”Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.”
The heat is blasting trying to ward off the cold. It is 31°. The car windows are covered with frosty looking snowflakes. The grass crunches underfoot. It is indeed a winter wonderland.
My tree has already filled the house with the sweet aroma of pine; however, it is still undecorated. I hauled so many boxes up and down yesterday I ran out of steam. Today I have a concert so I will decorate later. The lights are ready to be strung.
I caught Nala in the act of stealing a shepherd, one with a sheep across his shoulders. I yelled for her to stop, and she ignored me as usual. I followed her outside calling her a bad dog and asking her to drop it. Nala hates being called a bad dog especially when she is guilty of something. She stops, wags her tail and her body, the way only a boxer does, and drops her pelf. The shepherd was saved! The nativity is now under wraps.
When I was a kid, every day was agony, another day to wait until Christmas. Time stretched out seemingly forever. In school we sang Christmas carols and practiced for the play of the big day, the birth. We practiced the Bible verses about the trip to Bethlehem, the announcement from the angels, the surprise of the shepherds and the birth in the stable. We had to memorize our lines. They were exact from the Bible. They weren’t easy. I was an angel. I told the shepherds.
When I was a kid, I never doubted the existence of Santa Claus. Maybe if I had stopped to think, I’d have caught on to the ploy. Naughty or nice list? Santa sees you when you are sleeping and when you’re awake? What parent wouldn’t use the threat of Santa? We were good out of fear.
My mother told me I knew all the words to ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas when I was little. I got the meaning of the story. I just didn’t know what all the words meant. I remember being perplexed when the man opened his window threw up the sash. Why did he eat it in the first place?
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
December 15, 2024 at 4:04 pm
Hi Kat,
Last night we attended my company’s holiday party at the Embassy Suits Hotel. Because Grapevine is advertised as the Christmas Capital of Texas, the hotel was packed to the rafters with families with lots screaming kids.
I was very surprised that the food at the party was terrible. We sat at a table with very few people. A lot of no shows. Since it was a sit down meal, I ate an extra salad after the main course because the main course was tasteless. They ran out of deserts, which were self served at the back of the ballroom. It was a very small round chocolate cake topped with whipped cream and a hole strawberry. It was very good.
Today is mostly cloudy with a high temperature of 76°. There’s a chance of light rain tonight.
Because Christmas is a single day, opening the presents becomes a cornucopia of opening gifts as depicted in my favorite Holiday movie, “A Christmas Story”. I love the line, where the department store Santa says to Ralphie, “Kid, you’ll shoot your eye out”. Then, he pushes Ralphie down the slide with his foot. 🙂 Because Chanukah is eight nights, a kid usually gets one present per night. The anticipation gets stretched out and the kid has an entire evening of fun playing with each gift.
December 15, 2024 at 10:45 pm
Hi Bob,
I think I am so far away from wanting to attend events with kids, especially screaming kids. They easily ruin an evening.
Nothing is more disappointing than a bad meal. I wonder if someone from your company tried the food first. Too bad you couldn’t just eat more desserts with your salads. My uke band had a sit down dinner for our Christmas party. We started with a great salad and had three choices for dinner. Dessert was cheesecake. The meal was excellent. Best of all, no kids!
It stayed cold, really cold all day.
I also like the idea of stretching out the gifts, especially with younger kids. They are too excited to open slowly. When we were older, we stretched out the opening. I used to sit after and start my book.