December 31, 2006: New Year's Eve
	December 16, 2006: The Christmas Symphony
	Return to Index for 2006

Christmas Morning

Well, it's Christmas morning and, as you can see, the presents are all wrapped and under the tree. Fred returned last night from Fort Worth where he spent most of yesterday with his brother Troy and his family having their Christmas. I've gotten up a bit early to get the Christmas ham ready to put into the oven and finish some last-minute wrapping. We are expecting our friend Lou, who has promised to make a couple of side dishes for our meal, and Greg, who won't be over until after he and his friends return from being among the first people in Dallas to see the movie Dreamgirls, which has opened surreptitiously this morning. At the last minute, I also called Brad to wish him a Merry Christmas, being certain he told me he would be flying today. Surprisingly, he answered the phone, and so he got an immediate invitation to come over and share Christmas with us.

We also have extended an invitation to Tom Harris to come by if he cares to. At the moment, his partner John Evans is in St. Paul Hospital recovering from complications during his esophageal examination about a week ago. As his doctor was manipulating the scope through his esophagus to examine the causes for John's acid reflux, the scope tore the esophageal wall. John had to have relatively quick surgery to install a stent in his esophagus to keep foreign matter from leaking into his body. He is now hooked up to multiple devices to keep his esophagus clear so that it can heal. This makes him very uncomfortable, and Tom is with him as much as possible. We, ourselves, plan to go down later today and visit, but we have told Tom to come buy and relax here if he wishes during the day.

Fred and I Open Gifts

Lou and Greg and Brad will arrive about one, so Fred and I thought that we would go ahead and open most of the gifts we gave each other, and just save one or two plus the ones that we had set aside for Greg, Brad and Lou. The pictures below were taken BEFORE we started opening the gifts. Take a look at as many of them as you wish by clicking on the appropriate thumbnail:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Now we were ready to attack the gifts. We thought it might be interesting to take a movie as we opened things, and we split the movie halfway with Fred taking the first half and me the second. Bad move. Should have let Fred take the whole thing as my movie brightness was fooled by the bright window right behind the tree and consequently too dark to be of any interest at all. But Fred's movie is very watchable, if not Academy Award material, and you can watch it with the player at right.

A Visit With Mom

Mom and I at Lunch

The ham was cooking and the gifts were opened, so we went up to visit my Mom for Christmas lunch. Fred had a box of candy to give to her for Christmas. Mom was still in her room when we got there, so Fred formally gave her the candy gift and helped her open it. Here are Fred and my Mom with her Christmas candy.

We accompanied Mom to lunch and while we were waiting, my niece Jeffie happened to call. We had a nice chat and she got to converse a bit with her grandmother. Then, a few minutes later, we placed a call to my sister Judy, and again Mom was able to wish her a Merry Christmas and get the same wishes in return. Fred also got the picture at left of Mom and I at lunch in the dining room.

We had to cut our visit a bit short in order to be home by the time that Lou arrived, so we left when Mom started on her ice cream. We did take some other pictures while we were there, and you can see all of them on my Mom's photo album page for 2006. There is a link to that page from the 2006 Index Page.

Christmas Afternoon

After we returned from the Bentley Manor, Lou was the first to arrive. Lou brought a broccoli casserole and some twice-baked potatoes. He also brought some rolls. I offered him some eggnog, and Fred had us raise our glasses and pose for a picture. Little did he know, his camera was still set on "movie," with the humorous results that you can see by watching the short movie with the player at left.

Once he got the setting changed, he got his picture of Lou and I having eggnog.

Greg was next to arrive. He had been to see "Dreamgirls" in the morning; he, Bud and Chet wanted to be among the first in Dallas to do so. Here are Greg and I chatting and having some eggnog, and here is a picture of Fred, Lou, and Greg exchanging gifts.

Brad was last to arrive. We haven't seen him in a while, so it was good to have him over for dinner. Brad, Lou, and Greg took a look at Brad's new laptop, and Greg was able to answer some questions.

Then it was time for me to call everyone to dinner. Lou and I had been interrupting our time with everyone else to get everything ready. In addition to what Lou brought, we had the ham, some green bean casserole (thanks, Judy!) and Fred's fruit salad. The dessert bar consisted of brownies, cookies, lemon squares, pineapple pie and coconut pie- all baked by Fred.

After dinner, the five of us spent quite a while chatting and having one dessert after another, and you can view some pictures of us here and here. Everyone stayed until about six-thirty; we had a great time.

After everyone left, Fred and I went down to St. Paul hospital for another visit with John Evans, recovering from his torn esophagus, and his partner Tom. Christmas Day turned out well; Fred and I were pleased.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	December 31, 2006: New Year's Eve
	December 16, 2006: The Christmas Symphony
	Return to Index for 2006