The Native Iowan

Damn!, I say Damn!

CMas day this side of the planet… 924Am and the house is almost quiet…

Up early cranking on the traditional cinnamon rolls. Have Connie and her son, Brimstone, Don’s big girls, Dawn and Vera, plus Paul and Betsy (their 2 girls are with grannies in Munda). The “night before” was a bit confusing with folks still running around until past dark, so we didnt get set up and sorted as early as I’d liked.

I’d mixed the dough, knocked it down and rolled it a bit before they got home. I was not sure if they’d come home hungry or not so I had not cooked. They did come home early so I BBQ’d a pile of steaks. It worked. No complaints were heard. These kids are conivorous.

Later I dressed the to-be-breakfast up, and got it rolled an into the baking pan. Love the smell of fresh dough and cinnamon.

Put it all in the refrigerator and, rather drunkenly, went to bed at some unknown, too late hour.

About 5am I woke thinking “shit” and rushed to see the pan of nice smelling rolls out on the counter. I’d half expected to find them still in the refrigerator. They did need to come out and rise before baking. Gracie had beat me to it.

I turned the oven on and dozed in my chair a bit before popping all in the oven.

The smell of the caramelised butter and sugar brought the family out from their beds.

Was told they were “the best ever”.

By 8 or so, everyone had assembled, we had breakfasted, then got into the presents under the tree.

By 930 things had settle down.

The kids spent the entire day in their pyjamas. So did Gracie. They all had the big front room to sort n investigate and play with their gifts, which included; a big lego set, a number of action figure dolls, a steam engine kit, a wooden puzzle of DiVinci’s helicopter, a number books and coloured pens and pencils.

Paul built the helicopter and we fired up the steam engine. Dawn put the lego set together. Brimstone and Vera played and laughed.

By noon… Connie and Betsy were working on a 1000pc puzzle and drinking champaign. Paul had disappeared down stairs to snooze. The kids played individually and as a group all day long. No tears, no worries, no conflict… something must be wrong!

The afternoon went slowly, easily. It was over 30c/ 90f outside, and very humid. So aircons running, we spent the day inside. By late afternoon a good squall blew through. Dropped 30mm/ 1inch of rain in 30 minutes, and cooled things down.

I put a bug hunk of beast in the oven. These kids are serious carnivores. Made a great gravy out of the drippings. A simple supper ending a worthy day of CMassing.

This morn we all move slow. I slept until after 8am. It’s now 10am. Connie is whopping up breakfast from the leftovers. I’ll finish this off and then go out and see what I can do. Weather spins around us. Going to have another squall or two, me thinks. I’ll spend some time outside. Always something to get done.

Next stop 2026…

See you there.

More later