Our First Family got together last night for our annual Christmas party. It was hosted by Jim and Dinah, and seeing as they're both from Louisiana it was advertised as a "Cajun Christmas." I was a little confused when we arrived because I thought it was supposed to be an "Asian Christmas" so I was expecting Chinese food. However, we instead were treated to turduckin, boudin, and the best ham I have ever tasted. On top of this, there was a whole table full of desserts. I was partial to the one Vicki made - a delicious concoction of whipped cream and chocolate pudding. I also had some coconut pie, which was also quite tasty.
After stuffing ourselves we played a few Christmas themed games that Jim came up with. The first involved matching the appropriate person with their "favorite childhood Christmas present" which each of us had submitted prior to last night's event. Some of these were pretty funny. Vicki went with her "little red spinning wheel" and I selected as my favorite a policeman's outfit that I got when I was seven years old. It was the same year that my brothers also each received some type of outfit - an Indian, a soldier, and a football player. When we all put on our new outfits (costumes?) we looked like the Village People, and that was about twenty years before there even were Village People. After the "name that gift" game we moved on to Christmas trivia, where we learned that Christmas was originally a pagan observance of the winter solstice, Santa Claus originated in The Netherlands, carolling got its start in England in the 14th century, and Santa's red suit was actually invented for a Coca-Cola ad back in 1931.
On the way home we drove around for awhile and looked at some outdoor Christmas lights. As I think I've mentioned, we didn't do any outside decorating this year because we'll be out of town during Christmas week, and I decided to take a break from ladder climbing until my knee was 100%. I realized this afternoon that this is the first time since 1978 that I haven't put up outdoor Christmas decorations. Vicki and I decided today that next year we're going to go all out and try to win the best decorated house in Greatwood. Vicki wants to go with a gingerbread house theme. We did that back in our Quail Valley days and got a third place award. It's kind of funny how exited Vicki got about the thought of winning next year. The other day she had decided that I should never climb a ladder again, and today she had visions of me on top of a thirty-six foot extension ladder putting up lights next year. All I can say is - I ain't scared of no ladder, and wait until next year.
I almost forgot. I promised a movie review on Invictus, the Morgan Freeman and Jason Bourne movie about the South African rugby team in the 1995 World Cup. After some considerable thought I've decided that this is probably the second best sports movie of all time, slightly behind Field of Dreams and slightly ahead of Hoosiers. Invictus is Latin for "unconquered" and also the title of an 1875 poem that the Nelson Mandela character quotes in the movie, especially the lines -
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
On a scale of 1-10 I give Invictus a 9.9. Mr. Freeman is a great actor, and he's great in this movie.
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