Post-Christmas Post Post- Gonna Be a Longish One

Post, post post. . .

Sorry, had to make a bit of fun of dad.  So Christmas Day here was a veritably joyous loungepalooza, stretching leisurely from the jaw-dropping glory of a brilliant western North Carolina sunrise-

Apologies for the Screen

- actually, let me back up a minute.  Dad took this next one Christmas Eve Day as he was zooming up the drive on the UTV, which didn't seem to bother them much as they just went back to grazing before loping off towards one of dad's trails.

Can you see all four of 'em?

So back to the stretching leisurely thing:  Dad woke stupidly early as usual and on shuffling to his lifeblood machine to hit the brew button found my gift to him.  He relishes the addition of a little shot of "flavor" on special occasions, and me and mom knew this would do the trick on this special morning.

The gift-giving stretched on through the day, peppered with texts, calls and zooms with kids and grands, keeping the fireplace aglow, even though today was supposed to hit almost 70, and the occasional nibble of chocolate and a light breakfast. 

Mom laid out all the loot when all was said and done, and the overall themes became apparent; hers seemed to be a good deal about cosmetics, candles and clothes, food & beverages (mostly, anyway) for dad, and toys & treats for Yours Truly (and I'll grudgingly throw in a mention of the seed wreath there on the right end for our feathered friends from dad's work).  My Advent calendar is but a ghost of its former self,

and this is a mug I got for mom.  Since I can't read (I know, I know- but I can write blog posts?) I trusted dad's assertion that it says "To the BEST Cat Mom in the World".  Dad found this compliments of Melissa & Mudpie's 2021 Holiday Gift Guide for Tortie Lovers.

And then there's this stuff that mom got dad.  I don't know, I guess it's some kind of cologne or something.  Any guesses?

Dad says he can't even begin to pick a favorite, but these are right up there.  He's never been much of one for wearing any kind of "jewelry" except for the Libra pendant mom gave him eons ago, but he's always wanted a more natural wrist thingy, and he fell in love with this guitar pick-holder necklace mom gave him. 

She put a special 3D pick in it that she gave him some years ago, and he says now he officially feels like the rock star he'd always dreamed of being.  

As I said, dad cannot pick one favorite, but most certainly at the top is a binder mom says is a work-in-progress that she put together for him with all of the artwork and lots of photos of his grandkids from over the years.  This would be up there, too,

but the binder must've beat it because it made dad cry in front of me and mom.  If you remember, mom's sis up in NH had previously given dad a jug o' pure maple syrup since he's an addict, and when he opened this t-shirt from said sis he said he couldn't've said it better himself. 

They wanted to do something a little different for Christmas dinner this year, so they'd decided on an easy, minimal prep all-in-one oven-roasted corned beef & cabbage feast, and they weren't disappointed, except for the fact that they thought there'd be more leftovers than there ended up being. 

I'll apologize on dad's behalf for the poor focus here.  If I'm not mistaken, I believe he snapped this after a few rounds of the Saint Brendan's.  And finally, what's a holiday without beer?  Dad loves trying new ones, and mom didn't disappoint with this marvelous selection.

That's the grandkids' binder there on the left

Now, you know how much I hate being left out of posts, so I'll end this one with me and dad working on our post-Christmas post post post thing, 

and our dorky group selfie.  They gave up after several attempts to get me to look at the camera which I fought because, well, cat . . .

He Who Has More Hair on the Bottom of His Head than the Top, Princess Pajama pants and She Who Refuses to Look at the Camera

Oh, and yes, that's that darn little Norfolk Pine, still kickin'!