'Twas the Day after Christmas

'Twas the Day after Christmas

This weekend, we had a very pleasant Christmas holiday as a family. Saturday evening, I went to Mass with my parents, Dorene, Richard and the boys. We attended the 5:00 PM Mass in the general hall, since my parents volunteered to read for it. Not surprisingly, most lectors choose first to read in the main sanctuary, where all the elaborate decorations, the big crowds, and the full choir can be found.

After Mass, we drove to my parents' home and had dinner. The dinner was buffet style, with cold cuts of turkey, ham, cheese, rolls and salad. For dessert, we consumed Mrs. Smith's pies. My mother has decided, thankfully, that the stress of baking homemade apple pies is not worth the result.

Tien and Alicia and their four boys also came down to celebrate with us, and after dinner we retired to the living room to open presents 'round the tree. Most of the presents were for the children, with us adults giving each other a few items. My big haul included a gift certificate from my parents toward the purchase of PowerStructure, and a nicely framed photograph of them in formal attire from their recent New England cruise. Dorene made me her special banana bread and cookies, which I am slowly working on.

Monica gave me a fun gift--an "Atari Flashback" game console. It looks like a half-sized Atari 2600 video game machine (I think it used to be called the "Atari Video Computer System"). Last night I hooked the simple connectors up to my HDTV and had a nostalgic blast playing Pong, Asteroids and Centipede till midnight. At one time, I owned about 50 games for my 2600; the machine was a sanity-saver back in 1982, when I brought it into Sharp Hospital and Harold and I used to play games on it till the wee hours of the morning. Although the new video game consoles, like the Xbox 360, are infinitely more sophisticated, the old games are endowed with an irreplaceable, charming simplicity. I guess it's possible to feel nostalgia toward an old video game console the same way my grandparents waxed nostalgic over the pre-war days of radio.

Yesterday, Christmas Day, was very quiet. Dad and I drove down to Linda Vista to pick up my uncle, then we sat at my parents' table and enjoyed a dinner of turkey, ham, dressing with gravy, stuffing and rolls. This was topped off by Mrs. Smith's wares again. I brought cards for everyone, since that was about all I could handle financially this year.

In a while, Clarence will arrive and we'll head to Barnes & Noble to check out the post-Christmas specials. I still have a lot of gift cards to redeem from my birthday.