A Quiet Day

As this first day of 2020 draws to a close, I am remembering very different New Year’s Days when I lived at home.

Dad roused us out of bed and made a special breakfast – usually angel pancakes or waffles. For the angel pancakes, he separated the eggs, beat the whites until they were stiff, and then folded them into the batter. They were very good.

We watched the Rose Parade. I am just remembering one year one of our Aunts came down and wanted to see the floats. So the day after the parade, we drove to Pasadena and saw the floats. They looked beautiful, but dying flowers don’t smell very good and so it wasn't entirely pleasant.

And then the football games began as the day progressed. We almost always watched the Rose Bowl, even if one of the Los Angeles (USC or UCLA) teams wasn’t playing.

But then there were other choices if the teams playing in the Rose Bowl weren’t interesting. Dad would flip channels to the Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Gator Bowl, and others I have forgotten.

Football consumed the day. I watched the games right along with my Dad and brothers and sometimes Grandpa. For a while Grandpa had the only color TV, so we would gravitate to his house (which was a short walk from our house).

I loved football. At least I thought I did.

After we moved here, I watched parts of the Rose Parade a couple of years, and I watched the Rose Bowl a couple of times, and then I came to the conclusion that I no longer liked football that much. Richard had no interest in football – or in any other sports for that matter. So watching sports on television fell by the wayside.

So we have spent a very quiet, relaxing day puttering around the house instead of sitting in front of the TV yelling at the coaches and the players and the referees.

I don’t feel tip top. I went to a lovely Christmas Eve service at the sister church, with the auditorium filled with coughing, sneezing toddlers and their parents, and I am now coughing and sneezing myself. But this will pass.