Merry Christmas everyone! I got in a run in the redwoods, and a hot shower (how are we so lucky to have hot water on demand, think of that!), and ate a custard bun, and now I'm on my way to my sister's to start working on the turkey.

I do not understand all the people who can spend most of Christmas day reading the Yuletide archive: my holiday is always quite busy!

I have made my dutiful Christmas Day phone call, and now if all goes well I won't have to speak to another person until tomorrow. ::fingers crossed::

Turns out this is almost certainly not food poisoning, because now Tim has stomach woes as well. This is probably some kind of gastroenteritis, which blows. We're going to do a drive-by to drop off presents for his family, and then come back home and eat bland food.

We did take Covid tests just to be sure, because Covid can have gastrointestinal symptoms. Tests were negative, so at least we've got that going for us.

Tep and Tim...the worst. Have had a few childhood Xmas ruined like that.

Ugh! I'm sorry, Teppy. May this pass quickly, so to speak.

It is unpleasant. Do not want.

{{{Tep and Tim}}} I hope it passes quickly

Ugh I was looking at my Facebook memories and saw the year we had norovirus from Santa…hope it passes quickly Teppy!

I’ll be reading Yuletide later, but for now am in the hot tub with a fresh mimosa…

Oh no, Teppy! Fingers crossed y'all feel better soon.

Elaine came through surgery OK, though they've pushed back her expected discharge date to the 27th. On Saturday we thought she'd just broken the tibia, but it turned out the fibula was broken too. We hung out with her yesterday evening until I had to leave to be one of the readers at my church's late Christmas Eve service (which is an annual favorite of mine, what with all the candles and carols).

We had our standard family gift opening followed by a late breakfast of waffles, but now I'm doing laundry because the hampers were overflowing and we were starting to run low on socks and soft pants, and Dylan is going back to the hospital in a few hours. Fortunately we don't do a major production for Christmas dinner with just three people. This year I picked it up from a catering service, so we'll just treat it like elaborate and festive leftovers and heat it up as the spirit/stomach moves.

So it's sort of a weird Christmas, but we're getting through it.

Emmett, Emily and Mia have left so Matilda and I will be doing cleanup today.

We talked about her less than we did at Thanksgiving, but Christmas missed Jacqueline more.

Still, we had a fun Xmas eve. Emily made a glorious beef filet tenderloin, and served Rhode Island Clam Chowder (neither cream like New England, nor tomato based like New York, but clam broth focused with potatoes. Clean, simple and savory).

Lots of laughter, but everybody crapped out early. I was the last one up at 10pm.

Morning started early because we had been told Mia would be picked up by 10am, so we were all out and up by 8:15. Lots of lovely presents. I got E&M both posh hotel style robes. Matilda got cowboy boot with roses on them. Emmett got a new chef's knife and a bomber jacket. Emily got pink Doc Marten Mary Janes. Mia got a variety of goth-ish flavored books.

I made steak and eggs for everybody for breakfast with Emily's homemade focaccia, and Mia didn't actually get picked up until Noon so Matilda had plenty of time to hang with her.

I'm going out for a walk now to see if the supermarket is open so I can buy some more pods for the dishwasher.

Tonight, Matilda and I will go see the Boy and the Heron in Japantown.