Christmas 2022
Saturday, December 24: Christmas Eve Morning
2. Sherri
3. Me
4. Jennifer
5. Matthew
6. Hope
7. Chase
8. Ian Mind you, this is after there was no Christmas Eve dinner out at a restaurant in 2020, for the first year since 2011; and the group last year having been whittled down to just three, with Dad and Sherri and me—because Jennifer and Matthew had other plans for Christmas Eve last year. Dad and I were kind of assuming the same would be the case this year, but when I messaged Jennifer to ask, Should I assume you have other plans on Christmas Eve again? she replied, No why? And thus, a return to the traditional Christmas Eve dinner with Jennifer's family joining us was planned—Jennifer even told me her kids ask about it every year, which was sweet to hear. This actually brought us right back to the same count we had the last time Jennifer and her family were able to join us. Here's a log of the Christmas Eve Dinner counts since 2012 (*asterisked years include Jennifer): 2012: 5
2013: 9*
2014: 4 [at Lemon Grass]
2015: 7*
2016: 11*
2017: 7* [at Applebee's due to Emperor's Palace snow closure]
2018: 10*
2019: 8*
2020: 0
2021: 3
2022: 8* The extras in 2018 had been Aunt Raenae and Shobhit—the last year Shobhit joined for Christmas Eve dinner—and the ones missing from Jennifer's family in both 2017 and 2015 were Hope and Chase. 2016 was the one year Gina and Beth joined us—that was the first year Beth was around, but after that they started their own Christmas Eve dinner tradition with friends at their place. In 2014 we actually went to eat at a place called Lemo Grass, with just Dad and Sherri, Shobhit and me. In 2013 Jennifer joined us for dinner by herself without the rest of her family, but that year we ate with Grandpa McQuilkin and several other family members. 2012 was again just Dad and Sherri, Shobhit and me, but also with Grandpa McQuilkin added. It actually wasn't until 2016 that I started the practice of getting a group shot of everyone at the table for Christmas Eve Dinner, which is why I also have a photo album dedicated just to the history of those dinners—older ones represented by photos I took of my fortune cookies. Anyway, Christmas Eve dinner was lovely as usual, and always nice to get to see Jennifer, especially since I wasn't able to on Christmas Eve last year. I did wish Shobhit was with us, but he was supposed to be going to SeaTac to pick up Shivangi, who was to be staying with us in our guest room in Seattle from Saturday night through January 5. Well, now she's not arriving until late tomorrow morning. I learned this while I was at dinner on Saturday: she didn't make it onto her flight. It didn't sound like she was late, although I do wonder if the timing of her checkin was a factor—and being a comparatively inexperienced 22-year-old, she wouldn't necessarily have known it to be advantageous to check in the instant she could, 24 hours in advance. As it was, her flight was overbooked by forty people, which stunned me. We were all sure it had to do with SeaTac being closed to any arrivals or departures all Friday morning, December 23, due to the ice storm. That clearly created a bottleneck of passengers needing to be rescheduled on Christmas Eve, a nuts day to be traveling even under the best of circumstances. Whatever the rationale, I still find the entire thing incredibly annoying. People love to rave about Alaska Airlines, and I have never had any experience with them that made me think they were great. The fucked me multiple times with "escort fees" when I used to have my brother's kids coming to visit me in the 2000s; they are relentless with shilling their stupid credit card while we are captive on their planes; and now this. I sort of understand the inclination to overbook flights as a matter of course to counter how often people miss their flights, but forty people? That's insane. And yes, it sucks for the people whose flights are canceled, but who does it serve to also punish people who had booked and reserved seats on other flights scheduled when an "act of God" is not happening? I just don't get it. There are now countless people who couldn't get home in time for Christmas on flights that were otherwise on time and scheduled when the weather closures didn't eve fucking happen! I don't have any idea what kind of attitude Shivangi had about it, I suppose I can ask her tomorrow. I tried to ask Shobhit: is she stressed? Angry? Just going with the flow? At least in her case, she doesn't even really celebrate Christmas anyway, plus the friend she had gone to visit L.A. with (she's actually going to college at Purdue in Indiana) actually lives in L.A. so she is able to stay with them these extra three nights. Still, holy shit: there was literally no available flight for her to be rescheduled on until December 27. That's a three-day delay. I'm sure her friends had other ideas of how these days were planned, although presumably they were hospitable and welcomed her to spend Christmas with them. It wasn't even clear whether Alaska Airlines would offer to put her in a hotel for this amount of time. I had multiple people ask about her over the past couple of days, because I had announced we would be bringing Shobhit's niece with us. As of now, they will still all get to meet her, as we'll be coming back down for the New Year's Day gathering at Dad and Sherri's house. Anyway, I got a lot of these updates while at Emperor's Palace for dinner with the family on Saturday evening. I ordered a new dish I don't usually get: vegetable lo mein. It was fine. After Jennifer ordered a second cocktail, I decided to order one, throwing caution to the wind—and was stunned later to find my cocktail had cost me all of $4.95. And it had been delicious! What the shit? Well, the restaurant's kitchen was backed up and we had been warned it would likely be a 45-minute wait for our food after we ordered. None of us was especially bothered, but our waiter, who tried very hard to be funny throughout dinner and really only ever succeeded in being deeply awkward, still applied a 20% discount on all of our bills. But okay, wait a minute—$4.95 resulting from a 20% discount would mean the cocktail would still only have started at $6.19. That's still insanely cheap. I still tipped based on the pre-discount total, and even factoring that in, I was stunned that a dinner that included a cocktail plus tip only set me back $21.20. After that we all went back to Dad and Sherri's place, where I joined Jennifer, Matthew, and the three kids to play Ian's Christmas present: Trivial Pursuit, Horror edition. I didn't realize it included way more stuff than just movies, and none of us had a clue what the answers were 80% of the time. Jennifer still managed to get within two wedges of legitimately winning the game; I got one wedge; and I got at least three questions right just by giving wild guesses. In the end we just decided Jennifer won because the game was taking too long, and it was already getting close to 9:30. I did give Jennifer her calendar, which was themed on "Dearly Departed" and focusing on both her dad (who died this year) and her sister (who died suddenly in 2019). I didn't know if it would make her emotional or not, and when she opened it, sitting at Dad and Sherri's fireplace, she did let out a kind of soft, "Oh!" She seemed to like it. And just as they were heading out the door, Ian, the youngest who is now 16, actually went out of his way to tell me how much he also appreciates the calendars I give, which I was rather struck by. It was a very nice and polite thing, especially for a kid of 16, to do.
2. Sherri
3. Gina
4. Beth
5. Angel
6. Brandi [Angel's daughter, my niece]
7. Nick [Brandi's husband]
8. Jaycee [Brandi and Nick's daughter]
9. Gianni [Brandi and Nick's son]
10. Enzo [Brandi and Nick's toddler]
11. Ricky [Angel's son]
12. Reyna [Ricky's girlfriend] 1
3. Raiden [Ricky and Rachel's son]
14. Ruby [Ricky and Rachel's daughter]
15. Britni [Angel's daughter]
16. Matthew
17. Shobhit This is two fewer than last year, because David and Jackie did not make it, now with their not one, but two children: because their new baby, Emily Noelle, was just born on Friday. And they live in Vancouver, WA. Presumably they'll come up next year, adding four to the number rather than just three. And beyond them, although last year's 19 would go down to 16 without them, Ricky brought his new girlfriend Reyna—whom we all just met in September at Leavenworth. Astonishingly, they came up from the greater L.A. area by car leaving late Friday evening and arriving late afternoon on Saturday. They said they drove straight through for 20 hours, with a brief stop at a Target in Oregon, plus some stops for gas. If I remember right they were to leave to drive back today. They did this with two small children, which was nuts to me, but hey, whatever works. It didn't really surprise me that Alex, Caitlin and their kids weren't there. I guess they went to Alex's dad's for the holiday. So, among Angel and Gina's kids, Brandi, Ricky and Britni made it; David and Alex did not. When it's not spring or summer and a gathering at Gina and Beth's has to be confined to the indoors, keeping the number under 20 is barely short of uncomfortable anyway. I did love the "Yule Log feed from Peacock that Gina had running on the flat screen TV mounted in their dining room, though. With several different animals coming out of frame, I took several shots of it, including multiple video clips. Animals that came and went included a group of kittens; one grown cat; a group of bunnies; a couple of dogs; even a pig—that last one I had to post to Shauna's Facebook page. Oh! Before I forget, I want to include the updated Christmas Roll Call history: 2011: 11
2012: 28
2013: 16
2014: 20
2015: 33
2016: 9
2017: 15
2018: 20
2019: 20
2020: 8 [four in person, just Dad and Sherri, Shobhit and me; four at a separate time on Zoom]
2021: 19
2022: 17 With the exception of Pandemic Year 2020, I'd say we've been holding firm at our near a count of 20 for the past five years, and that's a good, comfortable number I think. I'm good with it! Honestly I think there may be an even larger number at the second annual New Year's Gathering on the 1st; I'm going to have to start tracking Roll Calls for that too! There were 15 last year, but basically everyone who had been there at Gina and Beth's for Christmas said they planned on coming for New Year, as did Jennifer, and Shobhit and I will also be bringing Shivangi. (I'm hoping to stop by Gabriel's on the way down, as I have something for him, but last year it was just me and now it would be three of us, so we'll see how that pans out.) Shobhit headed out of Seattle yesterday morning at about a quarter after 9 a.m., as he needed to stop by SeaTac Airport to pick up Shivangi's suitcase—that did make it on her flight even though she did not! Can you believe that shit? I forgot to mention that: not only was she stranded in Los Angeles for an extra three days, but without any of her stuff! Again: fuck Alaska Airlines. He got the suitcase just fine. We were unsure for a bit whether he should come to Dad and Sherri's house first or go straight to Gina and Beth's, but then when Dad and Sherri finished getting ready and we got the car packed—including all of my stuff—we headed over there, and I told him to meet us at Gina and Beth's. Kind of amazingly, he pulled up at their house literally as I was helping Dad and Sherri unload their car. I hadn't even gotten into the house yet. I was, however, able then, immediately, to just transfer my stuff from their car to ours. I also put a very nice new suitcase Angel gave us, saying it's way too big for her. Shobhit later noted it is designed for suits you don't want to fold, but it's still very large and contains tons of separate compartments for just my kind of organizational opportunities, so I still think it will be perfect for taking to Australia with us. She was pretty sure it's this Tumi bag which retails for nearly $1,300 and I think she's right. I was all for taking it, since the two large suitcases we would otherwise be bringing are literally falling apart and we are long overdue for replacements. Shivangi's suitcase was in the trunk, so I had to put the Tumi bag in the back seat. Between that and my bags brought for overnight and the leftovers we also wound up taking, we had a lot to bring up to the condo when we got home last night. Anyway, I was able to give five of the seven remaining "Childhood Toys" calendars out in person while there: for Gina and Beth; for Angel; Brandi and Nick; for Ricky (I suppose I'll have to add Reyna to the calendar next year, assuming they're still together); and for Britni. I left David and Jackie's with Gina and Beth, and wound up needing to do the same with Alex and Caitlin's because Angel forgot to take it. This makes the sixteenth time I have made calendars in 17 years, having started them with the 2007 calendars given for Christmas 2006. I stopped including family beyond Dad and Sherri and their descendants after only two years, thanks to the infamous letter from my cousin Troy in 2008, telling me not to put their names on my calendars because "your lifestyle is an abomination." I sort of wish I still had that letter, but also still kind of love that I burned it. That's what I think of your letter, motherfucker! The only year I didn't make a calendar was 2011 (so no 2012 calendar), because I diverted my energies that year to creating the Grandma McQuilin tribute video after she died, of which I remain very proud. People at Christmas 2011 seemed to appreciate it enough—although it's only occurring to me now that perhaps I did that project too soon, only months after Grandma's death—but they were definitely even more disappointed that they did not get a calendar, after five years of being conditioned to expect one. Ever since then, I haven't missed a year, although even last year I was wondering whether times had changed enough over the intervening decade to elicit less disappointment if I were to stop making them. I still kind of doubt it. People still like to have calendars for their walls, and I still get pretty consistent, open appreciation for them: Angel even told me she thought this year's was the best one yet. (The theme had been her idea, actually, posed to me in Leavenworth in September, but I don't think she was even thinking about that.) The thing is, these things take both a lot of effort—many hours of work—and a lot of money. Before tax it costs roughly $20 to print each one, and I had fifteen printed this year. Plus, I had to send three of them in the mail, and because of their dimensions I had to use flat-rate boxes for each that were more than $17 apiece; mailing those out cost me over $51 alone. All together, I spent a combined $389.43 on calendars this year. Now granted, I will have notes for next year to remind me to be smarter about it; I had thought it would be easier, and maybe cheaper, to have the calendars for Christopher, Nikki and Becca sent to me first so I could wrap and send them out, and the result was the opposite. It will be a lot cheaper for me to ship those ones direct next year, which I'm guessing will shave, say, $40 off that total cost, That still leaves a good $350 or so, an expense I have always been able to cover by cashing out PTO at work. This was the final year they are allowing us to do that though, so once I know what my salary will be in 2023, I think I'm going to add "calendar expense" as a budgeted line item split between all of my 2023 paychecks, so I don't have this lump sum I haven't budgeted for to cover the cost next Christmas. Angel has already given me an idea for the 2024 calendar theme, and I think I may use it. Okay so, what else? Shobhit made samosas, I mentioned that didn't I? He used the red and green food coloring we've had for many years now to make the samosas those colors—the first time he did that was in 2007, and I'm pretty sure we've just had the same food coloring all this time. I figured it was still fine to use. He's brought samosas for Christmas more times than this, but he used the food coloring again in 2008 and in 2017. Gianni, my 7-year-old grandnephew and Brandi's middle child, took one look at the samosas and declined even trying one. "The green ones look like barf!" he said. Shobhit responded, "Your barf is green?" Oh. We also had a White Elephant gift exchange, a new activity for Christmas at Gina and Beth's. And the rules they laid out for this, they gave a $20 maximum limit, and made it clear they did not want these to be gag gifts: bring something you would want to get as a gift, they stressed in the Facebook Event invite. I wanted to participate but didn't want to have to spend money on it, so, just as with what I put in both Shobhit's and Shivangi's Christmas stockings (she'll get to open hers tomorrow), I just grabbed samples from work: I wrapped two tins of Lake Champlain Chocolates hot chocolate together—one Original and one Mocha; I put the Spicy Mexican in Shobhit's stocking and he made us some of that on Saturday morning; it was too spicy for me. It wound up being the last gift chosen, and it was opened by Gina in the end, slightly ironic since I had already asked her if she had hot chocolate that I could make to put some of the booze shots I had brought with me (I used whipped cream vodka, very tasty in it) and they already had a very large tin of Swiss Miss cocoa powder. I have no idea if it makes any difference to them, but samples or not, this Lake Champlain hot chocolate is very high quality product, each tin retailing for about $13—which means the two I wrapped together had a retail value of $26. Maybe I'll just go out of my way to have some when I am at Gina and Beth's house next. Ha! As for what I brought home from the gift exchange: the gift I opened was an electric hand warmer, which I felt kind of indifferent about; I wasn't likely to use it much, if at all. I traded it with Gina for the mini panini maker that came with the MyMini 4-pack "Value Set" someone opened and apparently didn't want all of; I didn't either. Shobhit found the "Value Set" at walmart.com for $15, and all I could think about was how products like this are literally junk by design: these appliances will work for a short while, short out, and wind up in landfill, only to be replaced by more cheap junk. It's astonishing how even after years of increasing awareness of these issues, crassly wasteful consumerism still makes the world go round. And, now we have a mini panini maker. All of our bread is too big for it. I suppose we'll still figure out some use for it. The thing is, it remains even more useful than the hand warmers ever would be to me. When the Facebook Event invite was first sent out, it listed the hours as 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. It was maybe on Friday that the hours were changed to 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Most of the people there had other stops on their Christmas Day Tour, and the whole group was not there until about 1:00, which was the scheduled time of the White Elephant gift exchange. The whole thing wound down at 4:00 organically anyway, and Shobhit and I were the last to leave, but only a few minutes after the second-to-last left. Most everyone left around the same time. I did have a good time, and between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day ended up with a photo album of 77 shots. Sunday, December 25: Wilson St Winter Wonderland
2. Sherri
3. Me
4. Jennifer
5. Matthew
6. Hope
7. Chase
8. Ian Mind you, this is after there was no Christmas Eve dinner out at a restaurant in 2020, for the first year since 2011; and the group last year having been whittled down to just three, with Dad and Sherri and me—because Jennifer and Matthew had other plans for Christmas Eve last year. Dad and I were kind of assuming the same would be the case this year, but when I messaged Jennifer to ask, Should I assume you have other plans on Christmas Eve again? she replied, No why? And thus, a return to the traditional Christmas Eve dinner with Jennifer's family joining us was planned—Jennifer even told me her kids ask about it every year, which was sweet to hear. This actually brought us right back to the same count we had the last time Jennifer and her family were able to join us. Here's a log of the Christmas Eve Dinner counts since 2012 (*asterisked years include Jennifer): 2012: 5
2013: 9*
2014: 4 [at Lemon Grass]
2015: 7*
2016: 11*
2017: 7* [at Applebee's due to Emperor's Palace snow closure]
2018: 10*
2019: 8*
2020: 0
2021: 3
2022: 8* The extras in 2018 had been Aunt Raenae and Shobhit—the last year Shobhit joined for Christmas Eve dinner—and the ones missing from Jennifer's family in both 2017 and 2015 were Hope and Chase. 2016 was the one year Gina and Beth joined us—that was the first year Beth was around, but after that they started their own Christmas Eve dinner tradition with friends at their place. In 2014 we actually went to eat at a place called Lemo Grass, with just Dad and Sherri, Shobhit and me. In 2013 Jennifer joined us for dinner by herself without the rest of her family, but that year we ate with Grandpa McQuilkin and several other family members. 2012 was again just Dad and Sherri, Shobhit and me, but also with Grandpa McQuilkin added. It actually wasn't until 2016 that I started the practice of getting a group shot of everyone at the table for Christmas Eve Dinner, which is why I also have a photo album dedicated just to the history of those dinners—older ones represented by photos I took of my fortune cookies. Anyway, Christmas Eve dinner was lovely as usual, and always nice to get to see Jennifer, especially since I wasn't able to on Christmas Eve last year. I did wish Shobhit was with us, but he was supposed to be going to SeaTac to pick up Shivangi, who was to be staying with us in our guest room in Seattle from Saturday night through January 5. Well, now she's not arriving until late tomorrow morning. I learned this while I was at dinner on Saturday: she didn't make it onto her flight. It didn't sound like she was late, although I do wonder if the timing of her checkin was a factor—and being a comparatively inexperienced 22-year-old, she wouldn't necessarily have known it to be advantageous to check in the instant she could, 24 hours in advance. As it was, her flight was overbooked by forty people, which stunned me. We were all sure it had to do with SeaTac being closed to any arrivals or departures all Friday morning, December 23, due to the ice storm. That clearly created a bottleneck of passengers needing to be rescheduled on Christmas Eve, a nuts day to be traveling even under the best of circumstances. Whatever the rationale, I still find the entire thing incredibly annoying. People love to rave about Alaska Airlines, and I have never had any experience with them that made me think they were great. The fucked me multiple times with "escort fees" when I used to have my brother's kids coming to visit me in the 2000s; they are relentless with shilling their stupid credit card while we are captive on their planes; and now this. I sort of understand the inclination to overbook flights as a matter of course to counter how often people miss their flights, but forty people? That's insane. And yes, it sucks for the people whose flights are canceled, but who does it serve to also punish people who had booked and reserved seats on other flights scheduled when an "act of God" is not happening? I just don't get it. There are now countless people who couldn't get home in time for Christmas on flights that were otherwise on time and scheduled when the weather closures didn't eve fucking happen! I don't have any idea what kind of attitude Shivangi had about it, I suppose I can ask her tomorrow. I tried to ask Shobhit: is she stressed? Angry? Just going with the flow? At least in her case, she doesn't even really celebrate Christmas anyway, plus the friend she had gone to visit L.A. with (she's actually going to college at Purdue in Indiana) actually lives in L.A. so she is able to stay with them these extra three nights. Still, holy shit: there was literally no available flight for her to be rescheduled on until December 27. That's a three-day delay. I'm sure her friends had other ideas of how these days were planned, although presumably they were hospitable and welcomed her to spend Christmas with them. It wasn't even clear whether Alaska Airlines would offer to put her in a hotel for this amount of time. I had multiple people ask about her over the past couple of days, because I had announced we would be bringing Shobhit's niece with us. As of now, they will still all get to meet her, as we'll be coming back down for the New Year's Day gathering at Dad and Sherri's house. Anyway, I got a lot of these updates while at Emperor's Palace for dinner with the family on Saturday evening. I ordered a new dish I don't usually get: vegetable lo mein. It was fine. After Jennifer ordered a second cocktail, I decided to order one, throwing caution to the wind—and was stunned later to find my cocktail had cost me all of $4.95. And it had been delicious! What the shit? Well, the restaurant's kitchen was backed up and we had been warned it would likely be a 45-minute wait for our food after we ordered. None of us was especially bothered, but our waiter, who tried very hard to be funny throughout dinner and really only ever succeeded in being deeply awkward, still applied a 20% discount on all of our bills. But okay, wait a minute—$4.95 resulting from a 20% discount would mean the cocktail would still only have started at $6.19. That's still insanely cheap. I still tipped based on the pre-discount total, and even factoring that in, I was stunned that a dinner that included a cocktail plus tip only set me back $21.20. After that we all went back to Dad and Sherri's place, where I joined Jennifer, Matthew, and the three kids to play Ian's Christmas present: Trivial Pursuit, Horror edition. I didn't realize it included way more stuff than just movies, and none of us had a clue what the answers were 80% of the time. Jennifer still managed to get within two wedges of legitimately winning the game; I got one wedge; and I got at least three questions right just by giving wild guesses. In the end we just decided Jennifer won because the game was taking too long, and it was already getting close to 9:30. I did give Jennifer her calendar, which was themed on "Dearly Departed" and focusing on both her dad (who died this year) and her sister (who died suddenly in 2019). I didn't know if it would make her emotional or not, and when she opened it, sitting at Dad and Sherri's fireplace, she did let out a kind of soft, "Oh!" She seemed to like it. And just as they were heading out the door, Ian, the youngest who is now 16, actually went out of his way to tell me how much he also appreciates the calendars I give, which I was rather struck by. It was a very nice and polite thing, especially for a kid of 16, to do.
2. Sherri
3. Gina
4. Beth
5. Angel
6. Brandi [Angel's daughter, my niece]
7. Nick [Brandi's husband]
8. Jaycee [Brandi and Nick's daughter]
9. Gianni [Brandi and Nick's son]
10. Enzo [Brandi and Nick's toddler]
11. Ricky [Angel's son]
12. Reyna [Ricky's girlfriend] 1
3. Raiden [Ricky and Rachel's son]
14. Ruby [Ricky and Rachel's daughter]
15. Britni [Angel's daughter]
16. Matthew
17. Shobhit This is two fewer than last year, because David and Jackie did not make it, now with their not one, but two children: because their new baby, Emily Noelle, was just born on Friday. And they live in Vancouver, WA. Presumably they'll come up next year, adding four to the number rather than just three. And beyond them, although last year's 19 would go down to 16 without them, Ricky brought his new girlfriend Reyna—whom we all just met in September at Leavenworth. Astonishingly, they came up from the greater L.A. area by car leaving late Friday evening and arriving late afternoon on Saturday. They said they drove straight through for 20 hours, with a brief stop at a Target in Oregon, plus some stops for gas. If I remember right they were to leave to drive back today. They did this with two small children, which was nuts to me, but hey, whatever works. It didn't really surprise me that Alex, Caitlin and their kids weren't there. I guess they went to Alex's dad's for the holiday. So, among Angel and Gina's kids, Brandi, Ricky and Britni made it; David and Alex did not. When it's not spring or summer and a gathering at Gina and Beth's has to be confined to the indoors, keeping the number under 20 is barely short of uncomfortable anyway. I did love the "Yule Log feed from Peacock that Gina had running on the flat screen TV mounted in their dining room, though. With several different animals coming out of frame, I took several shots of it, including multiple video clips. Animals that came and went included a group of kittens; one grown cat; a group of bunnies; a couple of dogs; even a pig—that last one I had to post to Shauna's Facebook page. Oh! Before I forget, I want to include the updated Christmas Roll Call history: 2011: 11
2012: 28
2013: 16
2014: 20
2015: 33
2016: 9
2017: 15
2018: 20
2019: 20
2020: 8 [four in person, just Dad and Sherri, Shobhit and me; four at a separate time on Zoom]
2021: 19
2022: 17 With the exception of Pandemic Year 2020, I'd say we've been holding firm at our near a count of 20 for the past five years, and that's a good, comfortable number I think. I'm good with it! Honestly I think there may be an even larger number at the second annual New Year's Gathering on the 1st; I'm going to have to start tracking Roll Calls for that too! There were 15 last year, but basically everyone who had been there at Gina and Beth's for Christmas said they planned on coming for New Year, as did Jennifer, and Shobhit and I will also be bringing Shivangi. (I'm hoping to stop by Gabriel's on the way down, as I have something for him, but last year it was just me and now it would be three of us, so we'll see how that pans out.) Shobhit headed out of Seattle yesterday morning at about a quarter after 9 a.m., as he needed to stop by SeaTac Airport to pick up Shivangi's suitcase—that did make it on her flight even though she did not! Can you believe that shit? I forgot to mention that: not only was she stranded in Los Angeles for an extra three days, but without any of her stuff! Again: fuck Alaska Airlines. He got the suitcase just fine. We were unsure for a bit whether he should come to Dad and Sherri's house first or go straight to Gina and Beth's, but then when Dad and Sherri finished getting ready and we got the car packed—including all of my stuff—we headed over there, and I told him to meet us at Gina and Beth's. Kind of amazingly, he pulled up at their house literally as I was helping Dad and Sherri unload their car. I hadn't even gotten into the house yet. I was, however, able then, immediately, to just transfer my stuff from their car to ours. I also put a very nice new suitcase Angel gave us, saying it's way too big for her. Shobhit later noted it is designed for suits you don't want to fold, but it's still very large and contains tons of separate compartments for just my kind of organizational opportunities, so I still think it will be perfect for taking to Australia with us. She was pretty sure it's this Tumi bag which retails for nearly $1,300 and I think she's right. I was all for taking it, since the two large suitcases we would otherwise be bringing are literally falling apart and we are long overdue for replacements. Shivangi's suitcase was in the trunk, so I had to put the Tumi bag in the back seat. Between that and my bags brought for overnight and the leftovers we also wound up taking, we had a lot to bring up to the condo when we got home last night. Anyway, I was able to give five of the seven remaining "Childhood Toys" calendars out in person while there: for Gina and Beth; for Angel; Brandi and Nick; for Ricky (I suppose I'll have to add Reyna to the calendar next year, assuming they're still together); and for Britni. I left David and Jackie's with Gina and Beth, and wound up needing to do the same with Alex and Caitlin's because Angel forgot to take it. This makes the sixteenth time I have made calendars in 17 years, having started them with the 2007 calendars given for Christmas 2006. I stopped including family beyond Dad and Sherri and their descendants after only two years, thanks to the infamous letter from my cousin Troy in 2008, telling me not to put their names on my calendars because "your lifestyle is an abomination." I sort of wish I still had that letter, but also still kind of love that I burned it. That's what I think of your letter, motherfucker! The only year I didn't make a calendar was 2011 (so no 2012 calendar), because I diverted my energies that year to creating the Grandma McQuilin tribute video after she died, of which I remain very proud. People at Christmas 2011 seemed to appreciate it enough—although it's only occurring to me now that perhaps I did that project too soon, only months after Grandma's death—but they were definitely even more disappointed that they did not get a calendar, after five years of being conditioned to expect one. Ever since then, I haven't missed a year, although even last year I was wondering whether times had changed enough over the intervening decade to elicit less disappointment if I were to stop making them. I still kind of doubt it. People still like to have calendars for their walls, and I still get pretty consistent, open appreciation for them: Angel even told me she thought this year's was the best one yet. (The theme had been her idea, actually, posed to me in Leavenworth in September, but I don't think she was even thinking about that.) The thing is, these things take both a lot of effort—many hours of work—and a lot of money. Before tax it costs roughly $20 to print each one, and I had fifteen printed this year. Plus, I had to send three of them in the mail, and because of their dimensions I had to use flat-rate boxes for each that were more than $17 apiece; mailing those out cost me over $51 alone. All together, I spent a combined $389.43 on calendars this year. Now granted, I will have notes for next year to remind me to be smarter about it; I had thought it would be easier, and maybe cheaper, to have the calendars for Christopher, Nikki and Becca sent to me first so I could wrap and send them out, and the result was the opposite. It will be a lot cheaper for me to ship those ones direct next year, which I'm guessing will shave, say, $40 off that total cost, That still leaves a good $350 or so, an expense I have always been able to cover by cashing out PTO at work. This was the final year they are allowing us to do that though, so once I know what my salary will be in 2023, I think I'm going to add "calendar expense" as a budgeted line item split between all of my 2023 paychecks, so I don't have this lump sum I haven't budgeted for to cover the cost next Christmas. Angel has already given me an idea for the 2024 calendar theme, and I think I may use it. Okay so, what else? Shobhit made samosas, I mentioned that didn't I? He used the red and green food coloring we've had for many years now to make the samosas those colors—the first time he did that was in 2007, and I'm pretty sure we've just had the same food coloring all this time. I figured it was still fine to use. He's brought samosas for Christmas more times than this, but he used the food coloring again in 2008 and in 2017. Gianni, my 7-year-old grandnephew and Brandi's middle child, took one look at the samosas and declined even trying one. "The green ones look like barf!" he said. Shobhit responded, "Your barf is green?" Oh. We also had a White Elephant gift exchange, a new activity for Christmas at Gina and Beth's. And the rules they laid out for this, they gave a $20 maximum limit, and made it clear they did not want these to be gag gifts: bring something you would want to get as a gift, they stressed in the Facebook Event invite. I wanted to participate but didn't want to have to spend money on it, so, just as with what I put in both Shobhit's and Shivangi's Christmas stockings (she'll get to open hers tomorrow), I just grabbed samples from work: I wrapped two tins of Lake Champlain Chocolates hot chocolate together—one Original and one Mocha; I put the Spicy Mexican in Shobhit's stocking and he made us some of that on Saturday morning; it was too spicy for me. It wound up being the last gift chosen, and it was opened by Gina in the end, slightly ironic since I had already asked her if she had hot chocolate that I could make to put some of the booze shots I had brought with me (I used whipped cream vodka, very tasty in it) and they already had a very large tin of Swiss Miss cocoa powder. I have no idea if it makes any difference to them, but samples or not, this Lake Champlain hot chocolate is very high quality product, each tin retailing for about $13—which means the two I wrapped together had a retail value of $26. Maybe I'll just go out of my way to have some when I am at Gina and Beth's house next. Ha! As for what I brought home from the gift exchange: the gift I opened was an electric hand warmer, which I felt kind of indifferent about; I wasn't likely to use it much, if at all. I traded it with Gina for the mini panini maker that came with the MyMini 4-pack "Value Set" someone opened and apparently didn't want all of; I didn't either. Shobhit found the "Value Set" at walmart.com for $15, and all I could think about was how products like this are literally junk by design: these appliances will work for a short while, short out, and wind up in landfill, only to be replaced by more cheap junk. It's astonishing how even after years of increasing awareness of these issues, crassly wasteful consumerism still makes the world go round. And, now we have a mini panini maker. All of our bread is too big for it. I suppose we'll still figure out some use for it. The thing is, it remains even more useful than the hand warmers ever would be to me. When the Facebook Event invite was first sent out, it listed the hours as 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. It was maybe on Friday that the hours were changed to 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Most of the people there had other stops on their Christmas Day Tour, and the whole group was not there until about 1:00, which was the scheduled time of the White Elephant gift exchange. The whole thing wound down at 4:00 organically anyway, and Shobhit and I were the last to leave, but only a few minutes after the second-to-last left. Most everyone left around the same time. I did have a good time, and between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day ended up with a photo album of 77 shots. Sunday, December 25: Wilson St Winter Wonderland