BerthaBlog

Been a fun holiday around here:

Sunday I helped one of my best friends move into her new house. She and her son have been staying with family for the last two years, and they’ve finally managed to get their own place. I’m really excited for ‘em. I took The Artist with me, because he’s big and strong and loves nothing better than to be useful. Afterwards I took him to his favorite restaurant and told him he could have anything he wanted; he’d earned it.

Sunday night I got to meet my buddy Val and his family for dinner. They’re on their way north, and stopped in town for the night. Alpha Geek and The Artist came along (my younger son was sick and stayed home), and a good time was had by all. It’s kind of freaky how alike our respective youngest sons are. They’re both super-energetic, too smart for their own good, control freaks. They even have the same name.

Alpha Geek is working on getting checked out in a Cessna 172. This will enable him to fly all four of us at once—right now he can only take one passenger at a time, and if he takes our giant Artist he can’t have full tanks.

Grades for my final semester were posted—I got straight A’s. I was pretty surprised that I got an A in Business Income Tax; I made a B on every test. The homework grade must have brought it up.

Christmas morning was the traditional Opening of the Gifts. This year we just got a couple of presents for the boys, but Santa sent them on a scavenger hunt to find them—they had five or six clues (in badly-scansioned rhyme) leading them to the big presents. We had planned on getting The Artist a bicycle, but a couple of weeks ago Alpha Geek found a bass guitar and amplifier for under $200, so we got him that instead. Judging by the fact that he keeps asking us if we can get together and play, I think he likes it. We’ll get him the bike for his birthday, or something.

The day before Christmas, I made Booze Balls à la Cranky Professor. I sent some over to my parents (with the warning, “These are highly alcoholic,” although my Mom knew as soon as she opened them and got a whiff). We’ve also had our traditional Hickory Farms and wine to gnosh on, and my annual box of Moravian Spice Cookies (my parents give me a big tin of these every Christmas, and they’re always gone in a few days).

Christmas day I met my parents at the rehab/care facility where my grandmother’s been staying, and we brought her presents and toured their garden and generally socialized. She’s improved a lot since she first went in hospital; she’s eating and doing laps in her walker and going on every field trip the rehab center offers. I swear that woman is going to outlive me. Nice to know I have such hardy genes in my family history.

All in all, a satisfying Yule. I hope you’ve also had a safe, happy Christmas with the ones you love.

This morning was my last day of class—technically an exam day, although for this class we had a presentation instead. Personally, I would rather have the exam. Spent the weekend dreading it. But I’d signed up to go second so I could get it over with quickly, which meant I was only freaking out for the first half hour of class and then it was behind me.

I also checked WebAdvisor to see if my Business Income Tax grade was posted yet. To my great surprise, I got an A. I never managed higher than a B on the tests, so I figured I’d be getting a B. The homework must have pulled it up.

Now I can get to work full-time on Christmas cards and presents. And hunting through the job boards. And looking around at the new touch phones. I like the new touch phones, but not enough to pay $600 for one. For that kind of money it should do my laundry and mow my lawn. But they sure are shiny.

If it weren’t for my kids (in particular, my youngest son), I probably wouldn’t get the Christmas decorations up until New Year’s Eve. Except of course for the Christmas Witch.

Fortunately my son is not only very enthusiastic about decorating for Christmas, he’s also a control freak—a very energetic one. All I have to do is drag the decorations down from the attic. After that I go hide in the basement for a few hours, and when I come back upstairs everything’s decorated.

This year we have a new tree. Our old artificial tree has a broken leg on its base, and it was not the best tree to begin with, so it seemed like a good excuse to get a new one. So sayeth my son, who is in charge of these things.

“The base on this is broken. I think it’s about time for a new tree anyway,” he declared.

I was holding up a wall nearby. Sometimes just watching that kid makes me tired; no one should have this much energy. “I guess after Christmas we should give it to the Thrift Shoppe, and they can fix it up and sell it.”

“Yeah, we should do that.”

“Or,” I considered, “we could go ahead and get a new tree now, so we could donate the old tree in time for someone to actually get use out of it this year.”

That appealed to him. He’s a control freak, but he’s also one of the kindest, most generous people you’ll ever meet. “Would we be able to get it by Christmas?”

“We can go look at trees right now, if you want.”

In that little pause denoted by a comma, he disappeared and returned with his coat on. His “Okay!” overlapped my last few words.

So now we’ve got a somewhat nicer artificial tree—we debated even getting a live one this year, but weren’t sure how we’d transport it home—and the old one is all boxed up and ready to take to the Thrift Shoppe.

It’s beginning to look a bit like Christmas.

The Alpha Geek passed his check ride yesterday!