The Grinch on Holiday, and Christmas Flashbacks

You know that the needle on the Grinch-o-Meter has swung too far to the high end when the Captain of the Enterprise leaves a comment on your blog telling you that it's "Time to get the Grinch out of the way!"

Point taken. Despite my current general grouchiness about many topics, I will limit my posts between now and Christmas to positive and generally holiday-ish (?) topics. After Christmas is another matter. For the moment, I will simply point out to Congress that their session is scheduled to end on Friday, whether they have accomplished anything or not. I expect not.

But I'll be positive. I'm positive they won't accomplish anything.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, on to a brighter subject.

Yesterday Amanda had an interesting post in which she looked back in ten-year increments to see where she was and what she was doing at Christmases past. That seemed like a neat idea, and so I thought I'd try it myself...

Christmas, 1957
Six years old and in the first grade at St Teresa's School. The teacher was Sister Raphael. One vivid memory of first grade was being told on the first day that it was time to go to the lavatory....and panicking, because I didn't know what a lavatory was, but I did know what a laboratory was, and was terrified of why I had to go there.

Christmas, 1967
Sixteen years old, a sophomore in high school, and a major geek. The better years (socially, anyhow) were coming.

Christmas, 1977
Living in Louisiana and experiencing my fourth Bayou Christmas. Two children. Christmas in Louisiana is hot and muggy...for a transplanted Pennsylvanian used to snow up to the ear lobes, it was hard to fathom sitting in the front yard in shorts and a t-shirt, sweating, on Christmas Eve. I also spent $5.00 buying a big bunch of mistletoe from a kid selling it door to door before realizing it grew wild on every tree in the state. Duh.

Christmas, 1987
Living in a beautiful rented house in the hills above Wiesbaden, Germany, and enjoying the German Christmas season of Christkindlmarkts (open-air Christmas markets) and carols sung in German...which always sounded better after a few glasses of Gluhwein (hot, spiced wine). Three children.

Christmas, 1997
Second Christmas after retiring from the Air Force. Living in Northern Virginia and experiencing the Virginia "Crystal Christmas" - it's like a White Christmas, but with ice, sleet, and freezing rain instead of snow. Locals can't drive in either one, but think that the larger the SUV, the better they can handle the winter roads. Duh.

Christmas, 2007
Still in Northern Virginia. Four wonderful grandchildren. Life's good. Of course, I'm still uncomfortably close to Congress, but you can't have everything, and I did promise to be more positive. Locals still can't drive in snow and ice, and are still buying the SUVs despite gas prices higher than Lindsey Lohan's latest bail bond.

Six decades of Christmases. Gasp! Where did the time go? Where did my once-brown hair go? AARRGGHH!!

I guess it's a good thing it's time to take Punky for a walk and get to work...otherwise, I'd just bury myself in a pile of quilts in front of the fireplace and try to recapture the spirit of Christmases past.

Which sounds like a good idea, anyhow.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo