After Christmas Report Card

Well, we survived Christmas here at the Fortress of Ineptitude for another year.

Our granddaughter Rosie came home from college with her emotional support human, our daughter Randie.   

As per our annual tradition, we set forth from the Fortress to head about a half hour west to see the Festival of Lights at Tanglewood Park.  In addition to Andrea, Randie, Rosie and myself, we had a special guest, Randie's partner Aspen. 

Aspen is witty, intelligent and gracious and it was a delight to have them with us on our excursion to see the lights. 

I had a day off from work Wednesday which afforded Randie and I to make our father-daughter excursion to Madison for lunch at Bob's and a visit to see Bella the Cat at the Eclectic Calico.  We also took care of some last minute Christmas shopping for some requested stocking stuffers for Andrea. 

Bath and Body Works is hella expensive. 

I got an unexpected chance to have Friday off from work which gave me a chance to finish up some last minute wrapping and to batten down the hatches around the old Fortress.  A major cold front moved through the area with really strong winds and temperatures dropping into single digits. 

Also following our holiday traditions, we watched the Doctor Who special "A Christmas Carol" and on Christmas Eve, The Polar Express.  Meanwhile, Andrea got a bit tipsy on something called "Jack Daniels Downhome Punch" and was genuinely relieved when the train did not sink beneath the icy waters and drown all the children on board.   

On Christmas morning, Randie let us sleep in late.  Meaning instead of getting us up at 2 AM (which is technically Christmas morning), she let us sleep until 5 AM. In addition to clothes, I got two books, one by Steve Martin in collaboration with cartoonist Harry Bliss about Steve's movie career (which I finished by the middle of Christmas Day) another book that's an oral history of Big Bang Theory (up to chapter 2  already). 

Christmas dinner was not at the Fortress of Ineptitude for the first time since 2019 but I still had to cook. We loaded up ham with the pineapple and honey barbeque glaze and all the sides (along with Andrea's cherry cream cheese pie) to her dad's house to keep him company for the holiday.  Since my father in law's principal complaint was about the quantity (he thought I made too much) and not the quality, I will count it as a success.  

Anyway, that was an overview of our Christmas here at the Fortress of Ineptitude. 

If you were looking for the usual Monday post about what idiotic things that idiotic people are doing in the world, that will have to wait for another day.

Happy holidays, everyone!