Our Christmas

Well, we’ve had our Christmas at Amelie’s place and man alive did I ever clean up.

I was driven to Amelie and Jennifer’s place by Daniel in the Cadillac limousine. It’s time for another detailing for that car.

Because it’s the 27th of December, I had no problem asking Daniel to drive me in the limo to their house. It was, technically, a work day after all. I was going to take the Range Rover, but I knew there’d be drinking, so I got Daniel to take me instead.

We sat under the 18 foot Douglas fir with a glass of sherry. First, we wanted to let Jennifer open her gifts. She got an Alexander McQueen purse from Amelie and an Alexander McQueen wallet from me. We were going to get her Balenciaga, but with their latest scandal and how sickening it is, we went with McQueen instead. I also bought her a Lady Rolex Datejust. When she saw the Rolex, she cried. She knows how much I love Rolexes. Jennifer also got a new pair of Christian Louboutin stilettos from Amelie as a “back up pair” and a brand new beautiful mink coat for winter. Hopefully she won’t need it next year because we’ll be on the yacht. But this year, she’ll be nice and warm and look great.

Then it was Amelie’s turn. We basically got her the same thing. I got her an Alexander McQueen purse and Jennifer got her the matching wallet. I also bought Amelie a Lady Rolex Datejust. She doesn’t wear watches and I told her now that she was president of the company, she had to have one. They were both very appreciative.

Then it was my turn.

Amelie and Jennifer bought me a Rolex GMT Master II Rootbeer in 14K Rose Gold. I said to the girls, “this is a $75,000 watch! What are you doing?” Amelie said, “it was only $60,000. And you need a good business watch. No offense Daddy, but you can’t wear a stainless steel watch to business meetings.” She was right and heck, rose gold looks really good on my wrist. The watch was even sized perfectly.

Jennifer got me several things. She got me an antique lighter from 1929 and an antique pocket watch from 1925 from the thrift store. I praised her for buying such thoughtful gifts at a darn good price. She also bought me a beautiful new curved pipe from Amazon for a couple of hundred dollars. Then she presented me with a bag that contained ten Calvin Klein French cuff shirts in various colours and 10 sets of cuff links. The links are amazing. Some are old French coins, some are miniaturized Paris manhole covers, they’re all very stylish and cool. They’re all in Rose Gold, too, so they go with my new Rolex. Finally, she got me an Armani three piece silk suit in black pinstripe. It needs to be tailored, but it looks beautiful. My pocket watch will look great with it.

Then for the piece de resistance.

The girls invited me out to the garage. Right there was a 2008 Jaguar Super V8 in indigo with an ivory interior. I said, “how did you find one? I’ve looked everywhere and they’re nowhere to be found!” Amelie said, “that’s because you were looking for a 2005 12 cylinder. They stopped making the 12 cylinder engines in 1998. I knew that and didn’t tell you because I wanted you to be looking for the wrong thing and never find it. That would give me time to buy it.” I just said, “what a clever girl!” She mentioned the colour and said she couldn’t find black so she got it in my favourite colour, indigo, which I think looks spectacular – much better than black. She said she got the 2008 model because there were many upgrades, including Bluetooth and video screens in the back seat while the interior and exterior remained virtually identical. She bought it from Florida and had it trucked here, so they had to change the speedometer to kilometers per hour and while they were doing that, she had the Bluetooth updated to 5.3, the satellite radio hooked up, and the satellite television hooked up. It’s an extended wheelbase (so it could easily be a two passenger limousine) and it’s got a Supercharged 5.2 liter V8 engine that puts out as much power as the V12 used to. It only has 32,000 kilometers (20,000 miles) on it — one owner, an old man, who died recently and it was sold out of his estate.

I was absolutely thrilled with it and took it for a drive immediately. What a beautiful car. The handling and power are exactly what I would expect from an old Jag: perfect. I’ve named her “A.J.” for (A)melie and (J)ennifer, her buyers. It’s the extended wheelbase version, so it’s perfect to become a two passenger limousine.

After that, we had a couple of glasses of cognac, I puffed my new pipe that I lit with my new antique lighter and we just talked. We decided (or rather, I did) that we had spent too much money this Christmas and that, like at my parents’ place, we’re going to cap Christmas spending at $25 per person. Capping it at such a low amount really forces you to think about the gift you’re giving.

After cognac, we had dinner. Clyde, Amelie’s personal chef, was back from Christmas holidays. He made us a turkey dinner with homemade stuffing, sauteed brussel sprouts, sauteed mushrooms, whipped potatoes and a ton of gravy. We had pumpkin pie for dessert. It was a great meal, but I didn’t have any wine with it because I knew I was driving.

It was a beautiful Christmas. I can’t wait to marry these girls.

After I sobered up, I sent Daniel home and drove my new Jag home.

It’s back to work tomorrow, though, and I’d probably drive my new Jaguar into work if it wasn’t for all this snow. During the day tomorrow, Daniel is taking the limousine into get detailed while I work. Tomorrow evening, the Jag is going into climate controlled storage until spring.

-VIS