Phyllis’ either, I offered and opened it with ease…lol. And Phyllis read hers and then Rachel tried to open hers and she couldn’t, she said that her hands were all greasy. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to open it after her greasy hands were all over it lol. But I did. Hmmm at one point I was being playful with Rachel, I don’t remember the conversation but I lightly elbowed her ribs, nudging her a few times and she giggled at whatever I said.

So bill was paid, leftovers was bagged up and we were off to home.

Hmm that was a bit longer than I thought… SORRY!

Christmas Day
The last 20? Years, I spend Christmas with John and his family. The last 12 with him and his now x wife. This year was going to be a little different, a little strange. It wasn’t going to be over his in-law’s place. His x sister in law with her boyfriend and all their gifts they buy, won’t be there either. It would be at John’s mother’s house and it would be just John, his mother, her husband and John’s kids along with me. Just the 6 of us.

… let’s backup… give names.
John, my best friend, his mother: Pat. Her husband: Ray
John’s sister Lisa, aka TX Lisa. John’s two kids, Holden 5, Grace 2 Lisa’s son Devin, 3.
Pat’s sister, Cathy and her husband: Jim.
John’s X Kat. Kat’s new husband Nick.
Just in case I mention them… Ray’s daughter is Amy and her BF is Eric.

John and I agreed we would take each other out for Christmas and that already happened.
Now… Kathy and Jim were going to drive down to Lisa’s for Christmas. It would be the first time they went down there. Knowing this, I gave my gifts for Lisa and Devin to them to bring down for me.
I was also very excited about what I got Lisa, I wanted to hear her open her gift and asked a few weeks ago if we could skype with her, to Pat. Pat said that would be ok and later she said to Lisa that they could all open the gifts on skype.

Back to Christmas day…
John picked me up and we went to go meet Kat and Nick to pick up the kids. Kat got out of her car and came over to me, opened my door, gave me a hug…She may have fucked my best friend of 25 years over in ways that no one will ever know, she’s still a smart, attractive, caring lady. After she pulled back from the hug, I had my hand on her arm and gently squeezed it and gave her a little smile. Somewhere in there, we exchanged “merry Christmas”

When John got the kids in and buckled up and got the other bags in…of which one was gifts from Kat to me and my family…I felt like a total ass for not getting her anything but I have no reason to and she had no reason to get me –my family anything.

With everything packed in and everyone buckled in, we were off to John’s mother’s house.

We got there and the first thing John said was, when are we going to eat? I’m hungry. Pat said that she didn’t know he would be hungry so she didn’t start dinner yet and thought the kids could open some of their gifts first.

We all moved to the living room, after the “merry Christmas’s” were exchanged.

I don’t know why it surprises me but it still does, how many gifts these kids receive and coming from a Jewish upbringing, it’s stupid to get all these gifts at once because the kids get overwhelmed and after all the gifts are opened, and there are a dozen opened, they play with one toy while the other gifts sit in a pile till another day …if at all? I digress…

One toy after another Holden and Grace open and either John or Pat tells them what it is and who it’s from. There was a really really big box sitting in the corner which Holden knows is for him but John has to tell him a few times, to save that for last. I got Holden two dinosaurs that move and make sounds, of which he can identify the types, and I knew he could that’s why I bought him them. However, with not more than a thanks, he was on to the next gift. I was supper excited about the gift I got for Grace, the little Cat that meows, peers and moves…but the cat was put down in place of another gift to be opened. …When Pat said that a gift was from Lisa to Holden, I said I thought we were going to open gifts with Lisa via skype? Pat said that you can still do that later. …oh..ok.

I was surprised to find that I had gifts too…
First was a gift with a card from Kat and the kids. There was a little photo album with pictures of the kids and there was a gluton free cook book for my mom…she has to eat gluton free. Very nice-thoughtful. John and the kids got me a Nolan Ryan Ornament. Pretty cool. Pat and Ray got me a “Red Sox Nation” t-shirt. Very cool. Surprisingly enough, I don’t have one.

Then came time for the big gift for Holden. With 2 DVD’s, a WII game, 3 packages of cars-trucks, 2 dinosaurs, clothes, and stuff for his room, along with other gifts in a pile, John went over and brought the big box to the middle of the floor. Holden ripped through the wrapping paper and started screaming! I mean SCREAMING! “I CANT BELIEVE IT! I CANT BELIEVE IT!” … “WHAT I ALWAYS WANTED!” it was a Lionel Pennsylvania express train set. This thing was….amazing. It truly was. It was real meddle tracks with a real meddle trains. Each train piece must weigh 5 LBS each? And there was 6 parts. The train has a remote control which you can control the lights, the sounds and the speed along with… get ready… the steam. This train had it all and the kid was mesmerized. Why they got him anything else is beyond me.

The funny thing, Holden was trying to convince Grace that he had the best toy. She was having none of it. Lol

Dinner was ready so we all got up and moved into the dining room. There was pasta, meatballs and chicken parm. I passed on the chicken parm but the pasta and meatballs were good.

After dinner Holden reminded everyone that there was still stockings with stuff in them. John and the kids went back over, Ray and myself stayed at the table while Pat was cleaning up from dinner and getting ready for dessert. Holden quickly went through the stocking, he went back to playing with his train. Ray and I talked about sports and how his 92 year old mother is doing and how my 94 year old grandmother are doing.

Lisa skyped her mom and chatted with her for a bit and Holden had to show her the coolist gift ever. Showed her all the bells and whistles… eventually Pat got the phone back from Holden so she could talk to me. I was chatting a bit on the skype but Lisa realized pretty quickly that I couldn’t hear her well and it would be better if I just called her so I did.

She let Devin open his gifts first. Two pairs of Spiderman PJ’s. she said that will go well with the Spiderman blanket her mom got him for Christmas. Then he opened the toy… it was a motorcycle that made noise. She had told me a few minutes later that he ran and got a GI Joe figure to put on the bike. He thought it was so cool.

Then Lisa opened the card and read it then opened the piece of paper in it.
“oh my god Jonathan. You shouldn’t have. It’s too much. I love it, thank you, it’s just the motivation to get me to fly back to Boston thank you..”
It was a $50 gc for south west air.
I love when people appreciate gifts.

We chatted a bit more before hung up.

A while later, Pat said that it was dessert time. So John and the kids came back in and sat down. There was apple pie, a chocolate cake and Pat’s specialty, coffee cake. So I had the coffee cake and a cup of tea. It was very good as always.
Soon after, the kids got in their PJ’s and went to bed and John brought me home.

My mom and I, a lot more so my mom, did a HUGE! Mitzvah for Christmas. To make a very long story short, my mom volunteered to bake some turkeys for me to bring to the house I work at after I told her of the screw up my new advisor did. I brought the turkeys down to the house I work at and I had told my coworkers and supervisor Monday night-Tuesday that my mom wanted to do it and they were all thank you, your mom is awesome. We really appreciate it. So they took care of the side dishes… well, my mom also made a stuffing too.
Although my clients didn’t thank me, I know they appreciated it.

Saturday 28th
It was my sister’s 30th birthday party. There was about 75 people, a small gathering for my sister.
It was at a small hall. They got a DJ and my mom cooked a lot and others brought food and desserts. It was a 4th of July theme as that’s my sister’s favorite holiday.
It wasn’t what I was expecting. As my younger cousin said to me, it was a gathering more than a party. There was a dance floor and I was hoping to get up and dance the night away…but except for about 20 minutes, no one danced at all. I just sat there next to my annoying 15 year old cousin who didn’t want to be there any more than I did. I …my cousin and I tried to see if we could leave but my mom said no. yup, sucks not having the ability to just walk out and drive away. Both of my brothers were only there till about 9 and I had to stay till 11.

They did have a cake and sing happy birthday.

This entry is long enough… I’ll stop here.
I hope everyone has a happy, healthy and safe new years… LA SHANA TOVA!
Here’s for a fabulous 2014!