December 26, 2006

Blog date Boxing Day 2006: Christmas 2006 has come and gone, in a fury of activity. I don’t know when it started (as they said on the Disneyland ride Haunted House: “When two holidays collide”), but it was probably on Halloween. Halloween has gotten a bit weird; now we put up lights and a slew of decorations, such as orange lights and an assortment of other electrical scary stuff (I should put out my old reel-to-reel tape recorder, now that would scare off the kids!), such as a lighted gate and Markus-the-Carcass, a glowing head and glowing hands and feet, like some sort of glowing earth-bound zombie. Anyway, so Halloween came and went, both Mikey and Matt came back with at least 20 lbs of candy each, two pillowcases full. Then the talk abut Christmas began, and the kids changing their lists every two days. Just crazy, we did not put up our Christmas lights until after Thanksgiving (yes, I forgot about Thanksgiving, the feeding frenzy in November), but Kathy was done with the lights around the second week in December, which of course meant that the Halloween lights and decorations had to come down, and the Christmas stuff up!!! I don’t know how she does it; if it was up to me, I would just put on a scary mask for Halloween (or maybe my regular face is scary enough, ha ha), and give out candy, then put up a Christmas tree and be done with the whole thing! Instead, Kathy decorates the whole house for both events, and the kids love it!!! It was weird getting our Christmas Tree, we bought the first tree (story below…) at Home Depot (my old employer), and it must have been 80 deg. F, most people in line wore shorts and tee-shirts! Here is a line of people with great big old Christmas Trees, dressed like beach bums!!! Anyway, the next day when I was about to put up the tree, I realized that the darn thing was so dry that I had to take it back; reason “dead tree”, a little Christmas humor! Then off to Target, to buy another tree, which is still in our living room (but also dry as the desert!). The weather cooled off a bit before Christmas, but on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day the weather was just beautiful, a balmy 75 deg. F mid-day, and full sunshine!!! Now that’s what I call SoCal Christmas! I asked Chelsea if she ever remembered a rainy or cold Christmas, and she did not, which is the same for me, if I remember right, the weather has always been beautiful, and warm enough to go to the beach if one so pleases. As always, I have been eating way too much since Halloween, and the last two weeks have been just crazy. The office is always full of goodies, and the lunches have been both many and rich, so I have probably packed on at least 5 lbs this holiday season. Christmas Eve, of to church at 4:00 PM, then watching my favorite Christmas movie “The Muppet’s Christmas Carol”, a masterpiece (no, I’m not kidding, I just love that movie!). Christmas day, the kids were up at around 7:00 AM, full of anticipation; both boys got the new Gameboy Micro, and I did not see them for most of Christmas day after that, they were holed up in their rooms playing away. Chelsea got a few things, at 18 she really just want money, but that’s in short supply when you have three kids! Anyway, everybody was happy, I bought myself some monitor speakers for the PA, so I’m happy, and we can finally hear ourselves sing in the band (I don’t know if this is good or bad…). Now Tuesday, back to work, the office is just about abandoned, so life is very good!! Anyway, it’s going on 5:00 PM, quitting time, and I will sign off. Until next post, have a great continuation of the holidays, and take care of each other!!!

Kram, Peter L.