Hectic Holidays

This was a weird Christmas season for us. I really don’t know how I managed Christmas cards and wrapping of presents, I was so completely absorbed by Alex’s 50th birthday party. Fortunately, all of my shopping was done in Japan.

Somehow when I dreamed up this party in Japan, a hemisphere away from home, I managed to forget how much work there is catering a big party alone. I did some things ahead of time, but many of my offerings had to be done at the last minute. I probably walked 50 miles around my kitchen the day of the party. Dear Hearts, I’m not used to this. In the past—rather distant past—it was a lark. I was decades younger then. My last big party was Alex and María’s wedding reception, and Carli and Tom were here to help.

The party was Tuesday the 22nd. I worked myself into a near collapse ahead of time, saw that the party was a roaring success, and let my brain go into suspended animation when it was past. The idea that Christmas was due in three days simply didn’t register.

…which was all to the good. Our most valuable young man in the office had decided to take Christmas and New Year’s weeks for his annual holiday. When Alex and I agreed with less than overwhelming enthusiasm, we expected only two ships during the period. Dwight did everything he could to get documents ready ahead of time. He even stayed late his last Friday to post my accounts in the computer—which I had no intention of his bothering with.

Well, Dwight no sooner had disappeared over the horizon than we learned that, in addition to the two cruise-ship calls we knew about, we would have a container ship and four tankers.

 

The morning after his birthday party, Alex was out at dawn making sure that everything was ready for the 8-hour call of the cruise ship Norwegian Majesty. Allan, our other young man in the office, was out collecting a boarding party and entering one of the tankers. The secretary and I held down the office. Alex ran his legs off all day long.

The container ship Hispaniola anchored at daylight Christmas day to load as many as possible of the almost 200 containers that had accumulated here because of abbreviated calls. Belize is low man on the schedule. Whenever there are time problems, they cut our calls short or even cut them out altogether.

Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas, Alex!

 

Actually, Alex and I were perfectly happy about it. I assumed that the stevedores would grumble. However, when they came in to collect their annual bonuses, I was amused to find them ecstatic. After all, you can’t knock triple time.

As for María, I thought she was going to expire on the spot when Alex told her the news. I simply laughed and told her we could have Christmas on the 26th or 27th just as easily. As a sales pitch it went flat. As far as María is concerned, Christmas is the 25th and that’s that. I told her that Bucher and I celebrated our first Christmas together in January when his ship returned to New York late from a run to England during the War. The landlord saved the tree I bought, in the basement. He brought it up and I decorated it when Bucher called to say that he was on his way home. It was a beautiful Christmas regardless of the date.

In the end, we worked things out beautifully by opening a few presents Christmas Eve. The delightful thing was that, when we finished our drinks and presents, we could look forward to another “opening” on Boxing Day, the 26th.

María invited me down to her apartment for Christmas day lunch. Her brother Elmer was with us. She broiled lobster, and I provided salad and garlic bread. With drinks before hand and wine with lunch, it made a pleasant little celebration even though Alex could not be with us.

 

As I said, my mind went into hibernation once the party was past. When we got together on the 26th for our traditional Christmas morning, I realized that I had failed to buy V-8 for the obligatory Bloody Marys. Later that day, I found I also had forgotten to buy butter for Alex’s expected birthday cake—spice cake with butter frosting. No matter, he had birthday cake left from the party and had a New Year’s cake this year.

Alex finished work early in the evening Christmas night, so he was ready to start our second shift of package opening earlier than I was ready to receive guests Boxing Day morning. We had a lovely time, though coffee is no substitute for a Bloody Mary.

María and Alex invited me for Christmas dinner downstairs. Usually I contribute a couple of things, but this year they both insisted that they would do the whole thing. I was touched at the way they made the announcement. They obviously were concerned about all the work I had done for the party. Alex doesn’t like turkey—mainly because it lasts too long. María had a ham with a new basting sauce that was divine. It was a pleasant little celebration.

 

We needed this deluge of work, but it would have been pleasant to have it timed more conveniently. The three-day New Year’s holiday was exactly what I needed to recuperate after a stressful week and before another one.