I hope that it is a year of adventure, meaning, and prosperity for everyone on S-Chat and their families. At least the extended players that earn it by being decent people.

I will be catching up with S-Chat over the next couple of weeks. We left for my parents on Dec-19th and just got home last night after the first comprehensive gathering of the Rags clan for the holidays in two years.   SS came, mom, dad, DW and I along with our son were at mom and dads.  My brother, his wife, and their two boys and their SOs were at my brother's house while my niece, her DH and their 18mo old DD were at theres. There was regular events at my brother's house, and my parents.  Mom, as usual, did her hostess/kitchen wizardry and jus about worked herself to exaustion.  My SIL, also as usual, promised to help but did nothing.  My bride and my mom did their usual bonding and built an amazing  Christmas culinary experience, while dad and I played our support and clean up roles.  

As is usually the case regarding my SIL, I had to bite my tongue as my brother's wife did her usual sacharine sweet baby talking engagement with everyone, making plans and commitments to help, have a girls day, etc, etc, etc... then either canceling or going completely silent.

I think it even got to my brother by the last couple of days. He was decidedly quiet. He will share with dad or me eventually, but... I count it as huge personal success that I just bit my tongue.

All in all, it was a very nice gathering.  We had a great time, except, our kid picked up the flu on his way back to his duty station. My eldest nephew (Bro's #2 kid) tested positive for Influenza A within hours of arriving at my brother's house.  He spent the holiday visit sequestered in their back yard Casita and participated in all things Holiday related from the patio watching through the floor to ceiling picture windows.   That had some interesting comic events.

Mom's 81st B-day was on the 26th.  My brother nailed the gift. He wrote her a letter with his comprehensive memories of mom.  It had everyone with the smile/sniffles.  So yes, I burned another man card while we were all cutting onions as he read her the letter.

On another cutting onions note. My youngest nephew's SO had a frightening medical crisis recently.  She had a debilitating migrane for several days. On the start day of the major crises she lost all functionality on the R side of her body, could not speak, had R side facial paralysis.  My nephew called 911 and accompanied her to the ER then called her parents who both immediately left for the kid's State.  The med team treated her for stroke.  She recovered all function within about 24hrs and the Dx is inconclusive.  The  Doc consensus is that it was the side effects of an extremely severe migraine and not a stroke.  Blessedly.  She was under extreme stress apparently as she had received a decline letter from her top pick for Med school.  Her dad is paying for her Med school but only at an in-state option in the State where he lives and the young woman was raised.  She wants an MD program rather than a DO program. She had received an acceptance letter from a DO school in her home State.  The day after she was released from the hospital, she received acceptance from her second choice in MD schools in her home state and the city she was raised in.  She and my  nephew are moving in July for her to start med school in the Fall.  His company has approved his transfer from the Denver office to the Houston office.

The whole thing was extremely frightening for all of us. She is an incredible young woman.  As for the cutting onions part, her dad sent my brother an email about how my nephew was the rock for all of them during the crisis though he was clearly shaken to the core himself.  My nephew and his GF met at university and both graduated in Spring of 2024. He got a great starting position with an engineering consulting firm, and she took a year to work for a medical practice as she applied for Med schools.

My brother shared her dad's email about my nephew.  In that EM he referenced Rudyard Kipling's poem If and that my nephew personified that poem for her father and his entire family.

Her dad is a prominant attorney. Her mom is a philanthropist.  Her parents are divorced but very cordial.  They all gather for famile events, etc...  No drama, no angst.

My dad was so moved by the E/M that he had the poem professionally formated with art work and mounted as his and mom's Christmas gift to my brother.  At the Christmas day gift extravaganza and feast event at my parent's my brother read the email to everyone after he opened the gift from mom and dad.

After the reading of that email from her father I can't even read this poem without getting leaky eyeballs.

I truly did win the family lottery at every level.  My parents, my brother, my bride, my kid, my niece and nephews.  It looks like the next gen will continue the trend.  Which I find comforting and is a strong source of pride for me.

“If” by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son

Happy new year S-Chat.  I appreciate you all.


 

Last edited by Rags (1/06/2026 2:46 pm)