We took Ant to a skate park in the morning while running some last minute errands. It was kind of a sad skate park, but Ant tried out both his board and his internal shock absorption system- both are working well. He hasn't skated in a couple months, and the pressure was on with the audience present. Dad and I stayed off the concrete, but Richard went right for the action shots.
It's been very hard to get into the kitchen. With 16 people for dinner on Christmas Eve, there was a lot of prep work, noshing, and drink refilling. I had to keep my eyes peeled for an opening, so all I got done on Thursday was the dough. Note: it was a terrible idea to do all this here.
Dinner was fantastic: two prime ribs, twice-baked potatoes, carrots, green beans with slivered almonds, crescent rolls and/or French bread, and miscellaneous baked goodies for dessert.
Ant sat next to me and had some very lively conversations. He loved the dinner (that was so delicious, thanks to Kate's efforts and hours, assisted by her daughters) so much that all he could say sometimes was "sooo gooood." Dana (a massage therapist) got a hold of Ant and worked on some of his skateboarding strains and taught him some stretches, but it was fun to watch his eyes roll back in his head while she was working on his neck.
He was happy and full of hugs for everyone, and late that night he came to talk to me about plans for the next morning and we ended up talking about all kinds of things that are going on in his world right now, more shit that was going on in the past that I didn't know about, and plans, ideas, and thoughts about the future. It was one of the best conversations I think we've ever had, and it was nice to talk outside of school, work, and the daily grind. Life is rarely ideal and usually different than expectations, and Ant can be happy and get along in any situation, but this was so much better than that. Things were not perfect or anything, but so good, and he was so much happier than just getting along and having a good time. He was warm and loving and good-natured and hovered at that almost-being-silly level of happy. It was fantastic to see. Kyle and Emily said last night that they, along with Cody, had been looking forward to hanging out with Ant more, and were sad when they learned he'd gone on to the next family gathering. We all were.
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