Who Invited the Grinch?

Well, there has been a weird green guy popping up this week, trying to horn in on the festivity, but we are mushing forward anyway and keeping him out as best we can.

I think the first hint of his nefarious intentions came when Walt woke up to e-mail from his sister that their mother was in the hospital again with pneumonia and a fever. "Tee hee hee," giggled the Grinch, only slinking away when the doctor says that it's minor, that it was probably a UTI, and that she can probably go home tomorrow or the next day.

Next Tom called to say that Laurel's step-father had had a heart attack, had bypass surgery, and was doing OK, but that they didn't want to leave Laurel's mother alone on Christmas, so they would be spending Christmas with her instead of us. But, with a swift kick at the cackling green monster, he promises that they will spend Christmas eve with us so we will get to see Bri at least that day, if not the two days we had hoped. And he promises that she's really a lot of fun these days, so I'm looking forward to seeing her. (Rumor has it that she has asked Santa for a football.)

We have not decorated around here -- no point, since we aren't entertaining and the kids won't be here -- so we were looking forward to going to my boss' annual Christmas party. You never have to remember his address. You just go to the right street and keep driving until you see this:

This is mild compared to what it's like inside, with all of his Peanuts memorabilia, the Peanuts tree, etc. I was amazed that he'd finished it all because by the time of the party he was only 3 days out of bed after a 3 week bout of Swine Flu that was so bad he cracked a rib coughing (really!). But he did. There were many fewer people than usual, but it was nice because I never get a chance to talk to Derrick at these things, and we had a nice chat.

The Grinch managed to score points before the party, though, when Walt came home from the store and found that his bike had been stolen. It was my bike, actually. My $400 bike with all the upgrades on it. It was exactly one year to the day that his last bike was stolen. But I chose to look on the bright side and realize that this was nature's way of telling me that in addition to the bum knee and the fear of riding a bike again, I could now officially put an end to my bike riding days--because I don't have a bike any more! Not gonna get me down, Grinch!

I actually slept last night and woke up in time to get my mother from San Rafael and bring her here to get Walt and then to Peach's for the big Cousins Party. Walt and my mother packed the car, while I got all of the ingredients assembled for the brie en croute I was going to make when we got there. We headed off for Sacramento.

A few blocks from Peach and Bob's house, someone rear-ended us. Both cars pulled off to assess damage and we decided there was no damage to either car (the young girl driving the car that hit us was very relieved) and we went on our way, snubbing our noses at the Grinch again.

When we got to Peach's, Walt asked where all the brie stuff was. I had left the bag of ingredients on the stove. I'm VERY angry with myself because it is puff pastry and who knows how it's going to be if I try to use it now. Also, this was supposed to be the party that we hosted and I flaked on everyone because the house isn't ready yet, so I felt guilty that not only did Peach have to host the party, but now I wasn't even contributing any food. The Grinch giggled some more.

But as it turned out, Peach had a "Tastefully Simple" party the night before, kind of a Tupperware party for food, and she had tons of hors d'oeuvres, mulled cider, and soup (and even plates, spoons and cups!) left over, so we didn't even notice that I had not brought anything to contribute to the party.

Besides, we expected a house full of relatives and there were only 8 of us, including Peach and Bob. Kathy couldn't come (but her husband did), Kathy's sister never came down to the Sacramento area, Peach's sister and husband couldn't come either. So it was kind of a non-party, but we had fun anyway. The star was 4+ month old Brandon, Kathy's grandson.

We played the usual gift game, even though there were so few of us.

(Peach passed out numbers)

(It truly was a Snuggie Christmas. The green box and the box the same size and shape to the right of it were both Snuggies.)

(Walt got a pink one!)

It was all very low key, but we enjoyed ourselves and were home just as the skies were starting to turn dark.

We have locked the door securely to keep the Grinch out for the rest of the holiday, or at least for as long as possible!

Fah who for-aze!
Dah who dor-aze!
Welcome Christmas,
Come this way!