Christmas Time!!!!!

I post the words below each year around this time for self-stated reasons. November this year was so much fun that I’m challenged to maintain the current level of psyche through Christmas. I consider that a worthy challenge and am excited just at the prospect of that. I’m getting some serious assistance in my efforts from my Favorite Panamanian. While she is always a source of culinary delight in the form of Christmas cookies, this year she’s thrown herself into decorating the house more so than usual. This has the corollary effect of getting my Christmas spirit rising a couple weeks early which I am completely okay with. I’ve missed her down in the Man Cave each night because she’s been so busy decorating that I’m left to my own devices which meant dedication to the A-Z watch and wrapping presents. Each time I mount the stairs I’m amazed at her progress. I remain confused how a woman with such evident good taste chose me to hang out with.

The Namesake Nephew Statue in the Back Yard
Didn't Seem Happy about the Snowfall

We had the first significant snowfall that I’ve seen in the last two years yesterday. I’ve had my hard-boiled New Englander reputation soiled in the past few years by fleeing south to a tropical paradise for most of the winter. Last year we didn’t get any plowable snow before we flew south. I’ll admit I missed the magic of waking up to a snow-covered landscape and we certainly had that yesterday. Since I now use a snow blower, I actually enjoy clearing the snow off the driveway. We were supposed to get 1-3 inches, but New England did its usual contrariness by depositing six and a half inches. I loved it! Mostly because I no longer have the driveway from hell which was a significant factor in our departure from Charlton. Getting back on the subject, the snowfall further embellished the Christmas spirit which needed no additional enhancement. So, here we go, which means I’m going to be in a great mood anticipating the day when all the family is once again saturating the house.

Back Yard Yesterday Morning

I hope as you are reading this have a special group of family and friends to gather at holiday time 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 each 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.

The Tree and Fireplace

Deckzilla Doors

The Kitchen Sink Got a Makeover

Front Hallway

Dining Room

Even the Bathroom got a Wreath and Trees

I am an unabashed and unrepentant lover of Christmas time, in all of its glorious corniness.  I love Christmas carols, Christmas parties, but most of all Christmas Day. I can remember Christmas as far back as the age of 3.  I still remember one special year in my early teens when I was overcome with Christmas spirit, feeling so good about the season and just general happiness that I wondered at myself. This feeling lasted until well after Christmas and no, to all you cynics out there, the feelings were not chemically assisted.  Every year since then has been an attempt to recapture that feeling. Most years I get it in bits and pieces, mostly associated with time I spend with my family and friends.

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’s overly commercialized or others not properly religious. It seems there are always those elements in society – “Grinchs” for lack of a better term. 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!

Five movies fell in the A-Z watch (wife busy decorating), all keepers: The Mummy (1999), great action/horror/comedy, great chemistry between Fraser and Weitz; The Mummy Returns, not as much fun and the Rock is terrible but likable; The Mummy, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, big mistake recasting Weitz but c’mon abominable snowmen, gotta love it; The Mummy, wish there was more Boutella and less Cruise but still great action; and Murder by Death, hasn’t aged well but still funniest send up of detective dramas with truly all star cast and a Neil Simon script.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 her single days in Brooklyn; Czech Connection – Czech couple who’ve become good friends along with their daughter (the Czech Shadow); 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 3^rd 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; Seis Amigos - two couples from our condo complex and my wife and I; Soxfather – my brother-in-law (whom I miss more than I can ever explain); Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course