February 22, 2012

It’s October, Are You Getting Ready For Christmas?

October 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment
It's getting close to Christmas. Are you ready?

Yes, this really is the clock which hangs in my office all year long.

It’s October second, we’re already over a week into Autumn.  That begs the important question, “Are  you starting to get ready for Christmas?”

Now, I know what many of you are thinking, “Christmas already?  It’s not even Halloween yet!  There’s plenty of time.”  I can just hear some of you saying those very words, but, the fact is, Christmas is closer than you think.  It has a way of sneaking up on us.

Just think about it.  Does it really seem like it has been almost 3 months since Independence Day?  Or a month since Labor Day?  Nope.  Time sure flies.  Before you know it little ghosts and goblins will be at your door.  Then, flags will appear everywhere to show respect for veterans (USA).  Then it’s just a hop, skip and a jump until Thanksgiving is here.  You know how fast time goes after that.  It seems like Christmas is here before the Thanksgiving leftovers are put away.

Now, I’m not saying this to stress you out.  That’s not the point.  My goal here is to get you to start doing little things now so you can enjoy the holiday season more, with a lot less stress.

As for me, I’ve already started buying a few Christmas gifts.  My goal is to have 50-75% of my Christmas shopping done before November 1.  If I can be 95% done by Thanksgiving, that will be awesome  I always like to leave a little “stocking stuffer” shopping for the week of Christmas because it’s fun.

Not only will you save time by starting your shopping now, but you will also spread the expense out over a larger period of time.  If you get paid every two weeks, you only have 6 or 7 paychecks left before the big day.  Still, it’s much easier to spread out the expense over six paychecks as opposed to trying to do everything with the two checks you get in December.  If you get paid monthly, it’s even more important.

Aside from starting my Christmas shopping, I have also started working on my Christmas card list.  Over the past few years, Christmas cards have taken a real beating in my holiday routine.  Sometimes I put off addressing the cards until there is no point in even sending them.  Not this year.  I’m working on them now.  These cards will hit the mail the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Well, gang.  It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on this site and I apologize for that.  Even though I do live Christmas 365 days a year (as evidenced by the Santa clock on my office wall), I don’t always get time to do all of the writing I would like.  I do appreciate your support of this blog and promise to do better in the future.

Merry Christmas, Y’all.

 

Filed Under: Random Observations

The Live Christmas Tree

October 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A living Christmas TreeAlthough I do love the feel and smell of a live Christmas tree, it just never made sense to me that we should cut down a healthy tree just to decorate our home for a few weeks (at most).  It just seems like such a waste.  That’s why I’ve always had artificial Christmas trees.  Sure, they aren’t quite as nice, but you can reuse them over and over again.

When I was a teenager, one of our neighbors had a different take on Christmas trees.  They got a living Christmas tree.  I don’t mean a “fresh cut” tree.  No, I’m talking about a living tree with the root ball attached.  They would decorate it for Christmas (all in blue if I remember right) and have it during the season.  Then, when the Christmas season was over, they would move the tree outside and plant it in their backyard.  What a great way to have a Christmas tree.  You get all of the smell and feel of a real tree with none of the waste.

Whenever I would walk outside and look at the trees in our neighbor’s back yard, I would flash back to Christmas and remember how beautiful the trees looked when they were all decorated.  It was like having a little bit of Christmas all year long.

If you decide to do this in your home, be sure to check with local nurseries to find out the best planting tips for your area.

Filed Under: Christmas Trees, Memories

Christmas Shopping Discounts Are Expected in 2010

October 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Look for good bargains this Christmas shopping season.There are lots of reports going around that 2010 may just be a buyers’ market when it comes to getting great deals on Christmas gifts.  While this is good news for consumers whose budgets are already stretched, it keeps the retailers a little nervous.  The Christmas season accounts for up to 40% of annual revenue for many retailers.

The current expectations are based on the fact that many stores placed large order for holiday gift items back in the Spring, when the economic recovery was looking fairly solid.  Now, here we are in October, when unemployment is still hovering around 10% in the US, and people are cutting back on spending.  I’m sure merchants are having flashbacks to 2008 when they practically had to give stuff away to clear it out.  According to the article, retailers did a better job of forecasting last year by ordering less.  While 2010 may not reach 2008′s level of price cuts, it’s expected that there will still be plenty of discounts available to get shoppers into the stores.

Retailers are also expecting shoppers to wait until the last minute to shop, in order to get the best bargains .  To counter this, many merchants are planning on running sales early.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Christmas sales running before Halloween.

The moral of the story for this Christmas shopping season is to “shop around.”  You’re probably going to find some really great deals.

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With:

Remembering Those Wonderful Christmas Specials

October 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Television set with a Santa hatWhatever happened to those great Christmas specials of years-gone-by?  You know the ones I mean.  We had Bob Hope with the troops, the Osmond Family, Andy Williams, Red Skelton and so many others.  They were such wonderful shows.

I especially liked the “family” Christmas shows like the ones the Osmonds did.  They made it look as though you were invited into their home for Christmas. (Continued below video)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m63qkJKlIUE

While it’s true that many of the stars I’ve mentioned have passed on, it’s sad that no one has really stepped in to fill the void.  It seems as though the networks don’t feel that we would want to see wonderful holiday specials like these anymore.  Personally, I believe that this type of thinking is wrong.  Thankfully, many of these wonderful classic specials are still available on DVD so we can continue to enjoy them year after year.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKR8S6XkAww

Filed Under: Memories, TV Tagged With: , , , ,

I Asked For This Every Year!

October 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This was the greatest Christmas gift I never got.As a child, I remember ripping through the pages of those wonderful Christmas catalogs that used to fill our mailbox.  Each Autumn, we would anxiously wait for them to arrive.  The ones we got at our house were from Sears, Montgomery Wards, Spiegel and (later on) Best Products.

We would go through the pages carefully, picking out the items we wanted Santa Claus to bring us that year.  The pages became “dog-eared” and there were marks here in there as we tried to narrow down the things we wanted to a manageable number.

I would guess that I received better than 90% of what I asked for, over the years, but there was one present that always seemed to elude me.  That gift was a little red peddle car.  Man, it was the coolest thing ever.  It had a hood that opened, as well as a real trunk.  Plus, you could open the doors to get inside.  It was practically a real car, except for that no engine thing, but who cares about that?

Every year, I would dream of driving my friends around the neighborhood in my little red sports car, a Jaguar to be specific.  It was going to be so great.

Alas, my dream was never to come true.  Santa never brought me my little red sports car.  Was it that I was naughty?  Could be, but I kinda doubt it.  I prefer to believe that Santa was looking out for my best interests and didn’t want me to get a speeding ticket before the age of ten.

Oh well.  I wasn’t the only one who wanted this little beauty.  My sister, Donna, used to ask for it every year too.  :D

Filed Under: Memories Tagged With: , , ,

NORAD To Start Tracking Santa on December 1.

October 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Santa flying through the night sky...tracked by NORADI just read that NORAD will start their annual tracking of Santa Claus on December 1.

Each year, NORAD, uses the latest in technology to track “Jolly Ol’ Saint Nick” as he makes his way around the world.  They even manage to capture photos and videos in some locations.  All of this information is then posted on their official “Santa tracking” website – http://www.noradsanta.org.

This is a great service that NORAD provides and, in my personal opinion, it’s one of the “coolest” things ever done by a government agency.

Sears Ad with incorrect phone number that started the NORAD Santa-tracking tradition.To think that it all started by accident.  On December 24, 1955, a Sears store placed an ad in a Colorado Springs, Colorado newspaper advertising a phone number where kids could call Santa.  Unfortunately, the number printed was incorrect and, instead of reaching Santa, children found themselves calling the Colorado Spring’s Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center -  the predecessor of NORAD.

Rather than disappoint the children, Colonel Shoup, the commander on duty, told his staff to give children a current location for Santa.  This tradition continued when NORAD replaced CONAD in 1958.

Today, volunteers, many who are employees from Cheyenne Mountain and Peterson Air Force Base handle more than 70,000 phone calls and thousands of e-mails, in addition to the website service.

The cost of this tracking is paid for by corporate sponsorship and is not paid for by American and Canadian taxpayers.

What is NORAD?  It is the North American Aerospace Defense Command.  According to its official website, NORAD ” is a bi-national United States and Canadian organization charged with the missions of aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning for North America. Aerospace warning includes the monitoring of man-made objects in space, and the detection, validation, and warning of attack against North America whether by aircraft, missiles, or space vehicles, through mutual support arrangements with other commands. Aerospace control includes ensuring air sovereignty and air defense of the airspace of Canada and the United States. The May 2006 NORAD Agreement renewal added a maritime warning mission, which entails a shared awareness and understanding of the activities conducted in U.S. and Canadian maritime approaches, maritime areas and inland waterways.”

It’s so wonderful that an agency, tasked with such serious business, could take time out to put smiles on the faces of little children across the globe.

Filed Under: News, On The Web Tagged With: , , ,

The Christmas Chain

September 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A lot of families use an “advent calendar” to help their young children count down the days until Christmas.  Around our house, we used “the Christmas chain.”

Put simply, it was a red and green construction paper chain with one link for every day from Thanksgiving until Christmas.  This was something we used to make as a decoration when I was in elementary school so, when our son was born, we worked it into the family traditions.

After dinner on Thanksgiving day, we would sit down with our son, Kevin, and we would make the chain.  We took sheets of red and green construction paper and cut them into 2″ by 8″ strips.  We took the first strip and folded it into a loop and glued (or stapled) the two ends together.  Then, we took a strip of the other color, laced it through the first strip and glued the ends.  We continued adding links, or alternating color, until we had one link for every evening.

Once the chain was done, we would hang it, in a vertical line, in the hallway leading to Kevin’s room.  Each night, he could remove one link right before bedtime.  The first few links were no big deal, but his excitement grew as the chain got shorter.  By the time the chain was so short that Daddy had to pick Kevin up to remove a link, he was almost at a fever pitch.  Before you knew it, there was only one little link left and that was to be taken down Christmas Eve.  Let me tell you, he was downright jazzed when we got down to just one.

Of course, he did try to hurry things along by removing four or five links at once.  We had to explain that it doesn’t work that way.

Kevin is now a grown man and we don’t do the chain anymore.  To be honest, he wouldn’t need me to pick him up to get the last links anyway and I don’t believe that I could even if he did need it.  Still, he counts the Christmas chain as one of his favorite Christmas memories and, you know what, his mom and I do too.

Filed Under: Memories, Traditions Tagged With: , ,

The Night I Saw Rudolph’s Nose

September 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Every child dreams of catching Santa in the act of delivering presents or sneaking just a glimpse of his sleigh and reindeer. Well, I never did catch jolly ol’ St. Nick unpacking his bundle, but I came very close to seeing Rudolph.

I guess I must have been about five years-old. It was Christmas Eve and my sister Donna (who was about 10) and I were settling down for a restless night of being way too excited to sleep.

When I get excited, I talk…A LOT. I think Donna was just about at the end of her patience when she said, “Timmy, look out the window quick! There’s Rudolph’s nose. You had better get to sleep because Santa is almost here.”

I looked out the window and she was right! Off in the distance there was distinctive red light flashing in the night sky. It couldn’t have been more than a few miles off.

Quickly, I rolled over and tried to go to sleep. I must have been successful because I don’t remember too much after that.

The next morning, I was thrilled to see all that Santa had brought. Whew! We almost blew that one.

I went back into the back bedroom one night a few months later and saw that blinking red light again. Was Rudolph making a return trip out of season? I was puzzled. Sometime later, I concluded that the light may have been the warning beacon on the radio station’s tower, but who can be sure?

Filed Under: Memories Tagged With: , , ,

Do You Go “Christmas Lighting?”

September 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This is a tradition that started when I was a teenager, I believe. We may have done it once in a while before then, but I remember it becoming a regular thing during my teen years.

The tradition of which I write is “Christmas lighting.” Every Christmas Eve, we would jump in the car, just after dusk, and drive around town checking out all of the wonderful Christmas light displays.

When I got older and Cindy and I were married, we carried this tradition into our new family as well. We did add a trip to McDonalds or Wendy’s to the tradition. Every year, we would go through the drive through and get some finger food (usually chicken nuggets) and eat in the car as we drove around town, “oohing” and “aahing” at all of the wonderful holiday displays.

When we got home, we would read the Christmas story from the Gospel of St. Luke and then it was time for bed.

This may not seem like a big deal to some, who are used to big fancy affairs on Christmas Eve, but I have many fond memories which revolve around our “Christmas Lighting” trips.

Filed Under: Featured, Memories, Traditions Tagged With: ,

Not Your Usual Christmas Stocking

June 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

One of my fondest childhood Christmas memories may sound a bit strange to some.  It involves paper lunch sacks.  You see, when I was a little boy, we didn’t use Christmas stockings.  When we hung the stockings, it was just for decoration.  For us, the real deal was the paper lunch sack.

Every Christmas Eve, each child would grab a brown paper sack and write his or her name on it.  Then, we would place the sack on the piece of furniture where we wanted Santa to leave our presents.

On Christmas Morning, these formerly flat sacks were stuffed full with candy, nuts and oranges (or tangelos).  These were treats that didn’t appear regularly at our house.  That’s why we looked forward to these little bags each year.

When the presents were unwrapped and the shredded paper hauled away, we still had those wonderful little bags waiting for us.

Filed Under: Memories, Traditions Tagged With: ,