'Twas the night before Christmas (Or, That was the plan, but what happened was ...)

After lunch John and Lucy checked in by phone about their travel plans. They were supposed to take the train up from Chicago, but there was no word on what was happening with the train -- scheduled to leave at 2:15 and arrive here at 5:52. Time for the train came and went, and still no information on when it might actually arrive from elsewhere and then depart. (Yesterday it was running about four hours late.)

Lucy was thinking they could drive, but she has the flu, it is a four hour drive on a good day, they would not be able to get away probably before four, the roads between here and there range between snow-covered to slippery, the traffic out of Chicago would be horrendous and so on. After much back-and-forthing of phone calls, they finally were convinced that the sane thing to do was to stay in Chicago and go celebrate Christmas Eve with their grandparents. (There is a whole tradition at the Anastaplo house which includes reading aloud Dicken's A Christmas Carol.) As it turned out, the train was five and a half hours late leaving Chicago, so they chose wisely.

Helen and Jay were on the road by the time this was decided, and since they don't have a cell phone -- I told Tom that is what they need for Christmas, given how much they travel -- we could not reach them to consult. They got in a bit before 5:00 and after discussing options, Tom and Jay went toWalmart for some coffee filters for the new coffee pot (and to look at HDTV's.) While they were gone, Helen and I finished decorating the tree. Then we all sat down to consume some semi-Texan chili Tom had been simmering for hours on the stove. After that, Helen put on the roast (that was to have been our Christmas dinner) to cook. They will take it with them when they head to Chicago tomorrow morning.

We bagged up the gifts for Lucy and John for Helen and Jay to take with them tomorrow as well, and then we exchanged our gifts. I got a digital camera from Tom and some special coffees and other treats from Rich and Peggy. Tom got some train and tractor cookie cutters and cake pans from Rich and Peggy, and a couple of red railroad lanterns from me. From Santa he got a movie poster of Brokeback Mountain that had been autographed by the director and stars. Now the trick is figuring out how to frame it. Helen and Jay got books and coffee mugs and such practical things. They had already given us their gift -- what should have been a year's supply of pistachios, except we have already eaten our way more than halfway through them.

Eventually Helen went off to their room to read and go to sleep while Tom and Jay watched The Great Escape. I came in here to my room to finish this up before turning in myself.

One early Christmas gift to me was a great conversation with my friend Steve Comeau in Maryland. I called him this morning while sitting in the truck in the snow while Tom made a Walmart run. I didn't expect to reach him, because Steve was supposed to have gone to Maine to spend Christmas with his mother and his cell phone doesn't work there. (As it turns out, it does now, but he wasn't in Maine anyway.) That is a story I will share some other time, a real holiday travel nightmare that involved a flight to JFK from Baltimore and then back, after spending the night in the terminal and never getting to Maine at all. So instead of just leaving a message on his phone, I got to talk to him and that was a real treat. I also put in a call to Rick in Iowa, but I didn't get through to him. I'll try again after the holiday rush.

And with that, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!