Lovely to see you, Karl. Be well and safe.
Shir, I'm so sorry to hear about Batcat. He was lucky to have you as a servant.
For Christmas dinner we had cheeseburgers--a rare indulgence for us, and potato salad for him and homemade shells and cheese for me. We watched Diehard two nights before last, and suffered through D2 on Christmas Eve--you know, with Sipowicz, Senator Whosit, Franco Nero, and the airport? Least fave Diehard. But last night we watched D3, with baby Aldis Hodge, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Irons--yummy. I don't know if we'll watch D4 tonight, with Justin Long essentially repeating his Galaxy Quest role, Timothy Olyphant, Maggie Q, and a fave of mine, Cliff Curtis. Or we could save it till NYE. "You took out a helicopter! With a car!"
The tree's been up, pre-lit, for days, and I got the ornaments on during Christmas Eve day. I got the candle clips and candles on the tree Christmas morning, and H "adjusted placement" on the ornaments. I got the toys displayed 'round the base of the tree. The last thing that needed doing was red tapers for the brass trumpet candlesticks--couldn't find them (we reuse them year after year, rarely light them for longer than it takes for a picture) where I'd safely stored them. And it occured to me they don't *have* to be red, so went with pre-used white tapers, slipped the greenery, cones, and berries candle rings onto the candles, et voila. Music on the stereo (hand-selected no vocals Charlie Byrd, Tingstadt and Rumbel, etc.) and a crackling fire on the teevee, and a blessedly lovely day ensued. The self-described 'annoying neighbor' (he asks H for help with maintenance tasks. 'I don't know this stuff. I'm just a trombone player'- with several famous bands--Basie being the current one) brought over a bottle of red. Another neighbor dropped off a box of homemade cookies. Nice.