MONDAY - Visiting with Dad's old buddy and family friend Mike Gold

A short while later after my old buddy Mark Fitzpatrick left, Dad's old partner in troublemaking, Mike arrived for a visit. He brought a bottle of BOOKER'S® Bourbon as a Christmas gift, which was excellent. As you may have noticed, Joan and Mike are toasting Christmas Eve with glasses of the BOOKER'S®. Jackie tasted the BOOKER'S® and was not happy. In fact you can see her nose crinkling in the picture :-) Mom also had problems drinking the BOOKER'S®. Joan had a slight problem with it, which she solved by adding a little water. I thought the BOOKER'S® was just fine, real smooth. Of course we plied Mike with rum balls from his favorite bakery, 3 BROTHERS BAKERY® in Houston. We also gave him a box of these rum balls for Christmas, so he did not go home empty handed. Mike visited for a couple of hours, then finally departed for home.

While Mike was visiting, Steve rang up his parents in Australia. They were eating lunch at the time (Australia is about 14 hours ahead of us). Also the brush fire that is currently making the news was approaching them. However, they stoically decided to finish lunch before fleeing the brush fire. We all had a pleasant chat with Stephen and Marion, and Stephen's mother Grandma Atkins. They were all doing well, perhaps somewhat warm :-)

After Mike left, we returned to our mundane tasks. For posterity, I took a picture of the Christmas tree and gifts the night before Christmas.