Merry Christmas!
What a - day.
I was sound asleep, the dog apparently wasn't. He pooped all over my floor and I slept entirely through it. Only when the oldest kid came barging through the door - Christmas morning, they wanted to open their gifts, but instead of telling me it's time to get up, he belted out my name and then said YOUR DOG POOPED ALL OVER YOUR FLOOR!
I am telling you, I was sound asleep when he yelled this out and it was quite the abrupt awakening. He was holding his nose in disgust, I was wondering what the heck is going on and then I looked. There were piles all over the place. The dog could have whined or something to wake me up, but nooooooo. Pretty much the rudest awakening I've had in a long time.
I didn't get up and go to the living room to do the gift exchange. Oh my no. I went into the living room, got the carpet cleaning machine, got out the carpet cleaning fluid, got a couple plastic bags and an entire roll of paper towels and went to work. Clean up a pile, carpet clean it. Clean up another, carpet machine, etc etc for over an hour. The kids? Had to wait, mom and dad weren't starting it without me and I wasn't doing anything until the entirety of the mess was cleaned up.
When I got it all cleaned up, cleaned out the machine, threw the dog dung outside in the trash can and got a cup of coffee? Then I was ready for the gift exchange. As the old saying goes and in the Bible: better is it to give than to receive. I didn't get much but that didn't bother me, they were having more of a spartan Christmas than anything. The guy is just about to start getting back on his feet after months of being off and then CDL school and then in a truck with a trainer and finally, in his own truck which just started a week ago.
He will start making decent paychecks now and start to get caught up. So I understood their financial predicament. As I said yesterday, I got him several things to help him be fully equipped for the road. The kids got all their stuff and the lady of the house as well. I sort of missed being home in AZ tho considering I had a last minute invite from the oldest brother. He never does that. He probably got upset that I turned it down, but there wasn't anything I could do about that. I would have had to schedule time off, air tickets, rental car, hotel ,etc.
After gifts, we met up with some friends at the local IHOP, one of the few places open today. Oh, I forgot to mention one of the things i bought for one of the kids? I forgot to get an express memory card and so he can't use it today. Extra memory needed for all of the stuff he has saved on his games. Nothing is open beyond gas stations, not even Walmart. Don't blame them, either, everyone needs time off. So, I have one more day off tomorrow before back to the grind - working all weekend long. But, I'll take Christmas off in exchange for having to work a weekend. I had Thanksgiving off as well - I asked for neither of them off btw, they just gave it to me.
The kids were misbehaving at IHOP and tho parents were telling them to stop, after a half an hour of the nonsense, I loudly told them to stop NOW. Twice, quickly and they both immediately stopped the ridiculousness. One of them got angry and stuck his head on the table with his face in his arms, the dad said nope, sit up!
After that, we went home and I took the youngest to the back yard, I told him he had left something out there and he needed to get it out of the back yard. He had no idea what I was talking about. When we got behind the shed, I pointed at a brand new bike and told him he needed to move his bike. He looked at me funny and said: "that's not my bike". Well it is now! The smile that came across his face was priceless. He's been riding it on and off ever since.
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My ham dinner turned out amazing. I put a nice, homemade glaze on it and made au gratin potatoes with corn on the cob and yes, it was good and worth the trouble going to. As for now? Time to go to bed. One more day off and then back to the grind for the weekend.
