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photo of Kay Four

On Many Subjects

Famous among several.....

Posts tagged with "Christmas"

Christmas Crash

Tuesday, 30. December 2008, 15:12:51

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The Christmas holidays were so much fun! I got to play with a mulitude of babies, eat wonderful food, entertain, be entertained, sing songs, and generally act merry.

Now, I am back to work and the daily grind has set in, along with reality.

I realize that I have a long list of things to do over the next week:

*Take down the Christmas Tree(s). I actually have three of them in my apartment.
*Take down the Christmas Wreath
*Put the above in boxes and store them until next year
*Wash the cat-hair covered tree skirt
*Put my furniture back where it belongs
*Do the laundry I have been neglecting for two weeks
*Watch the Netflix movies that have been sitting on my desk since Christmas Eve
*Clean the left-overs out of my refrigerator
*Find places to put all my Christmas gifts
*Go to the grocery store to replenish my depleted larder

Why do I need to do all of these things? Because my youngest son, his wife and my grandson are coming to stay with me from January 5th until the 8th or the 9th and I will be up and entertaining, yet again. I am looking forward to it!

2 comments

Merry Christmas to All

Wednesday, 24. December 2008, 17:20:39

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Merry Christmas to all of my Opera Friends. I Hope your holiday is special!

8 comments

Let's Cancel Christmas

Sunday, 16. November 2008, 13:31:25

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My #2 son, Clover and me got the two grandchildren - the Divine Miss M and the New Guy - all dressed up to visit Santa. We decided to go early in the season so the lines would be much, much, shorter. And they were.

Before the event, we discussed Christmas with the Divine Miss M and she was very excited about the prospect of trees and presents. She even wanted to visit Santa. They were all at my apartment and I asked if they had shown Miss M a picture of Santa and they had not, so we pulled up a picture of him on the computer to let her see. Immediately the exitation turned into wariness. She did not want to sit on Santa's lap.

But, intrepid parents and grandparent, we loaded up the car and drove to the mall, anyway. When we frist walked into "Polar Express" theme area, she was happy. The figures and the "snow" falling was a big hit.

Then...

She. Saw. Santa.

Miss M grabbed her Grammie (that's me) and said, "No!" Santa was perched on a big purple chair with the New Guy alread in his arms, and both looked happy and content. Miss M still didn't any part of the entire ordeal and even bribery of promises that she could go to the "Hello Kitty Store" (Sanrio) didn't encourage her to sit on Santa's lap.

So, her record is perfect. Three Christmases in a row, she was upset by Santa Claus.

On the way to Sanrio, she annouced, "I don't like Christmas."

Still, here is the picture of the New Guy with Santa:

2 comments

The Chirstmas Season is Upon Us

Tuesday, 4. December 2007, 10:08:56

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It's that time of year again! I admit. I LOVE Christmas. I LOVE Christmas decorations. I took a hiatus from Christmas for several years and, amazingly enough, I still had money in January. So that is a plus. But, even though I didn't go through the trappings of the holiday, I watched It's a Wonderful Life and White Christmas on TV. Over and over. Last year, I broke with that No-Christmas tradition and put up a tree.

I loved Christmas as a child, except then, I thought Santa Claus MUST be the patron saint of janitors because he wasn't allowed to visit our house unless it was totally cleaned from cellar to dome. (We lived in an American Ranch style home, in Florida, so there was no cellar or dome.) Be that as it may, every nook and cranny, every speck of dust, every tiny mark that announced the home was less than perfectly clean had to be removed or NO SANTA! What a pain for a kid to endure. "Gee, Mom, couldn't Santa come here just ONCE without us having to bleach the bathtub. I mean, I don't think Santa even goes to the bathroom while he's here." There was always the possibility that Santa might have to take a leak and our house, having the reputation of being the cleanest one on his route, would be the home of choice. So, we bleached the tile in the bathroom, cleaned the dust off the tops of the door frames, and removed and cleaned the heater vents. A house that was so clean, Santa would not be embarrassed... and he had better leave those reindeer outside because my mother would have NEVER tolerated them marking up her nice clean floors. (And NO, Mom, I didn't get the Internet just to make you cry.)

But, finally, the house sparkled with cleanliness and the tree was put up and the manger scene was pulled out of the box and the three wise men adorned the coffee table. Christmas was getting closer and Santa would visit after all.

When my Mom and Dad moved into the retirement community, they entrusted me with the family's Christmas decorations, which I promptly lost in one move or other, so now, I have to replace all those wonderful trappings of the Holiday.

And here is my dilemma. I have recently started a new job and am I, in a word, broke. Busted. By the time I got the job, I owed everybody and his dog money, plus most of my extra cash has been going into the CAR FROM HELL that regularly leaves me stranded. So, I want to buy new Christmas decorations for my apartment, but I don't want all these people I owe money to saying, "She can afford to put tacky Christmas lights in her window, but she can't send me any money."

So, maybe the solution is to put the Christmas decorations INSIDE and leave the lights out of the windows so no one will know that I spent money on tacky Christmas decorations instead of paying off a bill or two.

T'is the season to be jolly, afterall.


3 comments

My Christmas Tree

Tuesday, 19. December 2006, 12:12:27

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Finally...

It is starting to look a lot like Chirstmas around here. I mean, I spent the money that should have gone to pay my cell phone bill on a Christmas Tree. Well, the tree was only $30 and the cell phone bill is WAY higher and I bought the tree thinking I had already paid the cell phone bill, but I had not. Long story short, I have a tree and no cell phone service.

I was going to take a picture of the tree and post it here, but alas, if you don't have cell phone service, you cannot send pictures from your phone, so I will describe my tree.

It is tiny.

Oh, you want more?

OK. It is 26 inches tall, including the cardinal (a red song bird) on the top of it and it is 12 inches in diameter. It has teeny red balls and teeny gold balls and teeny male cardinals and teeny female cardinals with teeny red bows tied on the ends of some of the branches. Oh, and it had twenty LED lights on it. Now there are 19 because one is burned out. Do you get a Charlie Brown image? Don't be sad. I LOVE my teeny tree. It has a lot of personal symbolism attached. So, getting back to the story, I put up a tree in my bedroom...

Well, my bedroom is SMALL only 10 feet by 10 feet and I have a full size bed, a dresser, a book shelf, a chest of drawers and a teeny chest of draws that doubles as a night stand and a big computer desk. The closet is big enough that my half contains all my clothes (now that I got the rest of them out of #1's house) can hang in there. #2 has stuff stored in the other half of the closet.

Yes, it's small and cozy, but, it's home.

Where was I? Oh, the Christmas Tree.

I have, for many years, not contributed to the celebration of Christmas, which has, in the US and in my own family, become more about the gifts one receives instead of about Christ's birthday and the true meaning of Christmas which is love and giving.

Sidebar: Baby Jesus wasn't born on December 25, by the way. Most Christmas traditions, from Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, Father Christams, the decorated tree inside, the decorated tree outside, candles, a Christmas feast, to gift giving, are based on non-Christian celebrations. Historically, Jesus was probably born in October, but we don't know for sure. The point is, rather than celebrating the fact that the Messiah was born, most people in the US have switched to worshipping the God of Commerce... I believe in Greek Mythology that was Hermes. I also know that calling it Hermes-mas is really hard to pronounce, so most people just stick with Christmas. Still the God of Commerce flourishes in the US because without the much anticipated Christmas Season many businesses will fail.

Sidebar 2.0: I also realize this is not the case with every person in the US. Many still know how to capture that Christmas feeling.

So, this year, I decorated a little tree and put it in my room, hoping to engender some Christmas Spirit within me. Why? Because I am feeling depressed on a number of levels which I won't go into now. The important question here is, did it work? Do I feel the Spirit of Christmas after putting up a teeny tree?

No.

So, lesson learned, Christmas isn't a tree or a gift. It is the feeling inside one gets when one does something for someone else and that can't be found in a tree or a prettily wrapped package. That is found inside, in the heart. That is where Christmas truly is.

So, this is my Christmas gift to everyone:

Happiness in the form of a teeny smile



7 comments

The Divine Miss M and a Right Jolly Old Elf

Saturday, 9. December 2006, 11:22:01

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Look at me! This is my first visit to Santa Claus. I thought he was at the North Pole, not Hawaii! I told Santa "I want soft things or fuzzy things or fun things or things that taste really good." I hope I get my wish.

12 comments