The Day After

Photo by Terrence Rouda, 2014

Several people in my Facebook news stream have taken to posting photos of gifts they received for Christmas yesterday. This practice strikes me as odd at the very least, and incredibly self-indulgent and tone-deaf at most. Basically, who cares? Do we really need a close-up, suitable for framing, of your new fuzzy slippers or some silly word game still in its box?

However, sometimes we get a gift that actually is suitable for framing. Last night I got one of those from my nephew, an adventurous sort who travels the world more than anyone I know. I had admired his photos online a while back, and he thoughtfully had one enlarged poster-size and ready for display. (See above.) Owing to my all-but-simultaneous ingestion of eggnog, champagne and wine, I forget the locale; I'm thinking Tanzania, but I'll find out as soon as I can and make it right.

I was delighted that this year I received only one gift that went straight into the trash. The others were all the way to fabulous, including a lovely silver pendant on a silver chain, a very drinkable bottle of Chianti and two blooming  primroses in colorful pots.

Relieved that this most stressful holiday is over, I can now dedicate the coming week to dreaming up some New Year's resolutions. I might just write a blog post about that, if only to enrage an old friend of mine who thinks writing about the obvious is too plebeian. But then, since writing about the esoteric satisfies so few readers, it seems like the friendlier way to go.

The sun is shining this minute, a rare and precious thing after what feels like a month of dank, bleak, wet non-days. Unsure of how many more like this will show up this winter, I'm off.