Home after work that Saturday afternoon (23 December), I took care of the last presents to wrap up and put under the Christmas tree at home. Mom and I chilled out at home. I viewed the Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) presentation of "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians," which was the only way to see that awful film. Plenty of campy fun with this movie, as presented on MST3K. It was a good day to be inside: The morning before, we got about 2 inches (5 cm) of snow, to make this a White Christmas. (Cue Bing Crosby.)
I went to Sunday morning service on Christmas Eve at Calvary Presbyterian Church's sanctuary (http://calvarypresbyterianchurch.org/), though it was actually a service conducted by Affton Presbyterian Church (http://afftonpc.org/), which began nesting with Calvary a few weeks ago. (Affton normally holds Sunday services in the Fellowship Hall.) It was nice and I stayed around in the Fellowship Hall afterward for refreshments.
After time at home, I took Mom back to Calvary for the Christmas Eve evening service. It was very nice, and Mom and I were called that night to help serve Communion, which we did. It ended with the sanctuary lights turned off and our individual candle lights (actually electric lights) on during the singing of "Silent Night, Holy Night," which made this more moving.
After the service, Mom and I came home and we each opened a present before retiring to bed.
The next morning, we opened the rest of the presents. I especially prize two pairs of shoes Mom gave me: a pair of black dress shoes (which I hope to wear to some job interviews in the coming months), and a pair of cross training shoes, to replace the worn pair I had. I also got a replica St. Louis Blues sweater, and a necktie from my Uncle Harold--Mom's brother. My brother Doug, teaming up with my brothers Rick and Brian, gave me the DVD of the recent PBS documentary series "The Vietnam War," along with its companion book and soundtrack album. Very nice items, indeed. Mom really enjoyed the necklace and matching earrings I gave her.
I basically chilled out at home the rest of the day.
Up early the next morning (26 December), I drove to work and had a long and very busy day with cleaning cars and picking up and dropping off customers. Mostly, these were customers coming off the holiday weekend. We got through the day fine. It was also the last day for my fellow car prep Jesse, who stepped down due to his arthritis. Sad to see someone go, but I can fully understand his situation.
Since I am working this Saturday morning, I flexed out Wednesday afternoon. That came after a long (distance and time) road trip to ferry a vehicle to our Washington, Missouri branch, then to ferry a passenger van to the Manchester branch, and finally getting a getting a ride back to the Ellisville branch.
That night, after getting dressed up with the new dress shoes and tie, I came to Double D Karaoke Bar (https://doubledstl.com/) in Brentwood for our area's Secret Santa party. After getting beer and appetizers, we received our presents. The person I was buying for wasn't there to get my gift card, but I received an Amazon gift card from my Secret Santa from another branch. I added that card to the one Brian gave me for Christmas. Looks like I'll be getting into my Amazon wish list in the New Year!
Off on Thursday, I headed to Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis to ice skate at Winterfest at the Arch (https://www.archwinterfest.com/). It had been at least two years since I last ice skated, but I did well in the hour I had at the rink. After that, I walked to a nearby Saint Louis Bread Co. (https://www.panerabread.com/en-us/home.html) for a cup of hot chocolate and a cookie.
It was another busy day at work today, but things went well. I got word that afternoon that I had been voted the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the branch for this week. That's an honor that usually goes to management personnel, so I was most pleasantly surprised to get the MVP Award. I must be doing something right at the branch!
See you next year!
Later.
