A Little Different, a Lot Nice

A nice Christmas--different, when I come to think about it--than any Christmas I can remember.
Evelyn and I were alone today, except for our fun dinner with all the Webers who were at our place from about 2:00 till maybe 5:30.
We had a nice, relaxed morning and spent a lot of the time getting ready for dinner. We had Honeybaked Ham, cheesy potatoes, fresh green beans, and applesauce Jello. Verna brought a tasty beverage for us to enjoy with our cheese ball and crackers, and Jocelyn brought wonderful Christmas cookies to add to ours  and the Graeter's ice cream we had for dessert. It was a respite from packing for them; they're still planning to load and move on Thursday. And if the snow will allow, we plan to go help them pack tomorrow afternoon.

Mildred Holmes, "Oma," had a pretty smile
while Nora and Ruby wiggled for my snapshot
just before they left this evening.

They're predicting 4+ inches for Butler County tomorrow, preceded by freezing rain, so we're hoping it's not as bad as they're expecting so we can get to Price Hill to help a little. Jen and Matt and the kids are planning to make the trek from Pennsylvania here tomorrow, and I'm nervous about the bad weather they may be facing.
After Webers left this evening, I got on line and bought tickets for the 7:00 showing of Les Miserables at the Rave. We got there by about 6:20 and waited in line behind 50 or 75 people till the theater was cleaned from the previous showing. We had great seats, high in the theater, right in the center of the row, for the best movie experience I can remember in a long time.
A hoard of my Facebook friends went to see the movie today. One of them said he started crying when it started and cried through the whole thing. He would have had good company with the young girl sitting beside me who sniffed and wiped her eyes intermittently throughout the film.
I was surprised to find myself moved to tears more than once during the musical. It was compelling, not so much because of the familiar music but more because of the remarkable portrayals, especially by Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman. Kudos should also go to Eddie Redmayne, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sacha Baron Cohen. Of the major players, I was least impressed with Russell Crowe, but he was sufficiently evil enough to make us want him to lose.
Evelyn and I came home and snacked on dinner leftovers, checked Facebook, and watched the threatening weather reports on the TV news to end the day.
It was a good Christmas, like I said, just a little different than most Christmases we can remember.