Family Time

Annie makes world-class biscotti and home-made egg nog so good we drank two gallons of it like there was no tomorrow. The gifts are all opened and the floor is littered with games, clothes, toys and gadgets. We watched Harry Potter on Christmas night and crawled off to bed with full bellies and sugar plum fairies still dancing in our heads. Mia had to work the night shift and MMH and reports that the night was swimming along fine with the staff wearing Santa hats and a party atmosphere until...a lady took a turn for the worse and family members went nuts. Poor people with loved ones dying in the hospital at Christmas! Lucky they had my Mia and her angelic healing hands and ways to make the goodbyes as smooth as possible. We missed her terribly but as Mia said just the other day, "My nursing career is a gift I gave myself." She hardly realizes she is the gift for the stricken and hopeless - a ray of light in the darkness of misery and death. Now it's the day after Christmas and we are still in our jammies. I actually slept to 4:30, Las Vegas time, and will be perfectly adjusted time-wise when I go home day after tomorrow. Annie had to work today at the Yucca Mountain project. She takes scientific reports written by the nuclear people and edits them before they go to Washington and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This girl is so smart she can tell the PHDs what to say and how to say it and they listen. Eric is going to the Boy Scout office to do some work then we'll tootle around some this afternoon. The aftermath of Christmas is one of the best parts for me. I'm watching Hannah and Luke and having fun being an Omi, toasting their bagels and tidying up the piles of toys. Luke wants me to put together his new Legos, but I might ask Uncle AJ to do that while I sneak a peak at the Frank McCourt book Annie gave me, Teacher Man. It's an amazing book and totally relevant for me working in education with a challening population. I loved his Angela's Ashes which I read before I saw the movie. I'm not allowed to show the movie in the house with Matt, who is very sensitive to the Irish cultural issues involved. When Angels's Ashes was on HBO I couldn't flip away from it fast enough without hearing a yell Get that S--T off the television!!! Don't tell me Frank McCourt doesn't touch some sensitive Irish chords!