“You’re makin more racket than an empty wagon on a froze-over road.”
It isn’t yet the proverbial crack of dawn and here I am wide-eyed and bushy-tailed (clichés must be an early morning phenomenon). I blame it on the turkey and all the fixings. When I got home after dinner, I was filled to the gills (oops, another one) and so sleepy I went to bed before 9.
Dinner was spectacular and the table, filled with food, groaned under the weight of green bean casserole, stuffing, squash, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, grandma’s cole slaw and the star of the day, the turkey. We sat and ate for the longest time. Conversation was at a minimum. Mostly it was requests for one dish or another to be passed. Romper Room’s Miss Jean would have made all of us members of the clean plate club. After dinner, we waddled into the living room and watched TV hoping dinner would settle enough so we could have pie. We all managed. There’s always room for pie. The dinner was an unqualified success!
I can’t imagine dragging myself out of bed to get dressed and go shopping. The lead story on the 5 o’clock news was about the long lines of people waiting in the cold for stores to open. I got to hear one woman describe the toy she was buying. News must have been really scarce this morning.
Gracie is asleep and snoring beside me on the couch. Fern is asleep behind me on the back couch cushion. I have no idea where Maddie is but I figure she is probably sleeping upstairs. I am the only one awake. The TV is on, and I am immersed in black and white. I’ve watched Wanted Dead or Alive and My Three Sons and am now watching Petticoat Junction. Wanted Dead or Alive had Santa Claus, the real one. He was in the house pretending to be someone else and on Christmas morning he had disappeared. The doors were still locked on the inside, and there were no footprints, but there was a bell in the fireplace. On Petticoat they are decorating for Christmas, including the Cannonball and a cow with a bow on her head and a gift tag around her neck. I used to watch that show all the time. It is just awful, and I never noticed.
The Beverly Hillbillies are on, and I’d hate to miss them. I sang along with the theme song and remembered every word. The Clampetts are returning home to the mountains for Christmas, “Happy as a pack of squirrels returning to their nest.”
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: before dawn, Beverly Hillbillies, black and white TV, Christmas shows, filled to the gills, Petticoat Junction, Shopping, Thanksgiving dinner, Wanted Dead or Alive
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November 29, 2013 at 7:24 am
Wow, that’s early! I didn’t expect to read your post until late at night, because I’m leaving for the first chorus Christmas concert of this season. We’ll sing in 2 churches of a nice old town. Speaking of clichés, the historic city is a cliché of a German town:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Glockenturm2-2.JPG
November 29, 2013 at 8:31 am
Birgit,
Getting up at 5 gave me a head start on the day. I would love to hear your concert. Christmas music live-it doesn’t get much better than that!
That is exactly what I expect an old, historic village to look like!
November 29, 2013 at 9:51 am
There something to say about early birds and worms. This year we skipped the black Friday mess because we already shopped for Chanukah which started Wednesday night. Thank goodness that won’t happen again for something like 10,000 years. My kids are getting older and now they really want money instead of presents. Black Friday has spawned gray Thursday. People with no interest in the late football game could fatten their credit card bill early after stuffing themselves with Turkey. As I have said before, the health of the economy requires that we spend until it hurts in December. There is nothing that a retailer, importer or manufacturer can do the entire rest of the year if the Holiday season is a bust. If we didn’t have Christmas and Chanukah we would have to make something up to get people to buy.
Today the sun is shinning and it should warm up to the upper 50s. Next week the weather prognosticators are forecasting high temperatures in the 70s.
November 29, 2013 at 12:30 pm
Bob,
I haven’t ever gone out on black Friday. I’ll do a bit of shopping tomorrow; it’s buy local day, and the Cape has some great stores.
My brother was the only one who ever wanted money as he always needed it and never had any sort of a list. My folks gave him money but I never did. I’d find something he’d like.
When my mother was growing up, Christmas wasn’t hyped the way it is now, but I still won’t take the cynical view. Christmas and Chanukah are what you make of them. We have fun together decorating gingerbread houses and folding Christmas origami and stuff like that. I put a great deal of thought into gifts and look for what I think will get a big grin when opened.
Cold here now and 20’s tonight.
November 29, 2013 at 1:10 pm
One of the things that I enjoy about your blog is that you always take the non cynical view and look on the bright side of things. Of course the real meaning of the holidays is family and not things.
I agree with buy local day. You can find gifts in your neighborhood shops that would never show up in Walmart and have more meaning than just another CD or electronic gadget.
November 29, 2013 at 2:46 pm
Bob,
I was always the one who clapped the loudest for Tinker Bell to come alive.
I can’t imagine going through life looking askance at everything. I believe in the good and always have. Good doesn’t always triumph but I keep believing.
We have great little shops around here that are fun to go through to see what I might find. That’s for tomorrow.
November 29, 2013 at 3:18 pm
Tinker Bell came alive because we all clapped so loudly for her.
I don’t shop at malls, can’t even remember the last time I was at one. I do a lot of shopping on-line and watch cable more than not. I get to miss all those commercials or I jet ignore them. I love Christmas.
November 29, 2013 at 3:02 pm
OMG, Tinker Bell didn’t come alive? Generally I agree with you but there is so much commercialism tied to the holidays that it’s hard not get a little jaded. Only Leo Durocher would say, “Nice guys finish last.” Sometimes it doesn’t work that way.
November 29, 2013 at 10:15 am
Hi Kat,
I was awake then, too, but I’m usually awake at that time. Rocky and I have been out but not for Black Friday. We went out for Hungry Bird Friday. Feeders needed refilling.
I may go out later for a longish dog walk once the sun is higher and it’s marginally warmer.
I also need more bird food.
On the other hand, it’s nice sitting here all warm and cozy with a sleeping dog by my side and BookTV on the television.
Maybe I’ll just stay put and enjoy it.
There are now two hawks who regard my bird feeders as a smorgasbord. One is large enough to take spawns. No bad thing, that.
It’s sunny but cold. At least there is no wind to compound the frostiness.
Enjoy the day.
November 29, 2013 at 12:35 pm
Hi Caryn,
No Black Friday here for me either. I have no interest in fighting crowd just for a sale. I still have to check to see what I have for gifts before I do any more shopping. I think I’m close.
I didn’t get dressed today. I did something to my back, and it is quite painful so I’m just hanging out at home.
I filled the feeders yesterday morning so there is plenty of seed. I will also soon need seed.
I’m rooting for the hawks!
Cold here too and there isn’t any wind either. Tonight is supposed to be really cold, down in the low 20’s.
Have a great evening!
November 29, 2013 at 11:19 am
I woke up early, let the dogs out and in again and went to bed, I’m home with a cold so it felt so nice to jhump back in to the warm bed again 🙂 Well I was up by 7 am anyway so it didn’t last that long 🙂
It’s cold outside and it drizzles, not a nice combuination at all. Thankfully no wind though. One has to be grateful for the small things 🙂 🙂
I haven’t seen any of those shows but I’ve seen a small part of the Beverly Hillbillys. Can’t say much about them though, saw too little of it. Tonight they’ll start showing Startreck movies for seven Fridays in a row, they start with Startreck the Moitíon Picture. I know it is rather bad 🙂 But I’ll take anything they have to give 🙂 After that they’ll show Dune but I’m afraid I’ll be way to tired to stayup and watch it.
Have a great day!
Christer.
November 29, 2013 at 12:44 pm
Christer,
I don’t feel all that great today so I’m lying low and taking it easy. I’ll also take a nap later hoping to feel better.
It is cold here too and will get colder starting tonight. I don’t want that rain of yours as a winter rain is bone chilling.
When I used to teach English, I started a science fiction elective. Dune was one of the books I chose for the kids to read. They loved it. I told them the book was far too complicated on so many levels beyond plot to be made into a good movie. Years later a student called and had seen Dune. She told me I had been a fortune teller as it was a really bad movie. Even Star Trek, the Movie, is better.
Have a wonderful evening!
November 29, 2013 at 7:35 pm
all I wanted this morning was a cup of coffee
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November 29, 2013 at 7:43 pm
November 29, 2013 at 7:51 pm
November 29, 2013 at 8:28 pm
GnuFool,
These are such adorable animals. I loved the owls defining the types of coffee with their eyes and cats do have great faces. With many of these I totally understood the feeling and the NEED!
November 29, 2013 at 8:32 pm
Gnu,
The fiddles are great on The Christmas Virus.
Poor Santa!
I heard a song or two of theirs a long way back and totally forgot about The Arrogant Worms-thanks for the reintroduction!
November 29, 2013 at 8:15 pm
Since Chanukah is an eight day holiday and Thanksgiving was the first day. I want to share my favorite Thanksgivukkah song.
Enjoy
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pl55YT7j5GU
November 29, 2013 at 8:28 pm
Bob, that was a fun song and so was the video. They did a great job combining the two. Loved the tribe!
November 29, 2013 at 9:08 pm
Your comment about the Chocolate Pie last night made me remember a spinster great Aunt of mine. She lived so humbly and was so gentle. A true Lady but tough as a plow share. She loved me dearly and made the best chocolate pie I’ve ever had. I have been to most the USA and around the world but never was a pie like hers.
She made a great deal of my annual summer visits and always had a pie waiting. She passed away when I was 16 and I received a letter from her executor with an index card, her recipe. I have tried ever since to make a pie like hers but the magic of the love from her hands, crippled by a lifetime of field labor, is an ingredient not on the list.
That’s why I like Coffee so much Kat.
You know as I that we would be less but for the lives we remember.
November 29, 2013 at 9:40 pm
Beto,
What a beautiful story about a loving aunt who knew the best of all gifts for you: her recipe for the special pie she made for all you. I expect she was so very excited to have you visit each summer.
I think making the pie is holding on to her memory, to her love.
It is so very true. The lives I remember enrich my own beyond measure.