Decorate the house with greens and mistletoe
Have a bonfire or burn a yule log
Rejoice the return of the sun
Drink some nog
Visit Old Friends
Rejoice the returning of the sun bringing the melting of the ice freeing up the little fishies. :lol:
Ahh a wonderful time to rejoice and drive the dark winter away. Rejoice in the rebirth of the sun. Be it the Holly King doing battle with the Ivy or St. George and the Dragon or the building of large fires on top of mountains, much of these traditions go back to pre-chrisitan times and spread across cultures.
On a side note it is a wonderful study to see how many of the Solstice and Yule traditions have been incorporated into modern religions.
Enjoy the time, no matter how you celebrate it.
jed
Drag in the overpriced scotch pine bought from the Rotarians at the abandoned filling station.
Take a pull from the flask in your back pocket.
Fight with the tree for two hours to get it straight in the antique stand that you meant to replace five years ago. Vacuum all the fallen pine needles then disect the machine to get all the needles out of it and wipe the sticky mess with mineral spirits before it gets on the carpeting.
Take a pull from the flask in your back pocket.
Put the lights on the tree, plug them in and curse the half string that won’t come on no matter what you do.
Take a pull from the flask in your back pocket.
Dig through the attic to find those 10 boxes of lights you bought on clearance in 2002, but were saving until the other ones burned out before using them. Find them after 45 minutes and moving everything in the attic including those Zebco fishing pole that the kids used and got put away (in a clump) with the hooks and bobbers still on them.
Take a pull from the flask in your back pocket.
You’re feeling better now (four good pulls) and get the lights on the tree and every bulb is brightly lit. Major accomplishment on your part, so it’s time to:
Take a pull from the flask in your back pocket.
The sweet little woman walks in the room (because the cursing has stopped), smiles at you and the tree, and says: "Wouldn’t it be nice if we got the lights that faded in and out this year? :shock:
Take the last pull from the flask in your back pocket, leave the room quietly and walk outside. Close the door and begin to weep uncontrolably. Your neighbor sees you sobbing on the back steps and comes over. “Puting up the tree today?” You nod in the affirmative. “Here, you’ll need this.” He pulls out a freshly filled flask of your favorite hooch from his back pocket to share with you. “Did mine yesterday. Keep the rest of the bottle, you’ll need it.”
That’s what neighbors are for at this time of year.
Joe
As long as we can remember here in SE Michigan, snow would be on the ground at Christmas. None this year and it appears maybe not until January. The tradition I miss this year is the sleigh ride and the sleigh bells. Hot chocolate in a thermos and maybe some rum eggnog. We feel like fish out of water this year…well, I guess thats what makes the other years so special.
Jonezee, tell your local kids not to worry about Santa’s sleigh. Down here we learned a loooong time ago that it has inflateable pontoons. Nashville is under another, standard Christmas forecast: Cool and Rainy.
Merry Christmas to All. (Except for the folks in the U.K., and it’s a Happy Christmas for you!)
Ed
Sorry Jonezee, the weather is really screwy - we got another couple of inches here overnight, power just back up, we’ve been on generator since early morning. Won’t guarantee JC will be Hosting the Chat tonight, Cable TV is still out.
We had just a slight cover of ice on everything. Slippery as hell. At dawn, with the red of the sunrise, it was beyond beautiful. All the trees were reflecting the red of the sun on even the tiniest of twigs! I can’t recall a more beautiful nor unique sunrise. Ever. I praise God for allowing me to wake up at just the right moment and to be outside when the sun broke the horizon. With the stress of my father mentally losing it, and my sports guy having an early morning heart attack, it was a hard and stressful night. I was debating whether to get my old body out on the street for a walk due to the ice. As I stood in the driveway the world suddenly turned a deep crimson, and I looked up to see the tips of the trees. JGW