“Christmas tree stands are the work of the devil and they want you dead.”
Today is dark and dank, a raw, chilly day. Rain is predicted. I have to go out and do a couple of errands. I’m going to the library and the bank. I may also get my flu shot, late for me this year. I do need go to the dump, but I’m saving that for tomorrow. Today can’t have all the fun.
Yesterday I got my first Christmas cards. Both are photo cards. Now I’m thinking I ought to get my own cards ready. I’ve had them a few weeks. I don’t get any where near the cards I used to, and that makes me a bit sad. I love picking out and sending cards but receiving them is even better. One of the cards I got is from my niece, nice to know the next generation of my family is following tradition, but I admit I’m not really surprised. My family’s Christmas is filled with traditions.
Today I get to open number 1 of my Advent calendar. It is filled with chocolates. I remember I gave one to my nephew years ago. He figured out how to get all the chocolates from the bottom of the calendar.
My holly bush has turned into a holly tree. It is almost as tall as the pine tree beside it. Originally the bush, as it was back then, was planted in the front beside another holly bush. When I came home from school one day, I noticed someone had dug up and stolen the better looking bush so I moved this one for safe keeping though it was a bit stringy and far less appealing than the stolen bush. The tree has lots of berries so I’ll be cutting some branches to decorate the house.
My father and his sister, my favorite aunt, used to have a Christmas tree thing going. My parent’s tree was always tall and beautiful so every year my aunt wanted to know how much the tree had cost him. My father only knew what my mother had told him, and she shaved off a few dollars, okay a little more than a few, because her trees were so expensive. My aunt scoffed at the price my father quoted, but he swore that’s what it cost not suspecting my mother’s trickery.
My father would have been 92 today. The first thing I did was wish him a happy birthday!
Explore posts in the same categories: Musings
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December 1, 2018 at 12:30 pm
Yesterday my dad would have been 104. I also wished him a happy birthday. It’s traditional in the Jewish religion to remember a parent or relative on the anniversary of their death. I think it’s better to remember and memorialize them on their birthday.
Your story about your mother shaving a few dollars off the price of the tree reminded me of the scene in ‘A Christmas Story’ when the whole family went to buy their Christmas tree. The narrator, Jean Shepard remarked that his father could haggle the price like an Arab trader. In today’s PC world what word would one use to convey the nuance of the meaning of the term sharp bargainer. 🙂
Tonight is the first night of Chanukah and we light our Chanukah menorahs with two candles. On candle for the first night and the helper is the helper candle that is lit every night of the eight nights. Of course the candles represent another biblical impossible miracle that the small quantity of ritually pure oil, that was left after the Temple in Jerusalem was ransacked by the Assyrian Greeks, burned for eight nights. However, the war that the Jews fought in 139 BCE and won was probably a greater miracle. Probably if the Jews were defeated in that war that would have ended Judaism and there might have not been Christianity.
Today is again sunny after a line of thunderstorms raced across the area last night. The high temperatures are forecasted to be in the mid to upper 70s.
December 1, 2018 at 12:42 pm
Ops, tomorrow night, December 2nd. is the first night of Chanukah.
December 1, 2018 at 6:26 pm
Bob,
I always miss my father most especially on Father’s Day and his birthday.
Maybe they would just call him a superior bargainer. I love that film and watch it every year. I don’t think I even noticed that line. I probably wouldn’t have cared as bargaining is so much a part of so many places. It was an important part of shopping in Ghana. I know I always paid more than the Ghanaians.
I don’t know enough of the history of the Jews, but I do think that Judaism would have survived even if the Jews had been defeated. Christians hid themselves in the early years as they knew they’d be put to death. Jews too, I think, would have done the same thing.
It was a cold day. The rain never appeared.
December 1, 2018 at 6:53 pm
You are lucky that you and your father had a great relationship and you truly miss him. I on the other hand remember him but don’t really miss him. He was not a very warm person and he was very selfish and self centered.
It’s interesting that when people die their faults and foibles die with them. People always remember the dead person’s good deeds and forget their faults, except for people like Hitler. 🙂
December 1, 2018 at 7:48 pm
Bob,
My dad was a good guy. He was generous to us all. I visited and we always played cribbage. He, my mother and I traveled together and had great times. I still miss him.
My dad wasn’t perfect. He actually voted twice for Nixon, and I think he’d be a Trump guy were he still with us. He always wondered how he was the father of all liberals.
December 1, 2018 at 2:20 pm
Hi Kat,
Did you mean ivy as in the stuff that grows up walls or were you talking about holly?
I have also received my first card of the season but it was not a Christmas Card. It was a Bunnystaplus Card. It would take too long to explain Bunnystaplus but the cards are traditionally over-enhanced with glitter, googly eyes, stickers and other random things. One opens the envelope cautiously while standing over the trash bin. I have sent out my Bunnystaplus cards for this year. There is still glitter everywhere. Rocky and Piki Dog just couldn’t resist helping me decorate my cards. We are fortunate that none of us was glued to any other of us.
Today is sunny and warmish up here. I went nowhere except to sit on the top step and take the sun while the dogs did their thing outside. It was a lovely change of pace.
Enjoy the day.
December 1, 2018 at 6:38 pm
Thanks, Caryn! I did mean holly, not ivy. The ivy in front is crawling up a pine tree but it, of course, has no berries. Perhaps I was just thinking of the song The Holly and the Ivy and mixed one with the other. I did change it to holly.
It never heard of BunnyStaplus so I went hunting. I love it. Its celebration is something I would thoroughly enjoy. It taps the whimsy in me. I saw a crèche celebrating the day, and I laughed out loud. It had, among many figures, Batman, Darth Vader, a dinosaur with bunny ears and sheep with wings. How wonderful that is!! Years ago my niece and nephew used to substitute all sorts of characters in my sister’s nativity. Little did they know they were in the vanguard of BunnyStaplus.
The sun did come out here, but it was cold. The library had closed so I went to the dump instead. What a fun day!!
December 2, 2018 at 3:41 pm
I’m glad you went looking for it because it would have been difficult to explain. And I’m really glad you found the Bunnystaplus creche. I think Luke Skywalker and Han Solo are caroling in there too although it could be Hall & Oates. I was never sure. 😀
December 1, 2018 at 2:55 pm
The first day of Advent and the house is dressed. Tree and lights last night with the ornaments being placed this morning. It is dark and rainy but the memories associated with so many of these bring joy and happiness.
Meanwhile down the Bob, I have been yelling and shouting about how wonderful “More Blood More Tracks” is as I progress to disc 4 of the 6. Although I am clearly a Bob completist, I have avoided Triplicate and his crooning of Sinatra songs…until today. Amazon dropped the 3 CD set to $11.60 and I could not resist it. I am not sure when I will play it but it’s on its way. Now where did I put the Dylan Christmas Album ?
The chapel calls, football specifically Bama will distract me. All is good with the world
December 1, 2018 at 4:03 pm
Found “Christmas in the Heart”, Mrs MDH is none too pleased
December 1, 2018 at 6:45 pm
I totally understand Mrs. MDH’s reaction!
December 1, 2018 at 6:44 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I love decorating my tree for the reasons you’ve mentioned. Many ornaments bring joyful memories of people I love and places I’ve been.
I haven’t started decorating yet. On the top of my to do list is to go through the pile of gifts in the guest room and write it all down so I can see what else I might need. I also have to get Colorado ready to send which means a wrapping marathon.
OMG, not the Dylan Christmas album!!! There was a great reason he gave it away. It was awful!!
December 1, 2018 at 6:49 pm
No. 1 of my Advent calendar was a chocolate star and I just heard part 1 of a radio advent calendar, a comedy crime story. It’s December.
The climate rally today wasn’t very Christmassy though it was pretty green and colorful and trees and were a topic too.
December 1, 2018 at 6:54 pm
Birgit – does Bochum have a Christmas Market ?
December 1, 2018 at 7:44 pm
Birgit,
I like the idea of a comedy crime story centered around Advent on the radio. I’m used to listen to a Cape Cod radio program of mysteries. I was sorry when it disappeared.
I don’t know what I’d expect if I went to a climate rally. I guess green and colorful would need to be a part of it.
December 1, 2018 at 8:57 pm
Hedley, meanwhile each town has a Christmas market, more or less crowded and commercial though I heard that people like our market. I only check about once a season, it’s pretty much the same each year.
This video says 2018 but I think it’s last year’s market:
December 2, 2018 at 10:01 am
Birgit – looks super duper
December 2, 2018 at 10:10 am
I want one!
December 2, 2018 at 1:48 am
Warmish and rainy here but the sun almost managed to shine through the clouds a couple of times. Still it wasn’t that bad taking walks with the dogs since there were no wind. We’ll have this kind of weather for a couple of days and we might even reach 50F but the cold weather will unfortunately return again.
Besides the tv commercials nothing much reminds us that christmas is coming. There is one radio station that only will play christmas music until the 25th, I haven’t heard any other station play even one christmas song 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
December 2, 2018 at 10:14 am
Christer,
Our weather has been weird. We’ve had warm days then it turns cold the next day. We’ve had lots and lost of rain.
I listen to a radio station which is playing all Christmas carols. My lights are on and they are selling trees. It is beginning to be Christmas.