Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
When I met Sue, I was alone, living in an apartment, and it was fall with Christmas on the way. I was lonely, and Sue asked me to join her and her mother at Disneyland for Christmas Eve.
I accepted, and for every year between 1987 and 2019, I went to Disneyland on Christmas Eve with Sue, and some years we added family and friends to our adventure.
But wait, there is more. In 1960, Sue and her family moved to California, and they were not sure what to do on Christmas Eve, with no snow and palm trees swaying. His father said, “Saddle up, we are going to Disneyland!” Visit number one was soon underway!
So I joined her Christmas Eve tradition for 32 years, but Sue was the champion who had been at Disneyland every Christmas Eve for 59 years, with 2019 being her last year.
In 2000, we took family and friends with us. That’s Connor surrounded by girls; nothing has changed. What has changed is that each of these little girls is now a mommy, and they have six of our great-grandchildren!
Diane Ported (my sister-in-law) attempts to pose the menagerie!
Ratchet forward nineteen years, and we are still celebrating Christmas Eve at Disneyland.
Disneyland Christmas Parade 12/24/2019 with family! This Christmas Eve visit was Sue’s last visit to Disneyland, and she was a trooper!!
After Sue’s passing, I broke the tradition and stayed home; my heart no longer connected with Disneyland. I had been dating Mary for a few months, so I went to her house, and we drank wine and put together a puzzle.
We have a new tradition now ( stopped going to Disneyland when they went woke). These days, we invite family and friends over for Bob Duda’s famous pierogies, and then we celebrate with hot, milled, flaming wine!
The day begins with a mug of coffee and a kiss! We head for the office to figure out the day.
We decided we have two goals: Mary goes to the watercolor class, and Paul goes to the DMV to get a renewal of the driver’s license.
Mary departed the house in Precious around 12:15 while I took The Silver Fox to the DMV around 1:30 pm for my 2:40 appointment.
I was almost an hour early, but the DMV put me right into the appointment line, and I was in and out before 2:30 pm. It was so simple, and the eye test, after my cataract operation, was a no-brainer! $45 to idiot Newsome, and I was gone with the wind.
Mary returned home around 3:45 pm after stopping by to pick up several of my Christmas shirts needed for this time of year.
Mary added some “glitter” to last week’s work!
Then she showed me today’s masterpiece.
An idea popped into my head, always a dangerous thing! Let’s go out to dinner and celebrate her artwork and my passing… the driver’s license. I made online reservations at the OC Mining Company, but alas, when we pulled up to the winding road leading to the top-of-the-hill location, the gates were locked. They are closed on Monday and Tuesday; someone should let OpenTable know about that.
So we went further up Chapman and went to the OC Hills Restaurant, where we had a spectacular view of the city and an excellent meal of filet mignon and a baked potato, which we shared.
The staff decorated for Christmas!
We had a table INSIDE, and we could see the beautiful photo-chemical aerosols, which make for lousy breathing but amazing sunsets!
They forgot to turn off the air conditioning; it was 72 outside and 68 inside!
Our original idea of sharing a milet mignon and a baked potato was still on the table.
Mrs. Santa had her usual smile!
Of course, I was on my best behavior, which leaves plenty of room for getting into trouble.
What do you call Santa when he takes a break? Santa Pause.
What do I know what I am thinking??
I was thinking, would Vicky get mad if I showed her these East Coast oysters? They were delicious and were served on a bed of ice, complete with a dry-ice glass. I broke down and sent the picture!
Why don’t oysters ever share their pearls? Because they’re a little shellfish.
Then it happened, Santa’s cotton ball kept hitting me in the face, so I went on the attack!
“Take this, you little cotton ball!!!’
After getting home, we watched a Hallmark Christmas movie and then crashed around 10:30 pm.
One more little smoooooch before turning in!
