Mom cooked a rib eye roast, and it was outstanding. The family gathered and ate and opened presents. This is what we pretty much do every year. This year was about average for Christmas at our house. It was great, don't get me wrong. But it wasn't particularly exceptional, if that makes sense.
But this year, before the festivities started with my own family, I had dinner with the friend I went to Costa Rica with earlier this year. We had brisket, and it was delicious. There were seven of us at that dinner. My friend is a lawyer with the State Bar Association. His sister is a Methodist minister. A State Supreme Court judge and his wife were there and a Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies from a local college joined us too. Finally, there was a genealogy expert as well.
There were several unique things about this particular dinner.
First, I don't think I've ever been to someone else's Christmas dinner.
Second, I was the only idiot at the table.
Third, and this is hard to say, I really liked everyone. This is a group of people I really enjoyed being around - more than my own family. There. I said it.
I'm not sure why. We didn't get involved in any deep discussions. As a matter of fact, dinner conversation was mostly about cooking. The group represents a wide range of economic, social and political persuasions. I know some of their stories, and they (and their families) are as screwed up as mine - or more. I cannot explain why I enjoyed hanging with this group of people so much. But I really did.
I would really like to be in a monthly dinner club with these folks or something.
But it bothers me a little that I had a better time at Christmas dinner with somebody else's friends than I did with my own family.