December 30th, 2017

I spent all morning racking my brain about what to have for dinner. I got so desperate I texted Max and started asking her what we should do. I forgot, she's also a college student, so her suggestions ranged from ramen noodles to mac and cheese. Which okay, cheep, which saves money like I wanted, but just seems so lacking. Although, it would be a good chance to show of Hal's ability to doctor up his noodles and... yea, that wouldn't be a great way to show him off.

So when Hal joined me for lunch today I asked again what we should do for dinner. And again he suggests ordering pizza. Is there no happy medium between ramen noodles and going out? Since Max and I were already texting on the subject, I let her know. In a moment of brilliance Max suggests we make our own pizzas. Someone'd have to stop by the store and make sure we have pizza crusts, but then have each of us bring our own toppings and we can make put em together at Hal's.

I've never made pizza before, the only one's I've ever had were ordered out anyway or eaten at the pizza parlor. And generally not at home. So I wasn't sure what to do, but Max reminded me of that pizza joint that offered mashed potatoes as a topping and said I couldn't go wrong. I still wasn't sure, so while I could get away with it I did some research on my own and decided to grab an onion, eggplant, garlic, and some herbs and spices.

When Hal picked me up after work I let him know what we were about. So we stopped by the grocery store and picked up ready made pizza crusts. Max had said she'd get the sauce so we didn't worry about that. I grabbed the items I wanted, and Hal grabbed Canadian bacon and pineapple. It seemed odd to me, and he was amused to find out I'd never had a Hawaiian pizza before.

Dinner turned out really well, we each did half a pizza our own way, and then the other half mixing ingredients. That way we basically had six different half pizzas. Max had grabbed Italian sausage and mushrooms as her toppings, and then in addition to the marinara sauce, she brought an alfredo sauce and shredded cheese mix for pizzas. I have to admit, Hal's Hawaiian pizza was surprisingly good. And I liked the eggplant, but the other two shied away from it. They dutifully tried, but that was all they had. More for me.

Anyway, while we were making the pizzas Max dove right into our conspiracy talk. She mentioned an item she'd come across that didn't make the news. Instead, it was making the circles in the conspiracy communities that she keeps up with. What caught her attention about it is that it actually seems to be genuine. A photographer was out at Commons Park trying to photograph the tree and caught something about a block away. Normally when someone 'catches' something they turn up with blurry pictures, which Max finds to be a telling sign. Most cameras these days are high speed enough that even while moving they can take fairly clear photos. She then brought up the images she'd grabbed, which clearly show a very short person standing next to a car. I say very short because he's not much taller than the tire. And while he could, probably easily, pass as a child, his body is in adult proportions. Which actually makes this even more strange, usually people who have some form of grown stunt, "short people," their bodies seem out of proportion to their height. Their arms and legs look relatively bulky, as though they were meant to be bigger, but the person never grew. This particular person looks every bit in proportion to how small he is.

Max, every the skeptical one, did point out that with tricks the photo could be made to happen with a full size person to look as though they were only so tall. But she was sure the photo itself hadn't been manipulated. That left perceptual visual effects, like having the guy stand far enough away from the car to have his picture taken looking like he's only so tall. But there'd be visual identifiers showing the distortion, and she didn't find any. A zoom lens could make it happen, but would have a smaller field of view. The picture in question looks like it was taken with a much larger field of view, suggesting it was taken closer to the vehicle with no clear zoom. This makes the persons short stature impossible to miss.

Even more importantly, there are other people in the photo, all standing around and looking at the little guy. Max said trying to coordinate an illusion like that would be a nightmare without after effects used on the picture, which as she said she found no evidence of.

The story included with the photo tells how the photographer heard some shouting, and saw a flash of light. Next thing he knew there was this little guy picking himself up off the ground right next to the car in the background, he actually used the tire to help stand up. The photographer had to move to get a clear picture of the little guy and only had time to get one such shot. He had taken other pictures, which he shared, but none of them show as clearly the little guy that had everyone's attentions. And this more than anything is what convinced Max. One image, cleverly done, could be made to give the illusion of extreme lack of height. And any of the other photos in which the short guy isn't apparent would be something she'd expect to be submitted. But together, they paint a picture that this did happen.

The photographer reports that shortly after taking the one picture, while he was trying to get another shot, the little guy just disappeared. Which caused no small amount of panic among the crowd. Max had tracked down the date of when this happened, Dec. 23rd, and matched it up with some police reports indicating a small incident happening about a block from the tree.

Of course, as soon as he heard the date, Hal checked that against his own notes and reminded both of us of the attack I'd had that same day. But my attack, as he had recorded, was at 2pm. This happened later in the day during sunset. Hal admitted we had a point, but I can tell he won't let it go.

As we pulled the last pizza out of the oven, Hal's Hawaiian, he brought up his frustrations with Tim. Tim's really his only contact with the illuminati, and his training had been left up to Tim. But according to Hal, Tim's been so focused on the growth on the tree that Hal feels he's been completely ignored. Except for the occasional request to find out more about Melia Floros. But he's been keeping up with Melia's social network, and the website that airs her interviews. Hal's not finding anything about her that might suggest she's more than just a passionate conservationist. The only thing he's happy about is that it's given him freedom to spend time with family and go tubing with us.

Speaking of tubing, his black eye looks so much better. It still looks pretty nasty, but it's been healing well.

But since he was talking about the illuminati, and I didn't have anything to add, I asked him about the Jane Doe story he'd picked up on. He filled Max in on what he'd told me while we were at the hotel, but he said there hadn't been anything new since. Like Hal, Max doesn't know about Candace, so they both shrugged and called it interesting.

With nothing else to go on, and since we'd been eating the whole time. Max took off early. I did make sure to walk her to her car, and gently asked if everything was okay. Max admitted that the reason Robert was so pissed the other day was because she'd called out Sam's name while they were in coitus. She'd had a few days to let the shame ware off, and made me swear never to tell Sam. But her and Robert are done, which was just as well. She had been looking and sounding much better all night, so I'm glad for her.

Still, it made me more than a little self conscious about what I was doing as I spent the next few hours properly thanking Hal and tending to his black eye.

December 29th, 2017

With New Years coming up, we've been getting fewer total visitors. However, it seems everyone that does show up is showing up as a part of a family group. So while we're not supper busy all day long, we're spending a lot of time processing tickets for each party and it may as well mean we are busy all day long. It's kind of a weird dichotomy. Either way though, time passes. Hal joined me for lunch today, and apologized that he wouldn't be able to pick me up after work. He's got some family in town that were passing through on their own Christmas vacation and they were going to have dinner tonight. But he did want to confirm our conspiracy dinner tomorrow at his place and wanted to know what we should do for dinner.

His suggestion was to order pizza delivery, which always sounds good, but kinda defeats the point of not going out as much to save money. I told him I'd have to talk with Max and see what she wants to do. We could go as easy as macaroni and cheese, or if he wanted the challenge of learning something knew we could try that. I have to admit, planning a dinner at a restaurant is easy. Once you get there that's when you have to pick what you want to eat and if your company doesn't like what you want they can get something else. Planning a dinner for multiple people a day in advance when you don't know what you're going to be in the mood for, that's a whole new ball game. I don't know, it shouldn't be much different from eating at home. This is what Mom made, you don't like it you can go to bed. It's easy though when Mom always makes such good food (love you Mom).

I don't know, but I am going to have to come up with something before he picks me up tomorrow so we can hit the store on the way home. I texted Max asking if she had any suggestions, she still hasn't gotten back to me. I hope everything is okay.

Speaking of Max, so yesterday started out well. We got up and had the continental breakfast that was offered. For being called continental, there wasn't much. The eggs were blah, the pancakes were toasted, the only thing I found desirable was the fruit and yogurt. That's about when it started, Robert made a snarky remark about me "eating like a girl." He just seemed to be in a bad mood all day, and had to take it out on everyone else. Must've woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something.

At first it was just the comment, but he sulked and starred daggers at Sam's back all the way to the tubing hill. He couldn't bother to be thankful, roughly grabbing things out of our hands or insisting on doing things himself. He didn't help with anything, which at first didn't really seem like much 'cause we were renting everything we'd use and didn't need to pack anything out of the SUV. It was more apparent later after the first run down the hill, we'd be helping each other up and passing the inner tubes around. He flat out refused to offer a hand at all.

I caught Max alone when he went off to use the restroom and asked what was up. She said they hadn't slept at all last night. I looked over to her expecting to see a shit-eating grin, but no she just looked exhausted. So I asked if everything was okay, she just shook her head and sighed. I didn't get a chance to pry as Robert showed back up about then. I never did get another chance to catch Max alone, Robert must've known we were talking about him 'cause he made a point after that to never leave her side. And he started giving me dirty looks too. It was like he was on a mission to ruin everyone's day.

The tubing was fun, so much fun! I've been sledding before, and it's similar, but not so hard. On a sled you feel every bump as you hit it. With a tube, it's like riding a big balloon, and about as hard to control. The bumps aren't as sudden and jarring, but the tube'll bounce you right up and if you're not careful it'll bounce you right off. We were laughing and carrying on, and watching the other people having all the same troubles we had. We caught one group as they were coming down, they were holding on to each others legs creating a big chain or train of tubes as they went down the hill together. It looked like a lot of fun, so we tried the same (except for Robert, of course). The first bump we hit, Max loses her grip on Sam. The next bump Candace gets knocked halfway off her tube and almost pulls me off trying to get back on, so I lose Max. Hal was bringing up the rear and lets go of Candace's tube so he doesn't pull it out from under her. Then he tries to get up on his hands and knees while still sliding down the hill, he said later he was trying to help Candace. Either way, he hits another bump which sends him face first into the hard packed snow. He didn't break anything, but today he had a black eye like you would not believe.

Hal sat out the rest of the day after that, which I don't blame him for, but it made me feel bad to keep tubing. He insisted though, didn't want me to miss out on his behalf.

So the next time down Max and I borrow Sam's tube 'cause it's bigger and we go down in it together. Sam followed us down laying over both of our tube's cause he can't fit in just one, with Candace holding on to his legs. Max and I were picking up some speed and hit a bump hard. I got tossed up, but luckily managed to land back on the tube, barely I almost fell through the hole. Max though, she got tossed ahead, she rolled a few times before coming to a stop only to have me run right over her with the tube. It was just so funny, and fortunately she wasn't hurt.

We were laughing and carrying on, but that's when Robert snapped and crossed the line. His laughter at Max was so mocking, it really wasn't funny at all. He said something, like she deserved it, I don't know. It was just hurtful though, and Max bowed her head in shame. That's not like her, and is why I'm worried at all. But Candace, she'd had enough and she let him know and took a step toward him. It's like the whole world went silent so we could all hear him, "Don't touch me, you Bitch!" And then he made to slap her hard. I'm scared to think what'd have happened if Sam hadn't caught his arm.

Sam had come up behind him so quickly it was like he'd appeared there, or was always there. He grabbed Roberts wrist and halted his arm so completely that Robert might've struck solid stone. Robert spun around before any of us could react and had his arm up slug Sam. Robert's bigger than some, but Sam's a mountain in comparison, and I've mentioned before how effortless it is for him to be intimidating. Robert had enough control to stop from actually striking Sam, but he still pushed against Sam for having grabbed his wrist. The net effect was to push himself away, Sam barely budged. Then he stormed off cussing us all out.

We didn't see him till later. I think he finally realized we were his ride home and he'd better shape up. He didn't do a very good job of it, and by then we had all decided we didn't want to spend any more time with him. So when he stepped up from leaning on Sam's vehicle, Sam stopped him and "There's a train leaving in fifteen minutes. If you're quick you can make it, but you're not coming home with us." His tone was commanding, and his body language said he wasn't to be trifled with. Robert stared him down for a moment, making sure were all knew he wasn't scared, and then he hurried off in the direction Sam had motioned. He didn't go quietly, but he was careful enough that we couldn't hear what he was saying.

Max never did explain, though during the ride home she tried to offer an apology. Candace flat out told her that only Robert was responsible for his actions, she had nothing to apologize for. Max was quiet the rest of the way home. As we were pulling in to Candace's, Max asked if Sam would take me home, and apologized explaining she just wanted to be alone for a while. I don't blame her, but like I said I never did get a chance with her alone. Maybe that was the point, she didn't want to talk about it.

Still, I hope she's okay. It's a little concerning that she hasn't texted me back yet, but there's not much more I can do. I told her I was here if she wanted to talk, and if she didn't want to talk I was only reminding her of our get together tomorrow. I'll text her again tomorrow, and let her know that if she doesn't respond I'll be calling just to make sure she's there. She doesn't have to talk if she doesn't want, but she needs to at least let me know she's okay.

Anyway, it's late now, and I have work tomorrow.

December 28th, 2017

I am so tired, and sore. Today was a lot of fun, well except for Robert being a complete douche. I'm still not sure what caused him to get so riled up, but I'm glad we could have him take the train home. I did not want to ride home with him afterward.

It was a long day, which wasn't helped that I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. Don't take that to mean that Hal and I were making like rabbits all night long. I mean, we did, just not all night long. I just couldn't get to sleep with him next to me. It was comfortable, and comforting, but I guess it's something one has to get used to. Every time he moved, or took a deep breath, or murmured, or whatever, it'd wake me up. I was hyper aware of his body and everything he did the whole night long. My whole body was.

So no, I didn't get any sleep, nothing worthwhile.

But I did have fun, and I wanted to make sure to say something in my journal before I went to bed. I'll just have to update on the events tomorrow after work. For now, I need sleep.

December 27th, 2017

Here I am, sitting in a hotel room in Fraser. I haven't spent many nights in hotels, once with the family when we went to visit Aunt Isra for Eid al-Fitr. The other two times were with class trips, and I was put in a room with other girls. Tonight, it's just Hal and me.

This morning was a rush to get my chores done, mostly laundry. There were a few things, like hitting the gym, that I didn't worry about. But some stops I needed to make, and so when Max was ready she came by and helped me get around so I wasn't waiting on buses. But I got together an overnight bag, and made sure I had warm clothes. After we made my stops, Max brought me to pick up Robert before meeting the others at Candace's.

Something seems up and I'm a little worried about Max. We were doing fine, but as soon as Robert joined us the car went silent. It made me anxious, and I wanted to break the tension, but I couldn't bring myself to speak. I'm not sure what's going on, and I haven't had a chance all day to talk to Max alone. Either way, once we arrived at Candace's, Max was out the door and happy as ever.

Sam did borrow his parents SUV, and it had enough room for all six of us and our things. I hate to admit it, but I expected Candace to have a ton of luggage. I was surprised to find she had fewer things than me. Hal was already there and had been helping Sam get everything together. Those two seem to have really hit things off lately, and despite them going behind my back to spend all this money on us, it's nice to see them working together.

Once we were loaded up, Sam called out a last bathroom break before we hit the road. It seemed reasonable enough to me, but Robert scoffed and remarked that we weren't children. Max told him to stuff the attitude or he could walk home. It shut him up, but they didn't talk all the way here.

Hal made sure they didn't drag down the trip though and made sure to keep everyone's spirits up. He had asked me to make sure to bring music, which I was all too happy to do. He asked Sam a lot of questions about smithing and especially what he's done with the Renaissance Fair. He even got Max talking about her studies and working toward becoming a nurse. He tried asking Candace about herself, and I noticed Sam look toward her. I realized suddenly that Hal didn't know Candace had amnesia. But whatever worry Sam had, Candace turned on her charm and got Hal talking about himself instead.

Not to suggest Hal is a narcissist, but he does enjoy talking about his area of study and what he does at the museum. But he also enjoys working for the Illuminati, so I paid close attention for when his story would turn in that direction. It inevitably did, and knowing it was coming I used the chance to change the subject. It was a risk, but at the moment I was too worried about how Sam would react to Hal's secret society. Instead, I asked Robert about what he was studying for at the University. I wanted to avoid him feeling like a fifth wheel or something, and was hoping to ease the tension between him and Max. Fortunately Robert is a bit of a narcissist and was all too happy to talk about how great a soccer player he is and how he's going to go on to lead the US to victory in the World Cup.

We drove in to Fraser with most of the afternoon to spare. So after checking in at the hotel we asked about local things to do. The clerk recommended a few things, but we latched on to The Foundry. It's a movie theater, bowling alley, and pizza joint all in one. So we went there, watched a movie, had dinner, and tried to knock down a bunch of pins. It was a lot of fun and even got Robert to lighten up.

We eventually had to head back to the hotel though, and each of us went to our rooms. I don't know about the others, but I've been enjoying my time with Hal. It's nice not feeling the pressure to call off our conversation so he can get me home. We've been talking this whole time while I've been trying to write, which means this is taking me a lot longer than it normally would.

Hal's been telling me about a news story from the other day. A trucker picked up a woman walking down the highway as he was coming to Denver. He delivered her to a hospital and they called in the authorities. She fits the description of many of the other people who have mysteriously shown up: unique clothing, wandering aimlessly, and speaking little to no English. There's a few things that peak Hal's interest. Firstly that her clothes are definitely a different style from the others, characterized as being of a higher class. Even more interesting is that she actually does speak some English, which leads to the final note of interest. Not only does she not know where she is, it seems she has complete amnesia, not even knowing who she is. As I already mentioned, Hal isn't aware that Candace also has amnesia, so he's not finding this interesting in the same way I am. I'm finding it difficult not to think maybe there's a pattern with the amnesia. I can't talk to Hal about it, cause it's not my place, but I'll have to find time to talk to Candace about it.

I'm starting to drag this out, and I think I'm feeling a little nervous about tonight. But tomorrow's not going to be any fun if I don't get any sleep.

December 26th, 2017

I just can't win for losing. Why is it the boys want to spend so much money on us? I ask that and I have to remind myself that throughout history that's kinda the way things have been. Makes me wonder why I have to be so resistant to it. Is it my own stubbornness that makes me worry about their money? Is it right for me to do that? Or should I just accept the gifts that they want to bestow, without questioning how much it puts them back? Hal I know is getting paid very well, and I suspect almost obscenely so. And by all appearances Sam seems to be in a similar boat, though I don't know how. And having that kind of money, I have to admit if I had money like that I'd probably want to spend it too.

I guess the question then is, should I feel guilty about accepting it? Or rather, why feel guilty? It's their money after all, and if they want to spend it on me why shouldn't I accept it? Maybe I'm worried that this obligates me to them. If I can carry my weight, pay my own way that is, I'm not obligated to them. Is it that serious though? Am I overthinking this? Should I just accept this as a kindness? After all, Max benefits as well.

Enough with the philosophy, let me explain. Today was busy, the after holiday crowd was in full force. Similar to Black Friday after Thanksgiving, but not as well advertised. The one advantage of how busy it was is that time flew. After work, Hal was there to pick me up, excited by what he wanted to tell me. So he took me out to dinner, despite our recent conversation on that topic, and announced that He and Sam had gotten together to get everyone hotel rooms. That way we could drive up together on Wednesday, stay the night, and have most of Thursday to enjoy before driving home that night. Where Sam had wanted to get two rooms, he and Hal have now gotten three rooms. One for Hal and I, one for Max and Robert (to whom they've extended the invite), and the final for Sam and Candace.

At least they've shared the costs, rather than putting the full burden on Sam. And in a way I appreciate that. But I had had this conversation with Sam, and it's frustrating that he went along with Hal on this after knowing how I felt about it. I wanted to protest, but at that moment Max texted me in her excitement, and had already accepted.

Hal doesn't understand, Sam doesn't understand, and maybe I don't even fully understand. Is this just pride and stubbornness?

Hal could see I wasn't happy about it, and he started to formulate his case, but I just relented and saved him the effort. If they have the means, far be it for me to say how they can or can't spend their money. I may as well enjoy it.

Besides, a whole night with Hal in my arms, that's something I've been wanting.

So tomorrow I pack, do what laundry I can, and then we head out. I've been keeping the parents appraised of the situation, and let them know the change of plans after getting home. Dad was all sorts of concerned, but Mom shushed him and told me to have fun.

But that means a busy morning tomorrow so I should get to bed.

December 25th, 2017

Another Christmas come and gone. It's long since gotten old, but of course there's always those who find out I don't celebrate the Christian holiday, and they always have to ask why? Or, "Don't you want to?" Or some version of "Why do you hate God?" As though not believing in the Christian god automatically means I hate him. Seriously, do these people hate all the gods they don't believe in? I just want to ask, do you believe in Zeus? And when they say no, then respond with their own question: "Why do you hate him?" And no, I have little interest in celebrating Jesus's birthday. No more than I do Yule's birth, or Mithras, or any of the countless other gods whose birthday the Christians commandeered for their own. I don't have any interest, because we already celebrate the holiday in our own way. No we don't take part in the capitalistic ritual of gift giving, but we do spend the day with family as best we can. Because I don't celebrate the Christian holiday I often end up working the day to let out other Christian employees who do. That's my gift to them. Are you telling me I should be more selfish and make them work?

It's frustrating. It always strikes me as hypocritical for Christians to call this holiday season a time of good will when they turn around and demand everyone else conform to their ideas.

And I know, I know, not all Christians... no, not all Christians. Just the vocal ones. It'd be nice to see other Christians stand up against those ones, but they never do. They just complain when us non-Christians point out how they're being jerks. "Hey! Not all Christians..." That's what that is.

No, it's not all Christians. I'm letting one ass get to me. 'Cause that's all it takes. Every day there's someone who just has to be an ass, and today like all Christian Holiday's the ass is a Christian.



The day was quiet, for the most part. Especially in the morning. We did get a little business in the afternoon, but not enough to justify the staff we had. They offered to send me home, but I stayed in favor of letting another Christian, Carol, go home. Instead I stayed the whole shift and helped people close down so we could all get out sooner.

Hal was kind enough to come give me a ride home. He wanted to make sure and see me, even offering me a present. I accepted it, not wanting to be rude by turning it down. He did make sure though to recognize that I don't celebrate in that way and he wanted me to understand that I didn't have to return the gesture. But he had found a little pendant that he wanted me to have, and now was as good a time as any to give it to me. It's a necklace with a coin pendant in which is set an obsidian bead. He said it was meant to represent a total lunar eclipse, the coin made to look of ancient design stamped with the goddess Olwen on the back. It's made of tungsten and used to represent the sun's corona. The whole thing is beautiful, even the silver chain. And while there's some weight to it for it's size, I could see myself wearing this regularly. I thanked him. Sadly though, I couldn't thank him properly. I needed to get home, as did he. So I promised to thank him again later.

When I got home, Mom was on the phone with Efe. She let me say hi since his time was nearly up. He sounds good, and he said he was appreciating his time in the service. He loved that he was getting to travel and was making sure to take as many pictures as he could to share with me when he got home. I told him about Hal, and how he also liked to go hiking. Efe teased me about preferring books to joining him on his hikes. But, his time was soon up and we were saying goodbye before I felt we were really saying hi.

Mom said he wasn't able to talk about his current whereabouts, but that he'd mentioned visiting Hawaii and Japan, and that he'd put in for a chance to see Europe. They've got him moving around a lot, and he hasn't been stationed anywhere permanently. It sounds like he enjoys being on the move, which is very like him, but he's rarely in a place long enough to call.

Uncle Krikor called to wish us well. I've never actually met him, only ever talking to him over the phone. Like Efe he likes to move around, and it makes me wonder if Efe will ever come home. But he stays in touch, and always wants to know how things are and what's happening in my life. He's got a manor about him, even over the phone, that makes me feel comfortable and warm and I find myself telling him everything. I'd like to think I'd happily jump into his arms should I ever see him, but not knowing what he looks like I'm not sure how I'd actually act. He doesn't ever send mail, or pictures, and doesn't have any social media. So while Mom has some older photos of him when he was about my age, I don't think anyone knows what he looks like now.

I had taken Hal's gift out to tell him about it, and that was when Mom noticed it. She made such a big deal out of it! So embarrassing.

I handed the phone back to Mom after we'd talked for a while and joined Dad in front of the TV. He was watching some story about local women sports stars encouraging young girls to be more active. Bunny Rinne I knew, she's a favored competitor for next years Olympics. Skiing and Snowboarding, and huge into the X-games. The other was, I hope I'm spelling this right, Yeong? She's an up and coming competitor in MMA, and turns out she was a champion at the youth MMA competition earlier this month. I didn't hear much more, but Dad says they were talking about her competing lightweight professionally if it weren't for her age. As good as she is, she might have to wait out a year until she is old enough to go professional, she's too good for her age group. It sounds like she's petitioning to compete against the boys in order to keep competing. If they prevent her from competing next year, even with her reputation, it could hurt her chances going professional.

That is just amazing. Especially with the stories Dad has been pointing out over the last few years about girls playing football with the boys. It's about time they started letting us compete equally. That is just awesome!

We had dinner after Mom finished talking with Uncle Krikor. Because we all have such different schedules, this is the one thing we do do in order to celebrate. Just like Thanksgiving, we make sure to have dinner together as a family. Dad took the lead this time, with Mom's help of course. Since I had to work I wasn't able to help out. So I helped with the cleaning. It was amazing. Dad doesn't cook very often, but when he does he really does. He's always said he used to work as a cook before meeting Mom. Says it spoiled his enjoyment in the kitchen, so he avoids cooking normally. But like tonight, such good food.

Anyway, one more day at work, and then this weekend is the tubing trip. Better get some rest now while I can.

December 24th, 2017

What a busy day! I knew it was getting close, but Christmas and Christmas Eve always seem to take me by surprise. With school out, and people coming to Denver to visit families, we get a lot of extra traffic. It is interesting though that so many people are coming here to Denver considering the troubles at DIA and on I-70. I suppose that does make it easier on the people who live here, but I can't imagine it'd be any easier travel either way. Still, a lot of interesting people to meet today.

Hal did catch me at lunch, taking time away from spending it with family. We discussed what he'd be doing for the holidays and it got into a lot of the same conversation I'd been having with Candace about how my family doesn't celebrate like most others. Hal was understanding and accepting, but he was hoping I'd be able to join him. Alas, work. Not that I don't want to, I think it'd be nice to meet his folks. Maybe some time less... expecting?

That said, it was nice to get home tonight just to Mom and Dad. Mom was talking with Batel when I got in, and they were already planning on sending a care package to Efe. Batel finally found the perfect sweater to go with my tie. Not a cardigan like we'd hoped, but she said it was called a "Humping Reindeer" sweater. I can only imagine. So she's going to package that up and mail it to us, that way we can box it up with my tie and Mom wanted to send along some treats. Should be nice.

On that note, Mom and I set about making cookies. It was a good night all together. Tomorrow will probably be dead at the Museum, but I still have to show up. No worries, we'll get some cleaning done I'm sure.