I post the words below each year around this time for the self-stated reasons. 2023 came with its challenges but this time of year furnishes so many memories that it can be rejuvenating, is part of what makes it so special. The cookies are baked, the presents are wrapped, the turkey is thawing, and I find myself a little giddy waiting for the arrival of the rest of the clan this weekend. I hope you reading this have a special group of family and friends approaching how special mine is. If so, you can’t help but have a merry Christmas. Please also remember those in uniform serving in far off lands preserving our freedom. I was unbelievably lucky to only miss three Christmases at home during my 27 years of service but they hurt. Honor those who keep us safe. For those looking for holiday spirit, do what I just did, a google search for Christmas flash mobs, so many, so cool, and they all touched my heart. I provide my favorite as well as a cherished Christmas song by my favorite Irish singer and a military poem.
My wife and “kids” smile behind me, good naturedly, because they know how important Christmas is to me. I know there are those raging elements or hipsters out there that bemoan what modern Christmas has evolved to. Some say it overly commercialized or others not properly religious. It seems there are always those elements in society – “Grinchs” for lack of a better term. These seem to be people so unhappy with their own lives that they target times or traditions that bring happiness to others for scorn. I could not care less about these self-important gas bags. There is nothing in life more enjoyable than being around people you love and actually taking some time out of the all too busy lives we lead to simply be together. So, to all of you out there that bad mouth Christmas – get a life; the rest of us already have one and we’re going to have the merriest Christmas of all in spite of you or more correctly in homage to the love we are blessed with. Merry Christmas!
Three movies fell in my A-Z watch, all keepers: Hot Shots, still funny although the refences are dated; Hot Shots, Part Deux, a send up of Rambo, Sheen is so lucky, Valeria Golino and Brenda Bakke (no wonder he went crazy); and The House, Ferrell and Poehler comedy dream team.
RECURRING CHARACTERS:
ABFA – Amazing Best Family
Athlete - my daughter
in law; BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter
#3; BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel -
second granddaughter; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue
about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; CRC - Connecticut
Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor
of the big river; Curbside Girls – close
friends of my daughter acquired during him her single days in Brooklyn; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which
grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of
course); FBR - First Blog Reader -
first granddaughter; First Friday –
celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Keene
Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene,
NH; Kindergarten Friend – friend
since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife –
her US sisters, my wife is the 3rd Musquetera (musketeer); Namesake Nephew –
son of Great Aunt and Soxfather named after me; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia
member; PanaGals – female relatives /friends
of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin
Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we
have lived & their spouses; PCR - Pittsburgh College Roommate– high
school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; PCR+1 - Pittsburgh College Roommate’s wife; Riggins - also known as the
Grandpuppy, son's dog; Soxfather -
my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course
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