This Christmas was our tenth one together, and for the first time it was just the two of us for the whole day.

The night before we tried to make the last Christmas Eve service at our church, but we cut it too close and missed it. When the service was starting and we were still on the road I said, “Chinese sounds kinda good right now.” Andy burst out with, “I was literally just thinking the SAME THING!” We called in an order and picked it up on the way home. We watched a couple of 30 Rock episodes and started falling asleep before 7pm. Luckily “It’s a Wonderful Life” came on TV to keep us awake and restore some Christmas balance to the night.

We slept in Christmas morning, made orange rolls and exchanged gifts. My last present from Andy was a stack of photos of my brother that Andy had chosen where he felt Justin looked “most like him.” Pictures of Justin laughing, looking surprised, grinning, happy. He included some frames too. He said he thought as time went on it would be more important for me to have pictures of my brother around. I’m crying again just writing about it. His thoughtfulness in knowing me and in missing and loving my brother too continues to give me pause to appreciate what a good man he is and how kind he is to me. I’m grateful.

Andy opened a new puzzle and worked on it all day until it was finished. I read a book. We made Quiche Lorraine together for the first time (it sounds fancier than it is). I took a nap. We ate leftovers from my work Christmas party for dinner. We tried to find a Christmas movie on TV and, “Look Who’s Talking Now” was the only one.

Seriously.

I was hoping for, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”, “A Christmas Story”, or really, anything else. As it turns out, we watched it anyway and it was cheesier than I remember. Actually, whinier, I couldn’t believe how much Kirstie Alley whines in that movie.

It was a great long day together, the perfect mix of doing less for Christmas this year.