The 12 Days of Christmasish

I had grand plans for the week before Christmas, including two half-days off of work. Unfortunately, some virulent strand of influenza (or a really bad sinus infection accompanied by a mild fever) had other plans. I managed an hour or two at work both last Wednesday and Thursday, and stayed at home feeling rather blah on Friday. Nikole also was sick, though she lagged me by about 12 hours and has the added benefit of being pregnant, which apparently adds 63 days to your recovery time from any illness.

Since Nikole's mom was at our house when I got home on Wednesday -- scrubbing and vacuuming the devil out of our home -- and our power was out for no reason (making for a cold, cold house), I skipped out to run a few errands. (That is not an indictment on Nikole's mom, who I really adore. I just couldn't imagine sitting around sneezing and doing nothing while she worked her fanny off.) Nikole napped.

We watched "Waitress" together Wednesday night. That Adrienne Shelly was something else. And for some reason, nothing warms my cockerels like a little Andy Griffith.

I made it for about two hours at work on Thursday before coming home to sleep. I got out of the house during the middle of the afternoon to reclaim my MacBook from the gurus at Capitol Mac, and spent several hours trying to transfer my old files from my iBook with its dead logic board onto my MacBook with its new (and empty) hard drive. By Thursday night, I managed to recover all of my data up through August. Better most than none, I suppose.

Nikole and I rallied for a few hours on Friday, and headed out for the annual pilgrimage to Richmond's cemeteries with my mom. First stop, Pharr Out's offices to drop off a necklace for Ross to give Valerie. Next stop, Hollywood Cemetery to put some greenery on the graves of my mom's parents at the Heindl family plot -- along with a detour to visit the Harvey family's gravesite. Sad stuff.

We then zipped through downtown and across the Fourth Street Bridge, or whatever road takes you across the Shockoe Valley into Highland Park. My dad's parents are buried at Holy Cross Cemetery at the edge of Highland Park. As we meandered up through Highland Park to Brookland Parkway and then up Hawthorne Avenue, my mom recounted her childhood in the area. More than anything else, we enjoyed just spending time with her learning more about how she grew up.

Saturday, we dropped Rilo off for her weekend at Diamond Dog Daycare and headed for Deltaville for Christmas with Nikole's grandfather, his wife, and her dad. Her brother and sister-in-law were an hour behind us on the highway. Unfortunately, wires got crossed and no one was expecting us. Thankfully, Nikole's grandfather's wife, Phyllis, isn't one to take surprises lying down -- we had a great afternoon catching up with everyone, did a little shopping in town and enjoyed fresh rockfish for dinner.

Sunday evening, we headed to Kuba Kuba for dinner with our friends Bob and Christine. Bob and I both overindulged with the giant pork shank with potatoes and asparagus -- and then tossed in some tres leche cake just for kicks. Christine had the tuna special, and Nikole made do with black bean soup and the avocado salad. We all went home stuffed and happy.

I zipped over the Regency Square early on Christmas Eve to find some last items for Nikole, and was amazed that there were maybe 12 people in the entire mall. Perhaps a few more. Back into town with a stop at Ellwood-Thompson's and then by Black Swan Books.

Our neighbor's husband was out-of-town for Christmas -- in Colorado for work -- so we invited her to join us for dinner. Because I'm adventurous, I suggested we just hop in the car and find a restaurant. Our hunt for food took us through Carytown, the Fan, Broad Street, Shockoe Slip and Shockoe Bottom before we found an open restaurant. (Okay, every Thai and Chinese restaurant in town was open.) The Hill Cafe was surprisingly quiet, and we immediately grabbed a table.

When we got home, we exchanged gifts. Budget considerations meant that we spent less on each other than we did on my nieces and nephews, but Nikole gave me a framed reproduction of Style's 40 Under 40 layout and a number of smaller items -- along with my choice of a yoga class, or fencing lessons, or boxing lessons. Santa left us both a new color printer. I showered her with stocking stuffers, a book on raising a "green" baby and a maternity ensemble -- brown stretchy cords and a burgundy blouse.

Christmas was more relaxed than it has ever been -- we saw our friends Angie and Christian and their daughter Lilah, along with her parents. I've stopped by to see Angie and her folks every year since about 1988. We headed south to my mom's house in Bon Air, replete with sisters, nieces and nephews. We came back north to our house, and Nikole took a nap. And then we headed south again to Chester for dinner with Nikole's mom and stepfather, and a small handful of assorted relations.

I came home with a metal pig with wings and a red Roomba robot vacuum.

Christmas was over.

Today, we saw "Juno" with Richard and Elaine. It made me laugh, then I got a little weepy.