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Posts Tagged ‘Christmas’

Holiday Apologies

Posted in Quality of Life, Real Estate, tagged on December 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

I have to apologize.  I’ve concluded that I don’t fit the Christmas plan.  It seems that when people ask me what I want for Christmas- you know, something reasonably priced and small enough to wrap, I just come up with nothing.  Don’t get me wrong.  I do want things, like new windows for my house, paying down my credit card balance, help on replacing my locked up heat pump compressor (revelation from yesterday), or maybe a couple of slabs of cherry wood to use in my shop.  I even like books and music, but now mostly I like to get them digitally, so that means a gift card from Amazon or iTunes.  I’m just not able to give my family a good traditional idea.  I think I’m lucky to be at a point in my life where things and stuff just don’t occupy a lot of my mind.  When I do want some hardware, it is usually pretty pricey and peculiar- not the kind of things to suggest to relatives and friends.  I really don’t mean to be difficult, and I still manage to appreciate the holidays for the food and fellowship they bring.  I read something the other day on the subject of happiness.   It was trying to identify why Americans seem to have more stuff than most any other country, but don’t rate very high on an international happiness scale.  The writer said that to be truly happy, we need to focus more on using our resources to have positive, memorable experiences.  Good memories that can be called up time and again can bring real happiness.

I’m too much of a gearhead/gadget guy to think that I’ll stop appreciating well-designed gizmos, but the older I get, the more I just enjoy a good meal with friends.  I’ll still happily rip open a Christmas package containing pajamas, a tie, a sweater, or other traditional goodies.  I’ll really appreciate them, and my bride will enjoy me looking a little less out-of-style. But just understand that if you’re looking for  the really unique gadget that will make me feel all twelve years old again, apart from going nuts in the Brookstone store/catalog, it’s going to be tough, but good luck!

Merry Christmas, everyone.  Hope you get what YOU want.

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Thanks, Mr. Dickens. I Needed That!

Posted in Quality of Life, Real Estate, tagged , , , , on December 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Tiny Tim lives!  A recent performance of A Christmas Carol in High Point by the NC Shakespeare Festival reminded me that the lesson of Christmas is one of giving of a special sort.  Of course, the retail world encourages the idea of giving too, and from the standpoint of the health of our economy, I’m good with that.  Still, there are always people in the world who don’t get to participate in that commercial extravagance, and in many cases, feel lucky to eat once a day.  I think that’s what Charles Dickens wrote about.  The difficulty is figuring out how to do that in our society today.  The opportunities are everywhere to the point where one must wonder what is the most effective way to do this.  ScroogeBetween gobs of non-profits that no doubt do great, if limited work, and government assistance that sometimes give to those who are unworthy but skillful at scams, the idea of helping those in need can be frustrating.

One of the points that Charles Dickens makes in A Christmas Carol is that having a giving spirit is more important than being judgemental about who deserves the benefits of that giving.  We’re not often in a good position to know who is deserving and who is not, but I figure that God is very capable of sorting that out at some point.  If we focus too much on keeping it all to ourselves, we ultimately do ourselves damage sooner or later. 

Scrooge got the benefit of seeing Christmas future in time to make some needed changes.  That’s a good lesson all year-long.

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Taking Down Christmas

Posted in Quality of Life, tagged , , , on January 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Today is the day we finally get all of our Christmas decorations taken down, boxed up and stored in the attic.  We’ve been slower than usual this year for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the slow healing of my sprained ankle, making stairs a bit of a  challenge, and the fact  that it’s been freakin’ cold in the attic lately.  Today in the early afternoon, the outside temperature is a balmy 35 degrees, so the attic is slightly more tolerable than it’s been previously this week.  Thankfully, we’ve pared down the amount of decorations we put out over that last few years.  No offense to those who like to load up each room with decorations or even put Christmas trees in every room, but for those who do I wonder, what in the world do you do with all that stuff the rest of the year?

Getting all of that stuff put away always gives me a clean “new start” feeling for the year.  For me, this is better than New Years Day!

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Carolina Christmas

Posted in Iredell County, Quality of Life, tagged , , on December 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Got another Christmas done!  We enjoyed multiple family gatherings at our house with much food, good conversation and a few gifts.  We’ve gotten past the honey baked ham or turkey and dressing dinner and moved on to something more interesting, like our jambalaya that is always a good winter meal and was a hit with my family. 

Once again, we had a warm Christmas.  I don’t mean just warm hearts and houses.  I mean 63 degrees and sunny warm.  Thinking back about my growing up in Iredell County and spending most Christmases here, I think we’ve run about 50/50 in having warm vs. cold Christmases.  A few days before, we had highs in the mid thirties, but yesterday was just spectacular.  Not only do we have seasons here, we have seasons within seasons!  It’s not at all unusual to have 40-50 degree swings in daytime highs here through much of the winter.  At least we rarely have sustained cold spells.

The only thing I didn’t like about this is that my bride had mentioned having a fire in the fireplace during the holidays.  I mentioned earlier that she had resisted this for 19 years in this house after having many fires in previous houses.   Then when my youngest daughter, Kathryn, and her husband Ron visited for Thanksgiving, they got her to change her mind, and we enjoyed a fire then.  So, on Christmas Eve, I called an ad in the Mooresville Tribune and got a pickup load of wood delivered, ready for another blazing fire.  Well, you know the rest…  On Christmas day, Susan had me open the doore to the screen porch just to cool off the house.  Oh, well, we’re back to mid forties and overcast today.  I think we’ll be having that next fire soon enough.

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Bloggift

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on December 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

xtree023Since it is the Christmas season, the time of giving, I thought I’d like to give you something.  Blogs are about words, so here is my word gift to you- a couple of bits of wisdom from the pages of the 2009 Farmers’ Almanac.

“The chicken doesn’t stop scratching just because worms are scarce.”  (Appropriate for the Realtors in the audience.)

“It’s a lot easier to form an opinion when you have only a few of the facts.”   (Appropriate for just about everyone.)

meryxmas

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Mooresville Christmas Parade

Posted in Entertainment, Mooresville, tagged , on November 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

If you’re in the mood for a good dose of Christmas spirit, and you like marching bands, you’re in luck.  There are several local parades coming up in the Lake Norman area. The first is Mooresville’s 64th annual Christmas parade is Tuesday, Nov. 23 (tomorrow) at 3:45 pm.  That takes me back to my youth when I was a student at Troutman School and later, South Iredell where I played tenor sax in the band and marched in quite a few Mooresville Christmas parades.  There nothing like marching down Main St., playing Christmas music and trying to avoid stepping in horse poop in my fancy white marching shoes!

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