The Last Christmas

And so the celebrations have now ended.  This was a good day, after a rocky beginning.  Walt hoped that the Christmas gift he ordered for me some time ago from Amazon, would have been delivered by now, but it had not.  He checked the package tracking and found it was last seen somewhere in Kentucky.  When he continued to find out when it could be expected, he found out that if he did not receive it by April, 1911 he should call them.  Since it is almost 100 years after that date, he decided to call.  Amazon is hot on the trail and promises to send a replacement, which should arrive before 2015.  And if, somehow, UPS finds the original package, we can keep that one too.  I hope it's something one can use two of.

Jeri and Phil arrived at the Sacramento airport around 12:30 and we visited a bit, then Phil ran some errands, Jeri and I got the bedding on their bed changed, and in the late afternoon, we packed up the rest of the gifts and took them over to Atria.

My mother was delighted and surprised (she had no idea Jeri was going to be coming to see her!  We've only discussed it every day for the past 3 weeks, including this morning).  Mostly it was a good day for her memory, though, and with three guests, she put on her hostess face and participated in the conversation, though it did only take five minutes before she reminded us she was old.

The first thing she noticed was Jeri's shoes.  Unlike me, my mother is a shoe freak and loves shoes (I'm sure I have been a huge disappointment for her over the years, since I hate shoes).  She rarely fails to notice someone's shoes.

We had brought egg nog with rum and Walt got us set up with cups of egg nog.

I got the present opening started, because we were on a kind of schedule for the evening.  My mother was thrilled with the calendar she got from Tom and his family, with all the pictures that she will look at over and over again, I know.

I had arranged for us to have dinner in the dining room and was miffed to see that the one large table was occupied.  However, the waitress told us she had set us up in the private dining room, the one that was unavailable for my mother's birthday in September.

I don't know if it was coincidence, or if the General Manager had decided to make it up to me in spades, but they had set the room up beautifully, with a table set for ten (even though we only had five)

I know Tom would have appreciated the 49er colors!

Dinner was delicious, topped off with a delicious slice of Tiramisu, and we got back to the apartment in time to pack up our things, return to the car, and head for the theater to see Into the Woods.

As I did yesterday, I overestimated the number of people who would be attending this opening weekend performance.

It was a good show and we were happy with it.  This, combined with last night's Big Eyes, brings the total number of movies Walt and I have attended in 2014 to... two!!

So the Christmas hullabaloo is finally over and looking back, it was a good holiday after all. 

Tomorrow is Mike's memorial service, which won't be quite as festive...but given the group who will be there, it just might be.