conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

the christmas lobster (dec. 26 lynchburg, va)

Have any of you seen the movie, Love Actually? It is one of my favorite movies. We watch it every Christmas. It's become a bit of a tradition with me and Trish. One of my favorite little story lines in the film is about the nativity play. You see, there was a lobster in the manger with Jesus. Didn't you know? It's from one of the Gnostic gospels, I'm sure. This may explain some of the general awe expressed by shepherds and magi alike. The Christmas Lobsters...there was more than one...were a revelation for Biblical scholars everywhere! What a great film. We have made a tradition of watching it.

Another holiday tradition that has come and gone a couple of times, but seems to have returned again for us is lobster for dinner on Christmas night. My mother was born in Maine. Thus, lobster is quite a treat...good eats and sentimentality rolled into one seafoody package. And this year we had king crab legs thrown in the mix as well. Dinner was incredible. There is indeed a Christmas Lobster. Lovely.

Backtracking a bit, the flight in was fine. I left O'Hare as scheduled at 11:30. I arrived in Roanoke at 2:15 local time. That makes for all of eighty minutes flight time. Easy. Flying on Christmas day has always been stress free for me. The weather has yet to shut me out, and one day it might. But so far, so good. But the airports are easy to manage. And that matters a great deal to me.

Trish managed to get sick on Christmas Eve. Yes, three days of fighting to get home to see family only to get sick. Oh, and the airline lost her bags. They arrived with me on the 25th. That's something to celebrate, I guess. At least they arrived. Right? Oy. All our carefully orchestrated plans laid to waste. What a ride that was. At least Trish managed to feel well enough to nibble on some lobster. Misery.

Santa, however, stepped up. We both were treated wonderfully. And since the bags arrived with me at the Roanoke Airport, I was able to a part of the gift giving. And that was nice.

Wow, my time line is all out of wack, kids. I am sorry. Though dated the 25th, I am writing this post on January 2nd. I'm not being clear...I know. Shocking.

So, here's the order of things as they happened.

I flew. It was lovely.
The lost bags, surprisingly, arrived with me.
Trish and her father picked me up at the Roanoke airport. Convenient as that is where I had landed!
We went to Huddleston, frantically wrapped her parents' presents and then exchanged gifts.
We visited Trish' grandmother and uncle. Again, gifts were exchanged.
Trish and I went to Lynchburg to celebrate Christmas with my mother and my brother, Chuck. He lives in Salt Lake.
Much lobster (and crab) was consumed.
Awe was expressed by one and all.
Trish and I spent two nights at my mother's house before returning to Huddleston, the land of country ham, coconut creame pie, and macaroni and cheese.

Okay. That clears things up a little, I hope. It was a really good time. I'll post some pictures as the are uploaded to Flickr.

Peace to you all.

Posted by tripp at December 28, 2007 04:34 PM