Plans, Memories, [you can skip the] Rant
Bless us.
Everyone is talking about their holiday plans. Guess I should too.
I don't have much going on. I'm doing a pet/house sit, so I'm away from home this year. I've planned a pork chop supper, with cornbread stuffing, and sweet potates. Going to watch some DVDs, probably including RENT [I love that show. It reminds how I was so connected to living in those days]. I found out the 7-11 here will be open, so I can get a paper. It will be ok. Quiet and low key and full of cats {I miss mine]. I need some of that this year.
I think I may go into the District on Friday. Have lunch with a friend, go to the bank, just be. Suburbia is where I come from, but I can only handle it for short periods of time now. Like, I'm from the Chicago suburbs, but I don't deal well with cold anymore. Things change. I change.
My childhood Christmases were full of decorations, a lot of hither and thither, lights and song, and light, and fun. Every family in the family had to choose the date to decorate their trees, during the weekends of Decemember, at Thanksgiving. And each family got a one new ornament for the their tree at their tree trim. There would be Frango mints, and and tinsel, and lights. My late Uncle Willard had non-breakable ornaments because of Martha Mary (his cat). Our tree had the most lights, because Mom loved lights and fake trees gave her tip count tip count times 3 to 5 gives you the right amount of lights (I used this calculation with not_the_pope's tree, which is why she has 3200 lights for her 9' tree). Gramma Kummerow's tree always had only handmade ornaments she and some of the rest of had made (I used to have her aluminum tree). And we went to Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Mac's, Gramma and Granpa Schultz's, Aunt Trady's, Rosalie's, Helen's, and so many others.
Gramma Kummerow, and all of us, used to adopt the orphans (the people with no family) for Christmas Eve dinner. I remember 50-80 people at these shindigs! Presents everywhere. Non-stop holiday food: Frango mints, shrimp cocktail, ham, Aunt Trady's homemeade pies (never less than 6 different kinds), highballs and whiskey sours, and the talk levels from all the conversations just enlivened you. Us kids making forts under all the coats on all the beds. And everybody got boxes of Aunt Trady's cookies (the last time she made cookies for gifts, she apologized for only making 13 different kinds). I knew I was an adult in her eyes, when i got mine own shirtbox of cookies, at Christmas, my freshman year in college. The rest of the family recognized my adulthood two years later, when I got mine own deviled egg plate. So, I have a quirky family. Deal with it.
Christmas morning was Mom, Dad, David, me, and Kandy Korn. Mom loved Christmas! However, one tradition I'm glad is over is Mom waking up us kids at 5am (told you she loved Christmas) with my poor little Panasonic stereo (of happy memory) blasting Waye Newton singing The Little Drummer Boy at the top of its little lungs. Dad would make pancakes. And then quickly washed and dressed to go to Gramma Schultz's house for that side of the family.
And the late night car rides to see all the decorations! Do you remember how cool and wondrous 10pm car rides to see all the lights are to an 8 year old? Followed my hot cocoa, made with milk, with little marshmellows (never pastel colored (off flavor)), AND whipped cream out of a can!
I shouldn't forget the annual pilgrimmage with Aunt Mary and Gramma Kummerow! We took THE EL! to downtown Chicago. And WALKED to Marshall Field's. We looked at all the moving windows. And then had BREAKFAST WITH SANTA!!! They helped, and bought, presents for my mom and dad from David and I. Followed by each of us getting a Frango mint bar. This was WONDERFUL! Because Frango mint bars were 35 cents when regular candy bars were a nickel or a dime. We learned to make those bars last til mid-January. To this day, I never remember to buy Frango mints for myself, when in Chicago. I think it's learned.
I have some of all of these Christamses stored at my house. Except for Dad, Aunt Mary, my brother, David, and me, everyone has passed on. No one else puts up a tree, and I haven't in these 2 years. I miss it all.
Yet, what should I expect? The society and culture are about efficiency and time saving. The economy is the tank and sinking fast for anyone not upper echelon white collar. Don't get entagled with anyone, even marriage is no longer looked upon as death til us part. Everyone is throw-away.
It sucks. Makes me mad. I want change.
I still have my idealism. It's just hard to see it when my cynicism is so enlarged.
Wow. What a range. If I was singer, I'd be in great demand. *smile*
It has been a year. Time for it to conclude, and I can have a new one to live in. I've used this one up, mostly. Yule has always been my new year. Time to summarize this past one (soon), and look forward with hope and promise to the next. I should do my new year Tarot reading soon too.
Have a glorious Christmas filled with all the wonder, joy, and memories you can stand and more.
God/dess/es Bless!
Everyone is talking about their holiday plans. Guess I should too.
I don't have much going on. I'm doing a pet/house sit, so I'm away from home this year. I've planned a pork chop supper, with cornbread stuffing, and sweet potates. Going to watch some DVDs, probably including RENT [I love that show. It reminds how I was so connected to living in those days]. I found out the 7-11 here will be open, so I can get a paper. It will be ok. Quiet and low key and full of cats {I miss mine]. I need some of that this year.
I think I may go into the District on Friday. Have lunch with a friend, go to the bank, just be. Suburbia is where I come from, but I can only handle it for short periods of time now. Like, I'm from the Chicago suburbs, but I don't deal well with cold anymore. Things change. I change.
My childhood Christmases were full of decorations, a lot of hither and thither, lights and song, and light, and fun. Every family in the family had to choose the date to decorate their trees, during the weekends of Decemember, at Thanksgiving. And each family got a one new ornament for the their tree at their tree trim. There would be Frango mints, and and tinsel, and lights. My late Uncle Willard had non-breakable ornaments because of Martha Mary (his cat). Our tree had the most lights, because Mom loved lights and fake trees gave her tip count tip count times 3 to 5 gives you the right amount of lights (I used this calculation with not_the_pope's tree, which is why she has 3200 lights for her 9' tree). Gramma Kummerow's tree always had only handmade ornaments she and some of the rest of had made (I used to have her aluminum tree). And we went to Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Mac's, Gramma and Granpa Schultz's, Aunt Trady's, Rosalie's, Helen's, and so many others.
Gramma Kummerow, and all of us, used to adopt the orphans (the people with no family) for Christmas Eve dinner. I remember 50-80 people at these shindigs! Presents everywhere. Non-stop holiday food: Frango mints, shrimp cocktail, ham, Aunt Trady's homemeade pies (never less than 6 different kinds), highballs and whiskey sours, and the talk levels from all the conversations just enlivened you. Us kids making forts under all the coats on all the beds. And everybody got boxes of Aunt Trady's cookies (the last time she made cookies for gifts, she apologized for only making 13 different kinds). I knew I was an adult in her eyes, when i got mine own shirtbox of cookies, at Christmas, my freshman year in college. The rest of the family recognized my adulthood two years later, when I got mine own deviled egg plate. So, I have a quirky family. Deal with it.
Christmas morning was Mom, Dad, David, me, and Kandy Korn. Mom loved Christmas! However, one tradition I'm glad is over is Mom waking up us kids at 5am (told you she loved Christmas) with my poor little Panasonic stereo (of happy memory) blasting Waye Newton singing The Little Drummer Boy at the top of its little lungs. Dad would make pancakes. And then quickly washed and dressed to go to Gramma Schultz's house for that side of the family.
And the late night car rides to see all the decorations! Do you remember how cool and wondrous 10pm car rides to see all the lights are to an 8 year old? Followed my hot cocoa, made with milk, with little marshmellows (never pastel colored (off flavor)), AND whipped cream out of a can!
I shouldn't forget the annual pilgrimmage with Aunt Mary and Gramma Kummerow! We took THE EL! to downtown Chicago. And WALKED to Marshall Field's. We looked at all the moving windows. And then had BREAKFAST WITH SANTA!!! They helped, and bought, presents for my mom and dad from David and I. Followed by each of us getting a Frango mint bar. This was WONDERFUL! Because Frango mint bars were 35 cents when regular candy bars were a nickel or a dime. We learned to make those bars last til mid-January. To this day, I never remember to buy Frango mints for myself, when in Chicago. I think it's learned.
I have some of all of these Christamses stored at my house. Except for Dad, Aunt Mary, my brother, David, and me, everyone has passed on. No one else puts up a tree, and I haven't in these 2 years. I miss it all.
Yet, what should I expect? The society and culture are about efficiency and time saving. The economy is the tank and sinking fast for anyone not upper echelon white collar. Don't get entagled with anyone, even marriage is no longer looked upon as death til us part. Everyone is throw-away.
It sucks. Makes me mad. I want change.
I still have my idealism. It's just hard to see it when my cynicism is so enlarged.
Wow. What a range. If I was singer, I'd be in great demand. *smile*
It has been a year. Time for it to conclude, and I can have a new one to live in. I've used this one up, mostly. Yule has always been my new year. Time to summarize this past one (soon), and look forward with hope and promise to the next. I should do my new year Tarot reading soon too.
Have a glorious Christmas filled with all the wonder, joy, and memories you can stand and more.
God/dess/es Bless!