The Night Before Christmas

On Christmas Eve my mammy cat and daddio came over. It was a wonderful evening. We had a "fancy" dinner party of sorts. I define fancy as everyone had to dress up a bit- we used our nice plates- there were wine glasses and sprakling cider- and candles. Ken made a delicious home-made chicken pot pie and butternut squash. It was so good. SO GOOD! My dad really loved the chicken pot pie. He kept saying "This is my type of food" everytime he went in for more. I was really glad they came over. We opened a few presents and they played with Rusty. I love the attitude my parents have taken towards Rusty. They call him their "Grand-Dog." Like grandchild- but canine. My mom, who is not a dog person, just swooned over him all night. And my dad got down on the floor and him and Rusty had a wrestle party. Hey, if grandparents don't spoil him who will?

My mom is a really great story teller. She always has been. She can tell a story twenty times better than I can. Maybe even thirty. She told us this story about when she taught in Duquesne. (Duquesne is where I lived until 3rd grade. It's in Pittsburgh and is a very very poor area. The ghetto. My sisters and I were the only white kids in our school.) My mom had her students write an essay about the world's biggest problem. Whether they thought it was pollution or a disease or what have you. She got this one paper all about eggs! "People die from eggs. Eggs is very dangerous. Lots of people have eggs in certain communities. You can get eggs lots of different ways." My mom was really confused. Eggs? What's so bad about eggs? "Some people think eggs came from monkeys. There is no cure for eggs." *Lightbulb.* AIDS! Her student had never seen AIDS written down and thought it was eggs. She tried explaining it to him- but thought she was wrong and trying to trick him. Poor kid.

She told us stories all night. They left around ten- so Santa could come.