Feast of the Seven.....

This year on Christmas Eve we had the traditional feast of the two pizza's, three Jews, one Druid (not really) one seven year-old, one puppy and one puppy incident. The incident happened between the puppy and the seven year-old - but I'll leave it up to you to figure out who peed on who.

Usually I celebrate x-mas eve over at my Dad's house with his wife and her mother. It's always great food and wine and lots of presents plus the family heirloom red crystal glasses come out for their yearly visit. This year they switched the celebration to Christmas day because we had a bigger crowd. When I made it known I was free I was able to get an invitation to go with my friend Todd on a pilgrimage to spend Christmas eve with his family over in the wilds of South Jersey. We packed up Todd's puppy (who is not named Tippy)
and headed over to Jersey. On the way over we stopped for a few last minute gifts including a bottle of wine at one of South Jersey's ubiquitous liqour marts (Starbucks has nothing on the liqour stores over there).

I always love going to see Todd's family because I've known most of them my entire life. His father Ray, step-mother Judy, sister Reina and her daughter Brittany- I almost feel like another member of the family. There is the easy back and forth and gentle kidding and vicious insults (not really) that you expect from good old friends. Todd loves to joke that you never know what there will be to eat when we go over there. I have never actually gone hungry there- but they don't shove food in your face like I'm used to in the Jewish tradition. There was plenty to eat and drink this time - my enjoyment only complicated by the lingering effects of my root canal a few days ago. (My temporary filling came out - but I was able to get some good advice on what to do from Reina who is a dental assistant- actual quote when I showed her my mouth - "Ewwww, grosss!")

The other two Jews there were Ray and Judy's good friends Mark and Elaine who I've met several times. At one point Mark jokingly (I think) wondered if we were going sing "Happy Birthday" considering what we were actually celebrating. Reina says we don't have to because they already did it in church that day- along with a cake and a candle. All of us immediately disbelieved
her, thinking she was trying to pull one over on us Jews and non-believing heathens and fake druids. When Judy backed her up we actually did believe it -
you have to believe Judy because she actually does go to church regularly and even teaches religion. I had never heard of this happening in church, but why not- the cake must be better than those crackers they usually serve.

The evening ended shortly after the incident with the puppy and the seven-year-old ("Really - he never does this anymore, he's very well trained"). We packed up the dog and Todd's gifts and headed out into the Jersey night looking for the all night drugstore. I needed to get something to fill in the new hole in my tooth. Ewwwww gross!