Damn, this year has flashed by.  I don’t know whether it is because of my age or if there were just so many things happening.  Even with much less to do from a business standpoint the week just seems to go from Monday to Saturday with no in between.

I am not a big fan of the Christmas holidays.  For all the known reasons.  Too much greed by all of us and I get tired of seeing people scramble for things to give each other that neither really needs anyway.  The shirts one gets don’t usually fit, either in sizing or color scheme, the undies you give your wife are never the kind she likes, only the kind you secretly wish she wore.  For these reasons alone I feel we ought to go back to giving each other a dish prepared in our kitchen.  My daughter always make fudge.  Someone could give me a lemon or chocolate meringue pie and I would be a happy little elf.  We usually buy the things we really need or want and Amazon.com has made it so much easier to get those things almost instantaneously.  I swear, some of the things I order must be shipped from the house across the street.  There are just so many more options and products for us to think we need or want.

As we age it seems that the day after Christmas is so much less fun.  As a child we had days to play with our new toys and other gifts.  I once received a Daisy Pump bb gun.  I can’t begin to imagine how many shots I made with that gun.  Same thing with a recurve bow Santa brought me one year.  One year I received a chemistry set.  You could make some things with it that smelled like the worst dose of methane gas that ever came out of a bovine.  I loved that experiment.  I was a bit disappointed that I could not make anything that exploded.  However, my parents and neighbors were probably something beyond simply relieved that such an experiment was not available to me.

My family likes to ride around in the car and look at other peoples’ house decorations.  I made a number of characters to put up in the yard.  they were stolen one night a few years ago.  Made me extremely stressed and I kinda lost the spirit.  My only thought was how glad I was that I used lead based paint to color the candy canes and elves.  That will be a gift that keeps on giving and the thieves will never know what is making their hair fall out.

Visits by relatives are fun.  I can remember times when out of town guests and relatives made the season.  Everyone in the family tried to outdo themselves in fixing everyone’s favorite holiday treat.  Made for some delicious meals.  My grandmother made the best pinto beans with noodles.  I know, sounds terrible , but , it did eat good.  Cakes , yep. My grandmother also made a candy called date loaf.  At that time in life I wouldnt eat a date on a bet but i could eat a log of that candy.  I may try to find a recipe and make some.

I hope each of you finds something to be thankful for during this season.  I am thankful for having known each and every one of the people I have met in my life, some more than others, but thankful still.  I will say a little prayer that we all make it one more year and that it be a year where we stay healthy and happy.  One friend needs to be way more careful in her driving.  She knows who she is.

Love all of you

Gary