Our Eleven Days of Christmas

Ringing in 2015

Christmas deconstruction at Rancho Russo is like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It requires a staging area.
I have spent the better part of today abolishing Christmas from our abode. It is a solitary task, just like creating Christmas at Rancho Russo. I have packed up and moved everything to our “fitness room” (the room contains a treadmill, weight bench, free weights, TV/TiVo, CD player and now all our Christmas decorations). Trekking up and down the stairs all day lugging this stuff has provided my workout for the day. Tomorrow is the return to ‘normalcy’ for life with the Russos. Work and school will occupy our days now but for a brief, shinning moment the holidays reigned supreme.

I won’t bore you with the details of Christmas here ( I worked. OK, it was only 6 hours but even Santa gets Christmas off). We had a splendid Christmas Eve that involved hours of seafood consumption in what is referred to as “La Viglia” in Italian-American culture.

Stuffing our fishy faces

Still eating

On the Monday after Christmas Don, Damian and I set off on what would become a whirlwind tour. Each year we plan to spend some quality holiday time with my sister, Dawn and her husband, Darren. The past few years it has been a destination celebration for us all. This year we decided that it would be held at Dawn & Darren’s Long Island home.
My sister’s house is, shall we say. . . FESTIVE.

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Staying with them is like being at a Bed & Breakfast . . . only better. We have the run of a full apartment downstairs with a stocked fridge AND my brother-in-law also TiVos shows for us that may be of interest (a series on Lincoln for Don and The Big Bang Theory for me). He even recorded my all-time favorite obscure Christmas movie: Pocketful of Miracles!!

They are big planners and doers. Our first night included a dinner worthy of Michelin stars. Then we opened our Christmas presents. At one point Damian unwrapped an ordinary looking box. He removed the contents. He did not look excited since it contained a piece of paper.

Open Sesame!

Dawn & Darren bought tickets for ALL of us to see Aladdin on Broadway New Year’s Eve!! By no stretch of the imagination do I want you, dear reader, to think that this was the only gift we received from them. There were boxes & boxes of gifts. Their generosity is unparalleled. (Secretly, I think they wanted to share in Damian’s first Broadway experience. I like to share.)

To be continued . . .

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