Monday, December 24, 2007

'Twas The Night Before Christmas


The stockings were hung by the chimney with care . . .

Christmas Eve, 2007. Hard to believe it. Both the day and the year have come so fast. I still have vivid memories from childhood of my family going to Oklahoma City for the Christmas holiday. It was always Christmas Eve at my paternal grandparents' house in the Capital Hill section of OKC, then Christmas morning at the maternal grandparents' house in Bethany, Oklahoma. One thing I remember was that both sets of grandparents had at one time or another, one of those aluminum Christmas trees that were popular back in the 1960s. Since these trees were metallic, you couldn't wire them up with regular lights, but they had their own allure of a spotlight color wheel that sat on the floor beside them and projected different color of lights onto the shiny branches. The light was a spotlight with a plastic wheel of four different colors that rotated in front of it, thus constantly changing the hue of the light on the tree.

Since in those days we lived in warmer climates, it was always a treat for us kids if it snowed while we were in Oklahoma. That meant snowball fights, snowman building, and snow ice cream. Yum!

Now I am the grandpa, and it is up to me to help build lifelong memories for my grandchildren. Time moves on whether we like it or not.


Santa ornament from the USPS

Another thing I have concluded is that life is to be enjoyed, not put in a box and stored away. A perfect case in point is the above picture. A few years ago, the United States Postal Service issued a series of Christmas stamps featuring the head of Santa Claus wearing hats of four different colors. To go with these stamps, they also sold sets of ornaments matching the Santas on the stamps. At the time, I bought several sets, thinking that they might be worth something to collectors someday. Well, this year I looked on e-bay and saw that these ornaments have not increased in value. In fact, they were selling below what I paid.

So, I decided we would open them and enjoy them. Why save everything away and never get to enjoy them. Life goes by and all the good stuff gets hoarded and saved. Now the Santa ornaments adorn our tree and go well with all the other items we have on it. So I say, take out the good stuff and use it. Don't save the good dishes for company . . . family is more important than anyone, so why not share our best with those we care about?

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Flakes A'Comin' & Santa Too!


Denver 5-Day Forecast from myfoxcolorado.com

I mentioned in the last post that we have snow forecast for Christmas Day tomorrow. A few of the forecasts are wavering on that a bit, but it looks like we'll at least get some intermittent snow showers. The radar shows a nice storm to the west over Utah heading this way, so we can hope. I also washed my car today, so I imagine that'll mean we get more than we want!

Another pleasant thing was that today my employer let us leave early, allowing me to get a little last minute shopping done. Now time to clean the house up for our kiddos to arrive tomorrow for the fiesta.

On another note, Santa is already making his rounds, as it is already night in parts of the world. Remember, you can track Santa along with the good folks at NORAD by CLICKING HERE. You can see video of his progress at NORAD's You Tube page by CLICKING HERE.

He even has visited the International Space Station (see video below). This further proves Santa's magic, as you can hear the sleigh bells and his jolly "Ho, Ho, Ho!" in the vacuum of space!