To Get and Get Not

Our annual holiday celebration was a few days later than normal this year.  Normally, we celebrate during the week following Christmas, but this year it was the week following New Year's Day.
   I was looking forward to seeing my brother this year.  He's had an eventful year, but as far as I can remember we actually haven't talked to each other since last January, a few days after his last visit.  He hasn't even been on Facebook much, so what I do know about his year has been through the parents.  In visits past, we've been able to steal away for some time together, just the two of us, but this year (and last year, too) our available time has been minimal.  This visit was essentially only three days long, and he had brought his job with him, and other family members had agendas that kept me busy as well.
   My Dad was the one having the worst time.  He felt like he was just hemorrhaging money, and things kept going wrong for him.  We went out to dinner at Outback, only the third time since they opened in the late 80s, and it was our third bad experience.  My Dad got a steak that was so gristly that he couldn't cut through it, and the one they replaced it with was cooked rare (he likes his well done), and then he lost his credit card.  He thinks he left it in the waiter's ticket book, but he called the restaurant the next day and they said they didn't have it. 
   Thursday the 3rd we opened presents, and after a couple years of saying he didn't need or want anything, my Dad got what he asked for.  He was disappointed.  Turns out that that wasn't what he wanted at all.  (I actually hadn't finished shopping yet, so he got my present later.) Then a hot water tank quit working at one of the rent houses, which kept him away part of the time.  He's had funner years.
    Though I didn't get to spend time with Scott, I did spend a lot of time with his daughter.  Now that she's outgrown the hormonal grumpiness of early adolescence, she's really a lot of fun.  She and her cousins insisted that I drive them to the mall, first to finish their Christmas shopping, and then to spend the money they found under the tree.  I spent a bit of time talking to her, and I feel like I got to make friends with her all over again.  Honestly, I think that that was the best part of my Christmas.