Christmas, 2008

Christmas 2008 was a success. I'm not sure that, in my adult life, that I can say I've ever had a what I would call a truly unsuccessful Christmas. Nevertheless, it is always a pleasant surprise when the holiday turns out well since I often dread the worst in some form or another. The problem is that there is always such a buildup to the occasion that the pessimist in me can't help but anticipate a letdown.

I picked my dad up at the airport here in Denver on the morning of December 20th. I am, of course, always happy to see him. He was a bit tired after getting up at 4 AM to battle the bitter cold and a snowstorm to catch a 7 AM flight out of Milwaukee. It was cold here in Denver also, but at least there was bright sunshine which was a welcome change for him after several days of rough weather in the Midwest. Justin picked up my mom that evening, who came in on a later flight. Her flight had been further delayed for several hours by bad weather out east.

Both of my parents were thrilled to see their granddaughter, Rachel. It had been several weeks since either of them had seen her and she has been changing so fast that she is almost like a different baby now. Since the last time they saw her in October, Rachel is much less fussy and is much more interactive. Overall, she is just way more fun to be around right now. That's not to say that she still doesn't do her share of crying or have her periods where she insists upon being walked around, but on average she has become a much more grandparent-friendly child.

Mondy the 22nd was my 39th Birthday. For years now I've stopped looking forward to birthdays as good things. Although I still don't feel "middle aged", I will admit I'm a bit achier than I used to be and turning 40 will be a milestone I face with quite a bit of trepidation. That night Bree was working, but she had been thoughful enough to bake me a birthday cake during the day which I shared with my parents and brother after a nice dinner of hommade birthday chili.

Tuesday night Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to babysat for Rachel so that Bree and I could get out to see a movie. It's been a long time since we have been able to hit the town for a few hours together by ourselves. We saw Woody Allen's most recent film, Vicky, Christina, Barcelona, which was shot on location in Catalonia.This is a place we have discussed visiting on one of the many trips we have planned for the not too distant future. Javier Bardem played the male lead. His character was not nearly so compelling as the one which he played in No Country but it showed a very different side of him as an actor, this time portraying a charming artist and womanizer. I thought he did a great job, especially during the heated exchanges with his ex-wife, played by Penelope Cruz. For a variety of reasons Penelope Cruz happens to be one of my personal personal favorites. After the movie we even got to stop in at Sobo 151 to catch the last round in that evenings round of trivia. I'm afraid my presence didn't help much. Our team wasn't doing well when we got there, and we did even worse afterwards.

The morning of the 24th my dad and I drove up to Buena Vista where we would be spending Christmas eve with my aunt Debbie, uncle Jerry and cousin James. We met them at the Catholic Church, St Rose of Lima, where my uncle is the new music director. They had asked that we arrive early so that we could see James perform before the mass. Although we arrived in plenty of time, I ended up missing his performance because no sooner than I sat down did Rachel have the biggest blowout I've ever had the pleasure to clean up. I was pleased to see that there was a small changing table in the men's room of the church, but found that when I went into the diaper bag that there were only four wipes left. Occasionally that might suffice, particularly for a Number One, but was barely enough to scratch the surface of this disaster. We used moistened paper towels from the dispenser to handle the rest. Her onesie was deemed a total loss and discarded in the trash. Forty minutes later I emerged, not in the greatest of Christmas spirit, I'm afraid. Half way through the mass I had to take Rachel out and feed her again, but after that things went smoothly and my mood quickly improved.

Justin had driven up a little later in the day with my mom, and as soon as the mass was over, we all went up to Debbie and Jerry's new house about 7 miles north of town on the lower slopes of Mt Colombia. We had a nice dinner, some wine, and sang a few songs around the piano before the Hogan family had to go back to church for the 11 o'clock mass. I was exhausted and felt badly for them that they had to go back out, but for whatever reason I was still awake when they got back. This was Rachel's first night away without her mother so I think that I was a little on edge and had a very hard time relaxing after putting her to bed in the Pack n' Play.

When Chistmas morning arrived I was still tired from the night before but Rachel mercifully slept in until after 9 which allowed me a little extra time to pull myslf together. After a wonderful brunch of leftover ham and an egg and mushroom dish I strapped on my snoeshoes and with James in tow, we headed up the slope in back of the house toward the national forest. Their home has the advantage of having no other houses behind it to the west. If one had the ambition and stamina he could walk for 30 miles or so due west without hitting another road. At this time of year that would be a considerable feat, so we only mile or so. As we went further and further up the slope, the snow got deeper and deeper. At one point a large heard of elk moved out of the trees and stood directly in our path about 50 yards in front of us, watching. James thought we should turn around, but I assured him that the elk would surely move on as we got closer. A few seconds later the elk turned around and moved back down into the draw from where they had emerged.

There was little traffic on Christmas afternoon and the drive back to Denver along US 285 went quickly. Mom and Justin spent Christmas night in Buena Vista so Bree, my dad and I had a quiet Christmas dinner together at home followed by watching a couple episodes season 3 of The Wire. Bree told me that, for Christmas, she had gotten us a three day pass to the Rockygrass Festival in Lyons, CO for next July. This is a great gift and I'm very excited about going. We don't have camping accomodations set up yet and the on-site campground lottery has already taken place, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. It will probably be Rachel's first music festival. http://www.bluegrass.com/rockygrass/ I don't think she is looking forward to it as much as I am, though.

I had to work on the 26th and Bree worked that night. While Bree was at work, we took the opportunity to watch The Dark Knight. I had actually not seen the movie before and Bree was not especially interested in seeing it, so we watched it while she was away at the hospital working. I liked it a lot, although I'm sure it would have been even better on the big screen as opposed to my dated TV with it's lousy sound.

My folks were supposed to leave the next day, but found out after I dropped them off at the airport that their flight had been cancelled. They were rebooked on a 7 pm flight on Sunday night. That gave us the chance to spend another evening with them at our house. They helped with the leftovers, after which Bree and I roped them into playing a board game with us for the next couple of hours. Justin left to go and watch some Ultimate Fighting Championship thing on pay per view at the bar rather than stay home and play games with us. My aunt and uncle were actually supposed to drive down to Denver that morning and have brunch with us before going to see The Nutcracker, but they never made it out of their driveway which had been blocked by snow drifts.

Sunday afternoon was warm and sunny which gave us all the opportunity to go for an hour long walk around City Park. It was nice that my parents had the chance to spend some time outside in the sunshine before having to head back to the midwest. Shortly after getting home from our walk, they said goodbye to Bree, Rachel and myself and left with Justin for the airport. I hope they come back to visit again soon.

Finally, I would like to send a special holiday thank you to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for his willingness to stand up and fight to hold on to his job as governor in the face of all the pressure to resign. This could have been a problem that was quickly resolved, and the story basically forgotten about a few months later as in the case of Elliot Spitzer last spring. Instead Gov. Blagojevich has dug in his heals and appears willing to drag this out for as long as he possibly can. I am not really taking a great deal of partisan pleasure in this. My pleasure comes mainly from seeing an Illinois politician live up to the hard earned reputation for corruption that so many politicians from that great state worked so hard to cultivate. In 2006, the Chicago Sun Times reported that "in the last three decades, at least 79 local elected officials have been convicted of a crime, including three governors, one mayor, and a whopping 27 aldermen from the Windy City." What a truly amazing track record! And it goes back much further than the last 30 years. In the late 19th century Chicago's first political machine was created by Michael Cassius McDonald which started a great tradition that lasted through the administration of Dick Daly Sr. So much for the Land of (Honest Abe) Lincoln.

I look forward to 2011 when Charlie Sheen is slated to star in in a new Oliver Stone film now tentatively titled "Rod".