Bob and I had a perfect Christmas Day. We lazed around in the morning and then took some food over to Jason and Haruka’s at noon. Bob showed us how to make Seitan and I made some seitan lunchmeat. David came by and we walked through the woods to play some disc golf at Augusta.
We saw a flash of orange (it’s still deer hunting season) and here came Lyle walking through the woods towards us. He joined us on the course, which he created on his property. We have not played with him since his brother Mark died a week and a half ago.
The weather was blue sky, sunny, warm, gentle puffs of breeze perfect! Absolutely the best weather imaginable. There was silence between shots, while we waited for the next Frisbee tosser to line up their shot and in that silence we listened to the birds and the gentle swish of the pines.
Bob and Lyle and I are birders so I was paying particular attention to the bird calls and at one point asked, “What is that bird?” Lyle listened and answered, “I don’t know.” And that was the hole he threw a birdie at.
We were all playing well and Lyle threw a putt from nearly 100 feet which landed in the basket with a resounding “Ka-ching!” Everybody ran up and gave him high fives and he was beaming. He was one under par and it was the best shot any of us had ever seen him make. I wondered if Mark was helping him by blowing little puffs of air under the disk to make it float better.
After we played, Lyle walked back through the woods with us and Greg arrived. Jason broke out an expensive bottle of Japanese liquor and poured everyone but Greg, the teetotaler, a drink. We sat on the deck behind Scott and Rachel’s house and drank and chatted as the sun went down and the temperature began to drop.
Lyle borrowed Greg’s phone and called Tami. She came over and we went back to Jason and Haruka’s to finish pulling dinner together. Haruka showed us how to make Daikon “steaks”, Greg fried up some awesome potato latkes and David brought some biscuits and Challa he had baked. We all ate and drank some more and laughed and listened to that silly Christmas music Bob brought (Bob Rivers’ hysterical Christmas Carol parodies.)
Tami and Lyle went home to be with the kids who had called, wanting some mom and dad time, and Greg did the dishes with help from the rest of us. Then we played a card game called Apples and Apples. It was quite the fine afternoon/evening in every way and Bob and I were glowing by the time we went home.
The after dinner group that remained after Lyle and Tami went home.
