A Few More Hours Of Christmas

I always think Dec. 26 is about the most depressing day of the year. After the build-up to Christmas, then it's over, just like that.

So enjoy it while you can. Just a few more hours to go. And let's say I go to bed a couple hours before midnight, I'm cheating myself out of two hours of Christmas.

I'm not visiting with family this year (on Christmas). So it's a little lonely. Right now it's just me, the dog, and two cats. And the cats are someplace.

It was fun watching the dog check out her stocking. We got her, let me amend that, SANTA got her a few items, mostly edibles, of course. And she dug right in to one of the chewy ones. It was cute how she was sniffing the stocking, because she knew it was hers!

Christmas Candy

I'm usually a cheapskate when it comes to buying candy. I have fairly good discipline in not buying it, unless I can get a good deal on it. I'm cheap!

But at Christmas, when you're putting it on the table for guests, it's nice to splurge. And buy the stuff that I wouldn't ordinarily buy, the premo stuff, like, Ghirardelli -- I had to go get a piece just to know how to spell it.

It's beautiful stuff. The various Hershey Kisses, which I also will not buy through the rest of the year. One, I don't like having to unwrap the little things just to have a tiny piece of chocolate. I prefer the bigger, more economical gigantic candy bars they put out.

I didn't get any of the hard, traditional candy yet this year. One year I got some and froze it and was eating it in July. Even then, though, it got sticky when it thawed out.

I had some cherry chocolates yesterday. It's nice to have a few of them at Christmas. Then I can't find them the rest of the year.

Of course none of it's good for you ... but it's Christmas!

We used to leave cherry chocolates out for Santa when I was a kid. And I don't remember him ever leaving any behind. So if they're good enough for Santa ... they're good enough for me!

Milknog

I had some "milknog" today, I believe for the first time ever. I don't remember hearing about it before, so it might be a new development in the conjuring up of different drinks for the consumer market.

But it's good, being nothing more than a mixture of milk and eggnog, probably half of one and half of the other. So it's milky with an eggnog taste to it.

I also had some straight eggnog, a great drink of the season. Why it's restricted to the Christmas season, I don't know, since it seems like it'd be delicious anytime. But who am I to question tradition?

It seems like I didn't drink eggnog until maybe in the last 10 years sometime. For whatever reason. I guess I figured I wouldn't like it. Maybe it's been in the last 15 years. The exact dates escape me.

It turned out that eggnog was also delicious. Although sometimes it seems to go straight to my head. I haven't had that happen this year, but last year I remember feeling dizzy, slightly overwhelmed by it. Like it was too rich for my sensibilities at the time.

Christmas Shopping Is Finished

It's a good feeling to be done for another year. It's kind of like getting done with your income tax forms in April, the feeling that it's done for a whole 'nother year.

I finished up today, getting a few stocking stuffers for a loved one. Others of the family, we ordered their stuff online and everything came, the last things today.

One of the postmen came over after hours to tell me that a package belonging to me had fallen down behind some stuff and he wanted to make sure I got it today. That was great. He'd already had a busy day, but to think that he took the time to do that for me, it touched me. What a nice gesture.

The benefit of him doing that meant that the very last presents purchased were in place. They could be wrapped and put under the tree.

It's quite a holiday. Too bad we didn't settle on a $5 gift exchange. It's a lot more lavish than that. I'll pay for it in January.

Like Bob Cratchit, we're making rather merry!

Two Christmas Trees

We already have two Christmas trees up and decorated.

Two!

One is the old tree, now retired to a secondary room but decorated just as beautifully as it usually is.

The other is a new tree, which has now taken the place of the old tree (which was so faithful but now is relegated to a secondary room).

It's weird to have decorated Christmas trees before it's even been Thanksgiving. But that's the way it goes around here. These are not 100% my decisions.

Too Many Christmas Decorations

We have a lot of Christmas decorations. There's someone in the house (not me) who likes to accumulate Christmas decorations.

And it's about that time of the year. I guess thrift stores probably get Christmas stuff all year long, but then squirrel it away in totes, boxes, or cupboards through the year. Then around September 15, into October, they put it out. You suddenly see it.

The next thing, it's at my house. Skinny Santas, fat Santas, Santas with beards so big they've barely got a face, reindeer wall hangings, tinsel, and everything else that goes with the season.

I imagine sometimes how it might be, you know, if I were left with all this stuff, like by inheritance. And what I might do with it to get rid of it. Since it doesn't do quite as much for me personally. If I showed up at the thrift store, would they chase me out? "We don't want a whole truckload of that stuff! Bring it back, a little at a time. Wait till September!"

Good Grief, Oct. 10!

I hate the thought of my blogs dying one by one. But, hey, time goes by, interests change, you forget, you go on. I have several others, not just with this posting name. They're dead and gone, because I'm not returning to them. Maybe BOY LEG deserves a slight continuation.

I saw some months ago -- then was reminded of it while wandering the women's clothing aisles at a local store -- that Boy Leg is a term that describes some sort of women's clothing thing. What, precisely, I don't know. It's a good thing to look up next time interest in it hits me.

Last posting on Oct. 10 means I skipped Halloween, Fall in general, everything of November, Thanksgiving, everything leading up to and encompassing Christmas. Probably just as well, since my opinions on those subjects fall solidly in the mainstream. Halloween, I never dress up, nor do I have a lot of interest in it. Thanksgiving has to be the major holiday of which there's the least amount of stuff to say about it. Something nebulous about being thankful. Christmas has lots of points of interest and personal stories.

We have invested Christmas with so much meaning that any little slight, any little family squabble is greatly magnified. Don't mess with Christmas. You can't get depressed and skip it, because if you do, forever after that's the year you got depressed and skipped Christmas! You really can't do anything out of the ordinary at Christmas, because it's a matter of family legend and lore that you won't escape ever. Christmas is really a time for being middle of the road, in what you say, in behavior, in attitudes, everything.

There was one "Christmas From Hell" when I was a kid, of which I shall not relate any details. It was over 40 years ago. I ignorantly tried to tell someone about it the other day and broke down in tears literally 5 seconds in, and I am not a crier. That was a Christmas that got messed with, and you don't forget.

I was involved in a family squabble of sorts this year -- this very year -- a few days before Christmas -- then it spilled over into an argument the day after Christmas. Long story short, it's not resolved yet. I was partially to blame on this deal, and I have no doubt whatsoever, this Christmas, insofar as it's remembered at all, will be remembered for this one incident. And I'm the one guy in the world who knows better.

Anyway, we'll leave it there. This will be my post for December. All the best to everyone around the world for a Happy New Year. We're getting rid of Bush so it has to be happier than the others.