I post the words
below each year around this time for the self-stated reasons. 2020 is certainly
not your average year (I think the Grinch is the spirit animal for this year) but
I still find myself seeping into the season with my usual unbridled enthusiasm.
We’ll have to ratchet down the attendance at the house this year but we have a
plan where I at least get to see those people I’m closest to, even if it is
from a distance. I’m a firm believer that
the travails of life in Pandemia has made us realize how special times we might
have taken for granted in the past truly are. 2021 is imminent as is the
vaccine. I plan on filling the holes in my soul my separation from friends and
family that 2020 has demanded by going more than a little overboard next year
int hat area – so be warned. I hope each and every one of you can spend time
with those you hold most dear. That’s my plan.
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. I served 27 years in the Army and made it home
every year for Christmas except for three years.
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 of each other. Merry
Christmas!
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RECURRING CHARACTERS
BR3 – granddaughter #3, BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second
granddaughter; FBR - First Blog Reader
- first granddaughter, ABFA – Amazing
Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law; Wingman – my son in law; Keene
Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene,
NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend
– friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as
radical leftist to attract women; Kindergarten
Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Pittsburgh College Roommate – high
school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions
once my wife got involved in planning; Maine
and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters,
my wife is the 3rd musquetera (musketeer); Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; 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; Neighborhood
Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member, Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of
course); First Friday – celebrations
to mark the First Friday of the Week; Curbside
Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in
Brooklyn
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