New Year's Eve-2024
On New Year's Eve, Yessa had to work, so we planned the day around having our celebratory dinner after she got home, around 7 or 8 p.m.
Buds and I went to CrossFit at noon and everyone got in some play or reading time as their spirit moved. (And, of course, I did a couple rounds of PT.)
Buster found a new game called "Satisfactory" that he hoped the whole family would be intrigued enough to try out. At points over the next few days, everyone but Gin tried it out and everyone enjoyed being on the group call, though Buds and Buster are the two who continue to play the game together and dream big dreams.
In one of the more memorable exchanges I heard when they were playing was shrieking, then laughter. Lots and lots of laughter. Yessa had fallen down into a ravine, clunking and shrieking as her character fell. Buster had to run to her to help her out because she didn't have the supplies to make ladders to climb out. That all would have been fine, but Buds decided he wanted to go look down into the ravine where she took the tumble, and...you guessed it, in he fell.
Oh, the crap they gave him and the accolades for Buster for saving everyone.
A lovely surprise was the arrival of the annual set of pictures from Buddie's parents. Each year they put together a set of stories and photos. In recent years, Buds and siblings have helped create the family lore, too. Buds wrote about an old injury, the finger that almost killed him.
Buddie's story:
The broken finger
My wrestling days were hard on the fingers. It’s easy to sprain a finger in a match, so I’d often wind up taping two fingers together.
During an early season tournament in Middlebury in my freshman year, I was wrestling some great galoot and my hand got caught under his knee as he came sprawling down. I grimaced and taped it up.
This right ring finger didn’t heal as smoothly as the others. My aching finger was swelling up and would occasionally need lancing, releasing a great gush of fluid. This would bring relief but a day later we’d be back where we started.
When it was clear it wasn’t healing Dad and I visited a doctor at Middlebury Hospital. The doc x-ray-ed the finger, blanched, and made it clear how serious this was. The tip of the finger had been shattered and there was a very serious risk of infection. I mean, there already was infection, but we were talking about life-altering, lose-the-finger style infection.
In a rush, I was scheduled for a surgical deep cleaning and repair. They left a little venting port in the corner of my nail and weeks of IV-delivered antibiotics were required. This kept me home from school and ended my wrestling season in a flash. All my schoolbooks came home. The days were spent strapped to an IV, reading. There was lots of time playing Lode Runner, a Commodore 64 game. Later, I’d break the left ring finger and tape that one until it healed. That left me with a matching set of perfectly working but misshapen ring fingers.
Buddie's mom added some additional information after his story:
Eventually we started cooking the evening meal. We had decided steak, baked potatoes, sautéed green beans with almonds, crusty bread, and pear tart, with sparkling juice as our drink to toast the new year.
After Yessa was home and settled, we gathered around the table to chat and dine.
Yessa taught us to fold napkins the way she has to at work.
This brought us to the inevitable "lobster claw hands."
We talked a fair amount about our hopes for the new year, as well as our next big trip together; Japan, late 2025/early 2026. We've already been researching and learning about where we'd like to go and what we want to see. I was intrigued to learn that the response to any host's/chef's question of, "How did you like your meal?" is always met with some version of, "So delicious! Best meal ever."
Buster, our resident Japanese expert, then explained to us that we were actually supposed to offer to the chef, "May I dip you so low and kiss you so sweetly?"
At the end of the meal Buster began to talk about how he was going to pop from being so full, and Yessa reminded us that no meal is complete until Buster mentions how uncomfortably full he is.
We all helped to clean up the table and kitchen and settled into our night.
As the night wore on, people played games, and Yessa puzzled while we watched a couple episodes of "Grace and Frankie."
The kids encouraged us to stay up until midnight, and Buster and I had a deep conversation in his room that carried me through until 11 p.m. The girls wandered in to take part, and we started laughing and decided that Buds needed to be part of the joy as well. Since he was snuggled in bed and refused to move, the four of us went and dog-piled on him.
We chatted and storied and laughed a bit longer, then we kicked the three of them out.
The ideal ending to 2024.
