Little Colored Lights

Started out the morning with Christmas music and something a little different for breakfast. I cut the last of the Rye-Whole Wheat Bread into strips (as well as I could with the dense bread) and made Multi-Grain French Toast Sticks. Dipped them in the real maple syrup I bought yesterday and had a half a grapefruit.

I called Rose while the Brunch With the Beatles show saluted the music of John Lennon. I hadn't heard from her in a while, and I wanted to hear how her pregnancy was going and if she'd talked to Mom. She was fine mood-wise, but feeling nauseous again. Apparently, there are now certain foods, like cheese, that her stomach can't handle.

And I asked for Christmas Eve off or to work early in order to go down to Cape May County with Rose and Craig. I haven't been down there on Christmas since 2005. I doubt I'll get either, but...I'd like to try.

Work was busy for most of the day, not surprising on the day of an early Eagles game. They were playing the Falcons today, hoping for their third win in a row and to pull ahead of the Dallas Cowboys in the race for the playoffs. My relief was a little late, but not enough that I wasn't able to buy Multi-Grain Chex and run home.

The guys who had fixed the tub and the front door were there when I arrived, adding a flap to the bottom of the front door. I went inside quickly to use the bathroom and drop off my cereal, then headed right back out to Uncle Ken's. Dolores was at the Acme just as I was arriving and said they would have kielbasa and there would be people around.

Yes, there were people there, Uncle Ken's daughter Samantha and her family, Dolores' grandchildren Mercedes and Blake, and Uncle Ken's friend Al. The Eagles game was over by then; yes, they won, 34-7, thanks to some nice plays by quarterbacks Donovan McNab and Michael Vick, the latter returning to Atlanta after two years. They were running the Giants-Cowboys game as I was there. I had dinner, chatted with Dolores and Samantha, and played WebKinz on Dolores' laptop with Mercedes and Blake.

I walked home on my own around quarter of 6. It was a lovely, clear late-fall evening. The air had the tang of firewood and wood stoves and crisp winter air. It was very cold, much colder than it has been. Christmas lights stood out against the navy-blue night, bright and lovely.

There were elegant white icicle strings that hung from roofs like yellow Spanish moss. There were blue strings around trees and red around windows, ones that blinked, and ones that weren't traditional colors at all, purples and oranges and pinks. My favorites were the multi-colored strings that graced porch railings and bushes. They looked like splashes of Crayolas against the shadows of forest-green and roof shingle brown.

(Oh, and I later discovered when I went online that, although the Cowboys were winning when I left, the Giants eventually came back and won 31-24.)