City Wows, Country Wows

I'm jealous of Genius. He had a white Christmas! Snow on the ground. Pic to prove it happened!

 

 

There's the Pittsburgh city skyline, and a view of his frozen swimming pool from his balcony. Genius also sent a picture of his favorite gift. It's a camera made of wood, that comes in a kit to put together, and allegedly takes real pictures!

 

"Merry Christmas! I love my pinhole camera!"

 

 

An hour later: "Well, it delayed our Christmas dinner prep. But it's done!" Let the record show that the snowy cityscape was taken by Genius's phone, not this camera!

 

Around here, we had temps in the 20s, and a blustery wind. No snow. Not only that, but our Christmas did not go as planned. Not only did some gifts not arrive on time... but gifts that WERE here had a way of avoiding the festivities.

 

We open gifts in the basement living area, by the Christmas tree (that's been up since last year). I had The Pony carry down stuff as I opened the tracked-down packages and wrapped the items. The Pony knew that there is one shipment still in limbo transit, containing 4 gifts for himself, and one for my niece's daughter. Yet our Christmas morning seemed so meager that I had to question myself.

"Pony! Where are the gifts that were in that box I asked you to bring down to the tree?"

"Box? Oh. It's in Genius's room!" Off he went to get it, and hand out gifts to himself and Hick.

A few moments later... "Pony! What about that gift for Dad that you were going to bring in from the back of T-Hoe a couple days ago?"

"Oh! I'll go out and get it!"

After Christmas dinner, and after Hick had made a trip to town and back TO MAKE A SPECIAL SALE AT HIS STORAGE UNIT STORE... "Pony! Where is the bag of sugar-free candy I told you to hide from Dad, for his stocking?"

"Oops! It's in Genius's room. Be right back!"

Yeah. That's how it went. But we had it easy compared to my sister the ex-mayor's wife. They brought us some treats from her Christmas Eve finger-food party. We stood on the porch to exchange those treats for some deviled eggs and hash brown casserole. 

Sis explained that when Niecy Jr opened her second gift from us, a little box with the picture of her item that has not yet arrived... she read the note (she's a precocious little thing, with a kindergarten teacher grandma [Sis] and a 1st Grade teacher mom [Niecy]) and exclaimed, "WHAT is THIS?" while waving the picture. Heh, heh. Sorry, Niecy Jr.

Oh, but much worse was Sis's BANDAGED THUMB!

"Niecy got a little purse. The handles were clamped together with those white plastic ties. I said, 'I'll cut them off for you.' And Ex-Mayor said, 'Here! I have that pocket knife that Hick and your sister gave me!' I used it to cut off the ties, and on the second one, it slipped and stabbed into my thumb! I know you're not a doctor... but do you think maybe I should have it looked at? I'm not going to uncover it here, because I have ointment on it, and this bandage. But that knife had blood all over it when I pulled it out. Ex-Mayor said, 'That's about a half-inch deep, according to the knife blood.' I can move my thumb, but I don't have any feeling in the end of it."

Sheesh! I told her to call a nurse line with her insurance, or go to urgent care. That sounds like a severed nerve! At least the thumb was pink, and getting circulation. One time a dentist cut through a nerve while doing a root canal procedure on my bottom right third molar. He said, 'Oops! I've cut through the nerve. Your face will be numb for a while. But usually a nerve will grow back together within 6 months to 2 years." I guess that can work with thumbs...

Anyhoo... Genius had a great Christmas. Ours was one for the record books.