Until Then...

I remember when I was small, standing at the bottom of our stairs, getting ready to head up to bed on a long ago New Year's Eve. Dad was shutting off the living room and hallway lights and as we headed out of the darkness, up the stairs to bed, he said to me, "Goodnight" and then he added, "I'll see you next year."

I thought it was one of the most clever things that I had ever heard, and so every year for the last several years, as I cover Sam up in bed on New Year's Eve, I say the same thing to him. And every year, because of Sam's non-reaction, I find myself explaining it to him. But it's like explaining a joke - it becomes even less funny, or in this case, less clever, the deeper you get into it. The problem is, Sam gets it. Unlike me, he's just not that impressed by it.

I'll try it again next year.

For now, let's end this year as we ended last year and the year before it - with the same music to close out the night and to close out the year. Happy New Year to you all... and I'll see you next year. (Get it?   Hello?)

Winding Down

Here we are, the last day of the year. The sun is shining and the morning temperature is rising to an almost spring-like eight degrees. With luck, it may, like yesterday, reach into the high teens. But even if it does, it won’t last. Tonight, the temperature is predicted to fall to nearly ten degrees below zero - and that’s without the wind chill. I haven’t bothered to see what the wind chill will deduct from that.

I assume that some people, for reasons that has always escaped me, will brave the cold tonight, to go somewhere and watch a ball drop. While I think there may be a certain value in this type of metaphor, I’ve never understood the appeal of watching this on TV, let alone “in person.” The idea of watching this reminder, while standing in freezing temperatures along with a large crowd of loud and annoying people, is not my idea of a celebration. Why it’s anybody’s idea of a celebration, is beyond me. Maybe it makes the rest of the year seem more tolerable by comparison.

Instead, we will have our New Year’s Eve celebration at home - ordering some alleged Chinese food, watching a little TV and then heading up to bed somewhere before ten o’clock. Except for the part about the Chinese food, this is pretty much how we spend every night. I’ve seldom stayed up to greet the New Year, and so far, the New Year has arrived whether I'm waiting for it or not. I expect this to be the case again tonight and if I’m wrong, I apologize in advance.

For this New Year’s Eve celebration, Sam and I have decided to break with tradition. Tonight, along with our usual order of Chinese food, we will be ordering some steamed dumplings. This is a pretty radical departure for us, but I feel like we need to shake things up and do something to improve our chances for the coming year. We’ve discussed this idea several times and we’re both committed to moving forward with it.

I will try to be back later tonight. In the meantime, enjoy this picture of my bedroom window, taken moments ago.

About the only good thing I can say about it is that you’re looking at a thick coating of frost, not at a two story high snow bank. Think about that as you make your plans for tonight.

Santa's Response

Every Christmas Eve, Sam writes a letter to Santa. And every Christmas Eve, Santa writes back.

One of the things that, to me, speaks to the kind of person that Sam is, is that when he comes downstairs on Christmas morning, before he checks out the stockings and before he checks out the presents under the tree, Sam goes over to the dining room table to see if Santa wrote back and to read what Santa had to say.

Most years, the response has been a fairly brief note, just a word or two, but this year, out of necessity, I think, it was a little bit longer.

In all of the years that they've been exchanging letters, this is the first year that, after reading Santa's letter, Sam said, "I think I'm going to keep this one." I think that remark is a reflection of how much some things, generally unspoken - except to Santa - have been weighing on his mind. And I think that the response, and the fact that he wanted to keep it, offered him some comfort.

I would post a photo of the letter, which is currently in a protective sleeve on the refrigerator, but Santa's writing is getting pretty poor - fatigue perhaps, or possibly age - most likely a combination of the two - and it could have been a little clearer, though it was clear enough for Sam to read, and apparently, to appreciate.

Here's the text:

12/25/17

Dear Sam,

   Yes, these years do go by quickly, don't they?  

   I hear what you are saying about finding a job. I'm afraid I can't help you with where to look, but I can tell you a couple of things.

   First, you are going about your search exactly the right way. You are taking the time to find, not only the right job, but also the right place for you - and that is extremely important. It takes time, and I know it can be frustrating, and even disappointing - but it will pay off in the end. You are making an investment and doing it right.

   The other thing I can tell you is that you are a very fine person. You are smart, you work hard, and most of all, you are a very caring person. These are not little things. They are rare and important - and you should be proud of yourself - as I am - and I know those that love you are proud of you too.

   You are on the right path and you'll do great! Everyday you get a step closer!

   Thanks for the snack (as always) and I hope you enjoy your gifts.
       Love, 
          Santa 

    P.S. Sorry for the messy writing. It's been a long night!

Christmas Night

Has it only been a day since Christmas Eve? Bed will feel good tonight.

Goodnight...

Christmas Morning

A lovely Christmas morning. Snow is falling outside (which I don't have to travel in,) stockings were stuffed, presents were under the tree (all of which have been opened as of now) and an encouraging letter was left from Santa to Sam. Best of all, the family is together, healthy and happy.

The turkey is now in the oven and things have settled into that interlude between presents and dinner - my favorite time - where we relax and interact and reflect and enjoy the fact that we're able to be together for another day.


I hope that Santa has been good to you - today and throughout your life. Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones.

Christmas Eve

This year's letter to Santa...

Too much to be carrying on this Christmas Eve. Such a fine person - kind, gentle and loving.

It will all work out, Sam.

Merry Christmas.

Exciting Photos...

... from the previous post:

Christmas Glitches

We just avoided a near catastrophe. 

Sam and I started Phase One of our Christmas baking on Sunday. In this case, Phase One consisted of making a quadruple batch of M&M cookies. Everything was going relatively smoothly until we placed the 5th or 6th pan of cookies into the oven. When the timer went off, it was clear there was a big problem. The cookies on the pan weren’t baked. They looked more like they had melted. I’ve seen this happen before. 

The last time something like this happened was probably about 8 or 9 years ago. The problem was that the baking element at the bottom of the oven had burned out. 

In most cases, this shouldn't be a huge deal, but like most things in my house, everything is so old that replacement parts are hard to get. Back then, I ordered the part at the local appliance store and for whatever reason, the part took about three weeks to come in - and when it finally showed up, it was the wrong part. I had to reorder it. (In hindsight, I think it took so long because whoever was supposed to order it the first time, never did.) If this was going to be the case again, it would be a big problem. We were only a week away from Christmas Eve.

Sam was worried and I was too, but I tried to play it cool. "It was no big deal," I said. "It'll all work out." - all of which was true and I meant it. I just had to figure out how and what to do. 

Sam's immediate concern was whether or not we were going to be able to make cookies on Christmas Eve. It turns out that it wasn’t the actual cookie making that he was concerned about. His more immediate concern was whether or not he was going to be able to leave the traditional cookies for Santa. But since we already had baked 5 or so pans of M&M cookies, he figured that maybe Santa likes M&M cookies and, if worst came to worst, he could leave a few of those for him. I told him that I was pretty sure that Santa loved M&M cookies. 

While the cookies were Sam’s immediate concern, my immediate concern was the twenty pound turkey that was currently thawing out in my refrigerator. What happens when I'm not going to be able to cook this thing for Christmas? It wasn’t simply the very real question of how I dispose of a now gone-bad twenty pound turkey - after all, the ground is too frozen to bury the thing - but what was I going to cook for Christmas Dinner instead? 

Sure, I have plenty of food crammed into my freezer, but this mostly consists of an assortment of hot dogs and various types of breakfast sausage - along with a wide variety of other frozen items which have long since surrendered all identifiable features to their thick coating of frost and various degrees of freezer burn. I suppose if I had to, I could make some kind of festive arrangement with a few of these "food" items - that is, if I put aside the question of whether or not it should actually be edible.

But even still, none of this addressed the party mix! What am I going to do about making the party mix? 

I went online and searched around and found what I hoped to be the right replacement part. I ordered the part and paid for the next day shipping, which meant that, since this was Sunday, it should be to me by the end of the day on Tuesday. I also put a call into the local the local repairman. Theoretically, this should be a simple enough job that even I could to handle it, but with time running out, I didn’t want to take any chances. So, I made the call. Now all I could do was wait. Play it cool… and wait.

The repairman called me back on Monday morning and I told him what had happened and that I had ordered the part - which was due in the following day. On Tuesday he called me again. I checked my email and sure enough, FedEx had just dropped it off at my house. I left work early and drove home to meet the repairman - but first I wanted to check out the burner - just in case it was a replay of the last time. 

I'm happy to report that it was indeed the correct part. And I'm even happier to report that, as it turns out, the burner wasn't the problem. The problem was that the wire connecting the burner was broken. 

The repairman was able to repair the wire and we were able to continue using the old bottom burner. Now, I have a spare burner for when the old one inevitably burns out. Plus, I feel like, for once I got my money’s worth by having to pay for a repair on something that actually needed repairing.

So, last night, after dinner, Sam and I were back in business. We took the bowl of remaining cookie dough off of the freezing cold back porch, and we finished baking the remainder of the cookies. Both of us were feeling very relieved, if not elated. Now, Santa will be able to have his traditional sugar cookies on Christmas Eve - and I don’t have to think of creative arrangements constructed out of hot dogs and other mystery foods. 

Plus, the party mix. Now I can make the party mix. As someone once said, "Christmas is saved!"

One More

Ok, here's another Jeff Lynne video - which is (kind of) a repeat.

(Tip: go full screen)...

Tonight's Music Videos

Some Jeff Lynne requested by Rachael...









And with company...

Thanks for Reminding Me

In case you forgot...

Thank you pizza parlor. Now, where's my order?

Today's Link(s)

If you don't count the poor grammar, the random use of punctuation that seems to follow no logic whatsoever, all the misspellings and the chronic mixing of past, present and future tenses (i.e.: "my style") - I like to think that sometimes (ok, rarely) I might actually have something to say (which is not to be so bold as to say it's worth reading.)

But if you want to see how a blog should be written, you should check out this blog (in case you've missed it under the "Places I Visit" - over on the column to your right (now with the updated web address, including the leading "b".)) If you don't believe me, at least take a few seconds to read this post.

You're welcome.

Mixed Messages

From out of nowhere, I got this text message the other day...

I have no idea who Andrew and Kristen are. Obviously this is yet another wrong number - this time in text form.

I figured I better nip this one in the bud so I texted her back and said, "Listen "Grandma," first of all, Christmas is over two weeks away. I hope this doesn't mean you're going to be bothering me every day until then. And secondly, Andrew and Kristen are sick of you, so buzz off!"

That seems to have done the trick. So far, no response.

...

Ok, just kidding. I wouldn't do something like that - especially this close to Christmas. My actual response was...

What gets me is that: a) "Grandma" didn't bother to thank me for responding and, b) she didn't bother to wish me a merry Christmas. Apparently, unlike Andrew and Kristen, "Grandma" couldn't care less if I have a nice holiday.

Maybe "Grandma" doesn't realize that, thanks to her text message, I now have her phone number.

Really Under the Weather

Ok, so... maybe driving to work in the snowstorm today wasn't the best idea. But in my defense, the crackerjack weather predictors had said that the snow was going to turn to rain this afternoon. In their defense, they were right - for about five minutes of my normally fifty-five minute or so, commute - which today was about an hour and forty-five minutes. Of course, that five minutes of rain was actually freezing rain... but still.

Under the Weather

Snow's falling for the second time in less than a week. I'm sitting here, waiting for Sam to wake up. He was scheduled to take the ADA bus this morning. This is the first time since he began practicing this new adventure in transportation, that it may be affected by the weather.

The possibility that the weather may be an issue came to our attention Sunday evening. When we heard about the predicted storm, his concern about the bus and how to deal with it, was immediate. I told him that I thought that canceling the bus wasn't as hard as scheduling it in the first place, but if it comes to that, we'll find out together. I promised him that I wouldn't leave for work that morning until we knew how - or if - it was going to be affected. The anxiety melted from his face.

So I sit here and I wait.

There are many school cancellations mounting up. I spoke to one of Sam's job coaches yesterday who told me that if the schools in our town are canceled, she and Sam won't be meeting. The schools in our town were canceled as of about ten minutes ago.

Sam's job coach just texted, saying that they won't be meeting today and asking us to cancel the bus. When Sam wakes up, I'll help him with the call, and then, it's off to work.

Today's Short Video Clip

Here's a semi re-post. This is a short video clip that I took last year and while I didn't post it here, I did post it on my Instagram account.



I took this video one night when Sam and I were out Christmas shopping. At some point, between when the video was taken and Christmas morning, Sam went back to the store and bought it - and he gave it to me for Christmas.

So that's one, or I guess maybe two things that I like about it.

When Sam and I were decorating the house the other day, I took it out and I put it back on the desk. I've played it three or four times since then and each time I press the button and the music plays, no matter where Sam is, he comes drifting over and he stands next to me and we stand and listen and watch it together. And as we're watching, I'll put my arm around him and when I do, he pulls himself even closer and he puts his head on my shoulder while we listen to the music.

That's another thing I like about it.

Gift Getting

I try to have all my Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving, but this year I seem to be running behind. As I mentioned previously, ideas for presents, which normally come so easily to me, seem to be more of a struggle this year. I’m not sure why that is. Maybe it's partly because everyone has so much stuff already, maybe it’s because I’ve been dealing with other things. Whatever the reason, it's been lagging but this lag seems to be slightly improving and I'm now making some headway. Sort of.

Like most people, I guess, I do much of my shopping online and when I stop to think about it (which I try not to do) I feel a little bad about it. I'm one of the multitude of people who are contributing to the decline of the malls and small-town establishments. I'm not all that upset about the malls. Other than when the kids were little, I’ve never been a big fan of the malls. It's not that I hope for their demise or anything, but this time of year especially, they're filled with people. People are not my thing. 

I kind of like my small town, though. I even like some of the people in it. When the kids were little, I enjoyed bundling up on a cold winter night and taking them out to several of the stores, in search of presents for them to buy for the people on their lists. For a few years, I would have each of them pick out a toy to contribute to the Toys for Tots campaign.

Now, with the three older kids having the nerve to live their own lives, I don't have that chance to walk around town with then at Christmastime. But there's always Sam. 

As recently as last year, Sam and I would bundle up and head out together to do some Christmas shopping for the people he was buying presents for. But this year, Sam bought all of his Christmas gifts from a tag sale which was being held at Grandma's retirement community. So this year, when it comes to Christmas shopping, he's all set. 

So, my choices for doing Christmas shopping are to shop with Sam (which could be a problem,) shop alone (which holds no appeal to me at all) or shop online (which holds little appeal to me, but it’s easy, relatively speaking.)

I’m not going to shop alone - even if I wanted to (as it turns out.) When I tried to scoot out the other day, just to grab a quick gift, Sam asked where I was going. I told him that I was going to run a quick errand and I'll be right back and it was ok if he didn’t want to go with me and he can go on the computer instead. He said he would use the bathroom real quick and come along. 

So, that didn’t work. 

The problem with Christmas shopping with Sam is not the actual shopping with Sam (which I enjoy quite a bit.) The problem is Christmas shopping with Sam - when I’m the one trying to buy the gifts.

I can’t really buy Christmas presents in front of Sam because the thing is, I'm not sure how Sam feels about Santa Claus. Sam’s well past the age where this shouldn't even be a consideration. But Sam is Sam and like my other kids, I'll let him believe in the things he wants to believe in, for as long as he wants to believe in them. And for Sam, when it comes to Santa and almost everything else, I think he likes things just the way they are. 

So, anyway, other than the gifts that I pick up throughout the year, this year, I've been doing most of my shopping online... with varying degrees of success.

One gift I ordered, which, by the way, was a little difficult to find, finally arrived the other day- or at least the box finally arrived. Sam brought in the mail, like usual, and, like usual, when I got home from work, he pointed out that I got a box in the mail. 

This box looked as if it have been kicked all along the route from the store right up to my front porch. The box was smashed and torn open on two ends with the tape loosely holding it together. When I picked it up, it was so light, I wondered what I had ordered. Did I order a scarf? Did I order a blanket? A sock, maybe?

I opened the box - which wasn't hard because it was pretty much falling apart - and there was nothing inside but a couple of pieces of bubble wrap. I looked at the mailing labeling, which I could barely make out, and eventually figured out what used to be in there. Luckily, after a little leg work and some back and forth, the seller agreed to refund my money and they apologized, saying that they would have replaced it -but it is no longer available. 

So that’s one thing that I had crossed off my list that I now had to put back on. 

Yesterday, when I got home from work, there was another package - this one propped up right next to Sam. Unlike every other item I ever ordered, this item didn’t come in a brown cardboard box. No, this one looks like they took it right off the store shelf, slapped a mailing label on it and shipped it out. 

There it was, exposed for all to see (and by "all," I mean "Sam.") And while the gift wasn’t for Sam, I was now faced with the same dilemma that keeps me from taking him with me when I go Christmas shopping. If he sees this under the tree on Christmas morning, then what? It looks like this one is going to have to be a birthday gift instead. 

But I'm getting there, I'm getting there. I've only got a few more presents to buy for Christmas. And then I have to wrap them all. But I can do that a little over time. And if nothing else, at least I'm ahead of the game when it comes to buying a birthday present.