{"id":92657,"date":"2025-12-24T08:52:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T15:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/?p=92657"},"modified":"2025-12-25T09:15:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T16:15:11","slug":"christmas-eve-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/?p=92657","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Eve 1987"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In 1987, I left home and was in the process of getting a divorce.\u00a0 I moved into an apartment near work in mid-summer.\u00a0 I missed the kids, and they were pretty much mad at me for leaving.\u00a0 I understood, but it was something I had to do!\u00a0 It’s a long story!<\/p>\n

December was a difficult month because the kids were not around, and I was alone.\u00a0 \u00a0 Most of my co-workers knew what was going on, and right before the holiday break, Sue Miller asked me to join her and her mother at Disneyland on Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n

Sue and I worked together on the Space Station proposal for Rockwell, and I had previously met her back in 1975 when she and her husband worked in my laboratory.<\/p>\n

I was a little unsure but finally accepted Sue’s kind offer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I had a big car, so with Sue’s excellent directions, I stopped by to pick her up in Los Alamitos and then went to Garden Grove to pick up her mother.<\/p>\n

We spent most of the day at the park, enjoyed a nice dinner, and stayed to watch the fireworks even though I was freezing to death.\u00a0 It was a lovely day, and it helped me get away from the sadness of not seeing the kids.<\/p>\n

Disneyland had some magic that evening because three months later, in March 1988, we got married and stayed happily married for thirty-three years until Sue’s passing in February 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Mary and I were up early getting ready for tonight’s celebration with family and friends.\u00a0 We left the house at 8:15 am to go to Trader Joe’s for last-minute supplies, then stopped at Ralph’s on the way back.\u00a0 We could not be without Fireball Whiskey!!<\/p>\n

Please enjoy the entire evening on our website.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Mary is ready to play Santa, and she changes quickly!<\/p>\n

http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/wp-content\/dailydiary\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20225-12-24-002.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

We expect everyone around 5:00 pm, so we can get things started as soon as we get home.\u00a0 We also decided to use the formal dining room for the first time in a long time.<\/p>\n

We started with the grog!<\/p>\n

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One whiff and it will knock you over!<\/p><\/div>\n

Mary got all fired up and raced through the house, making everything ready for our company!\u00a0 I finally figured out what she moved so fast…<\/p>\n

http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/wp-content\/dailydiary\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20225-12-24-003.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

The Grinch came to visit, and no, it’s NOT Paul!<\/p>\n

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Yummy!!<\/p><\/div>\n

The dining room was ready!\u00a0 It was nice to use it after almost a year!<\/p>\n

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We even have the fine Christmas plates out!!!<\/p><\/div>\n

We loaded our plates in the kitchen and came to the dining room for the meal!\u00a0 WC Fields kept an eye on us to make sure we were OK!<\/p>\n

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Stories are told.<\/p><\/div>\n

MAe West kept an eye on the other side of the table!<\/p>\n

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Paul has the anti-freeze ready!<\/p><\/div>\n

Robin made Jello Shots, but this time she used Fireball!<\/p>\n

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Jello-Fireball shots in process!<\/p><\/div>\n

After dinner and the movie, we sat for a while, remembering this wonderful evening!<\/p>\n

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Yacking is a favorite pastime.<\/p><\/div>\n

Everyone got the memo except Dianne!<\/p>\n

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Good Night All!<\/p><\/div>\n

It was almost time to leave on the sleigh, so I kissed Mrs. Claus, and I was off on an around-the-world journey.<\/p>\n

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Soon after everyone departed, I kissed Mrs Claus good night, and we were off!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1987, I left home and was in the process of getting a divorce.\u00a0 I moved into an apartment near work in mid-summer.\u00a0 I missed the kids, and they were pretty much mad at me for leaving.\u00a0 I understood, but … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,24,17,7,230],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-food-and-wine","category-friends","category-holidays","category-working-around-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92657"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92683,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92657\/revisions\/92683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}