The Sick Pack

I hope every one had a nice Christmas. We certainly did. As per usual, we ate too much, or at least I did. When I looked at the amount of food that was purchased prior to the holiday I didn't really believe that we could go through it all. Of course, once again, I was wrong. Thankfully I didn't eat it all myself. My sons Ben and Brian came for a visit, and my daughter Autumn and her husband Aaron were here. Then of course Jen and her tribe. Throw in a few friends and you have a pretty nice showing. On Christmas Eve we all descended on Jennifer's house like ants at a picnic. She has an annual shoebox dinner that she puts on. Fortunately we don't have to eat the shoes. Then the next day we're back again for brunch. For some reason she doesn't seem to get tired of company. She's the most sociable person I know. I'm really kind of glad she's that way. It gives all the guests a place to go when I get crabby, as I'm prone to do. All the kids seem to like to stay up late and play games and talk and eat. I, on the other hand, prefer the quiet of an empty house after about ten PM. I'm always kind of amazed that we made it through all the noise and hustle and bustle of seven kids for all those years. Perhaps that's why silence is so coveted now.
I posted these pictures, partly because I like birds,and partly because it reminds me of chowtime at our house during the holidays. These are Junkos. They show up every year looking for a hand out. I think they become dependent on the seed that gets tossed out to them in the winter. I don't know what would happen if I ran out of seed for an extented period of time- it might be like a scene from that Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds. Hmm... I wonder what would happen if we ran out of food for the guests at our house. I don't think I even want to think about that.
I'm not real sure, but I think all this extra eating that I've been doing may have led to some of the pain I'm experiencing in my back. It's been really hurting for the past couple of days. I think I'm suffering from a syndrome commonly known as Holiday Gut. It's also been called Thanksgiving Tummy and Cookie Dough Stomache.The more severe cases always appear right around Thanksgiving and usually don't subside until well into the new year. As the years pile on it becomes more and more difficult to get rid of HG, but it can be done.
I was sitting in Jan's rocking chair earlier with a special electric massage pad, for lack of a better word. Inside the pad were a pair of rotating balls and every time they came in contact with the sensitive part of my back I would squirm and yell- much to the delight of my wife and daughter. Autumn was enjoying it so much she dragged out her phone and was video taping it-perhaps to put on U tube or some such thing. In any event, I unpugged the blasted thing. I didn't want my pain to be giving the whole world too much entertainment. I don't mind laughter at my expense, but there are limits.