Christmas night

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas today.

It was quiet her at Casa Poolman. Mrs. P worked yesterday and today in neonatal ICU. Eventually, both our children and their partners joined us here around 730 pm for a nice dinner and a presents-opening. All is good.

In the course of conversation with my son-in-law, my daughter and I realized that he had missed out on many of the holiday stories that are semi-legendary in our family. He has been hanging around for nearly 5 years, but he is totally unfamiliar with some of the family holiday stories that are the essential meat of being part of this family. (And we have some great stories! The story of “Naked Aunt Naomi” on Christmas Eve has to be the all-time best seller. More on that later.)  He has never met some of our family’s biggest characters, simply because they died before he met my daughter. We’ll have to work to get him into the full impact of being a part of the family

Tomorrow morning, Mrs P and I head south down I-95 (traffic permitting) to pickup our 11 year old niece who will spend the week with us.

To cap off a nice Christmas day, take a look at this story from CBS News’s Steve Hartman. I have been a big Steve Hartman fan since he was a reporter at KSTP-TV in the Twin Cities in the mid-1980s. He is very good! This isn’t one of his best, but it is a very nice Christmas story. Merry Christmas, everyone!

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A quiet Christmas at Casa Poolman

Christmas 2011 is a quiet one here at Casa Poolman. Mrs. P is working back-to-back 12-hour shifts in neonatal ICU both Christmas Eve and Christmas, so we are taking things low key.

I spent Christmas Eve taking care of some chores around the house, and then ushered at 4 o’clock mass. I am amazed each year at the number of people who show up for a Christmas mass five minutes before the start-time and are surprised there aren’t any seats available. Hello, people! If you aren’t at least a half-hour early, you are late.

As expected, our 4 pm Mass was standing-room-only, and barely that.

After Mass, I dropped off some cookies and brownies to several neighbors and friends and stopped by a traditional Christmas Even open-house at an old friend’s house. I got home shortly after Mrs. P, so I could hang with her for awhile before she had to “crash.”

Tomorrow, I’ll be “hanging out” and then preparing a Christmas dinner, with the plan to have it ready shortly after Mrs. P arrives home around 7:30 pm. Poolboy, Girl Friend, Writer Princess and Son-in-Law should be joining us then.

The menu will be a rib roast, twice-baked potatoes (courtesy of Mrs. P), saute’d green beans and Caesar salad. I hope that satisfies. If not, well, too bad.

Both Mrs. P and I are off work all of next week. Actually, it should be interesting. Our niece, Kristine, will be spending the week with us. She is 11 years old and lives in Jacksonville. It seems that all the adults in her circle are orking next week, and they have no other child-care arrangements. Mrs. P and I thought it would be great for her to come spend at least some of the week with us. We haven’t had an 11-year-old around our house for more than a short visit in a long time. Should be interesting. We are meeting Mrs. P’s sister (another of Christine’s great-aunts) and brother-in-law in Brunswick for lunch on Monday and exchanging the child. Seriously, though, we’re looking forward to it.

And finally, I am a sucker for a good flash-mob. One of my former bosses, sent me this one with a Christmas theme. The camera work is nothing to brag about, but it is a fun little video. Enjoy. Merry Christmas from Casa Poolman!

A good holiday weekend

A four day weekend is always great to rest the body and mind.

We had quiet Thanksgiving yesterday. Rather I should say I had a quiet Thanksgiving. Mrs. Poolman spent 12 hours at the hospital, caring for critically ill babies. I felt pretty good that I got my assigned tasks accomplished, but it doesn’t hold a candle to her productivity of the day.

I started with Thanksgiving Day mass. Monsignor C was quite impressed with the “crowd” at mass and said so. Actually, it was a very nice way to start the day. I saw and talked with several people I know. A brother-sister team of former and current students were the altar servers, and I talked with them. Monsignor C set a perfect tone and preached a good homily. Plus, he kept the whole thing short. We have so much for which to be thankful, it doesn’t hurt to start off the day on the right note.

I spent most of the rest of the day on my own. I cleaned the house, updated and balanced the checkbook and, of course, prepared Thanksgiving dinner.

Unlike most of our holiday meals, this was a small gathering. We had no out-of-town company. Of our friends, everyone was doing their own thing this year. Among family and friends, most of the kids are in their mid to late 20s with jobs, formal or informal “in-laws,” etc. It is very difficult to organize holiday gatherings with multiple family groups.

We had dinner scheduled for 8 p.m. since Mrs. P wasn’t scheduled to be home until 7:30. Writer Princess, Son-in-Law and Poolboy all contributed to the meal and joined us. (Poolboy’s girlfriend “GF” was off in Orlando with her family.) We thought we were going to have one “holiday orphan,” but he got a better offer at the last minute.

I was fairly happy with the way things turned out. Although I cooked only the turkey, green beans and rolls, I still had to coordinate all the other dishes through two ovens. Poolboy made the mashed potatoes. Writer princess fixed the dressing. Mrs. P pre-prepared a squash casserole and an artichoke dip for an appetizer. She also made the gravy when she got home. (I never have gotten the knack of making gravy.) SIL baked pumpkin and pecan pies.

So it was just the five of us until a couple of our friends/neighbors wandered down for dessert. Much quieter than typical Casa Poolman holidays, but very nice all the same.  Most of the rest of the weekend will be devoted to eating leftovers and watching football. Maybe a little shopping thrown in. Should be good!