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Alyse gets measured all over for a new Ritual robe and cape. We go to Walmart the day before Christmas… one of the “What Not To Do.” Then we settled in for a relaxing evening. Papa and I were up watching very old black and white Sherlock Homes episodes. These were so old that they were pre-Basil Rathbone, and of course, he IS Sherlock Homes. We tried to guess who did it, and sometimes we were right! Alyse slept through all the exciting twists and turns…
Papa helped me re-rack my mead. The gallon jugs were ready to go into their final bottles, but there was still so much ginger suspended in the 3 gallon carboy that we had to rack it back into another carboy. Finally got to taste a little of it as it went from one place to another. Very disappointing! Good alcohol content, but the flavor was bland. You would not want a second date. However, it was fun to work with Papa.
Time to stuff the bird. Got a goose this year. I didn’t know a goose has only dark meat. Niki only likes white, so she ended up not having any at all. A goose seems to have thicker skin than a turkey and definitely has more fat. Papa found it hard to keep it from walking around as he stitched it up. Notice the comparison shot on the left.
The cats called a brief truce.
Papa brought down a very old cast iron toy cooking wood stove. It had been Grandma’s and before that our great Aunt’s. Strangely enough, Niki had come for a visit the weekend before and she had actually mentioned this particular piece. We had seen one much smaller and less fancy at Mast General Store and she reminisced about Grandma’s and how we would spend hours playing with it. So when Papa just happened to bring this down from WV, I knew immediately it was on its way to Niki’s, where we celebrated Yule. What a coincidence, hu?
Papa always hands out the packages. All of us really made out like bandits! And Papa got me exactly what I wanted: food. Not just any food. He made and canned chicken noodle soup and beef vegetable soup for me. AND his secret BBQ sauce and world famous chili! 6 pints of each, so I am set for a while! This is one of the MANY “The Good” parts.
Then… The Incident. Niki raises birds and had a blue fronted parrot out on a perch. It kept shuffling along on its perch towards me saying a friendly, “Hello… hello…” except that it sounded kind of like “hey-roo.” So I said hello back a few times, when suddenly… it attacked! It flew straight at my left eye and grabbed hold of my eye lid. This bird is the “The Bad” part.
After taking stock of the damage, we decided to go to the emergency room—on Christmas Day. Another “What Not to Do.” Turned out the blood clumps in my eye were just that—coagulated blood. Most of the blood was coming from the cuts on my eyelid--no permanent damage to my cornea. Other than fuzzy vision out of that eye for a couple of days, pretty red and purple marks around my eye and on my lid and a gummy substance caking my eye shut, I was fine. I was “The Ugly” part. Alyse said I was vogue-ing the hospital gown.
I thought the fancy ice pack would cost me about $200.00. The bill was $311. To add insult to injury…
Niki got Papa to trim up her bangs while we were there.
Ok, here are the obligatory posed portraits… And a new Formal Family Portrait at "the end."
