We had our Thanksgiving celebration today and it was excellent. Afterwards we started decorating for xmas. The kids are here and they are going back to Vermont tomorrow so it was either do it as a family today or Jen and I do it on our own later.
Right now, right at this very moment, we are celebrating another holiday tradition. We are watching The Muppets Christmas Carol as a family. Literally the only xmas movie I care about. Except for that Tiny Tim song… that scene can be skipped.
Happy Thanksgiving, Massachusetts! Happy Thanksgiving to the rest of New England too.
Our family Thanksgiving is actually going to happen on Saturday. The kids are at their dad’s today so we’re punting to the weekend in order to have everyone together.
For today though, Jen and I are going to have a mini Thanksgiving on our own. We found the tiniest turkey in the world and it’s going into the oven shortly.
When we decided to not have anything big today I had thrown out the possibility of me and my love going to New York to see the Macy’s parade in person. Clearly we didn’t go, but we’re watching the parade on TV and… well… thank goodness we didn’t go. It’s pouring rain in New York and everyone looks drenched and frozen and miserable. Bullet Dodged.
So, my New England neighbors, enjoy your turkey and stuffing and have an extra helping for me!
Today is the day that used to be known as columbus day, before those of us who actually care about other people decided that chris columbus was a dick and giving him a holiday was in bad taste. Now it’s Indigenous Peoples Day and I much prefer the sound of that.
Unfortunately, it’s not a holiday for me. I have to work. Worse, I have to work in the office. Worse than worse, I have a 9:00 meeting. I left home super early out of fear that traffic would make me late for the meeting. I completely forgot that most of Massachusetts is off work today and there was so little traffic that I was in the parking lot over an hour early.
Oops. At least I won’t be late for the 9:00am meeting, right?
Happy Indigenous Peoples day to all who celebrate. Also, chris columbus was a dick who “discovered America” through nothing more than incompetence. Let’s not give him any more holidays.
Welcome to July, my friends. Summer is in full swing. Time to start worrying about the weather turning cold and frosty.
That’s sarcasm… or is it.
Man, the time is flying.
I don’t have any plans for the 4th of July. I have to visit my father for a bit, but other than that and the happy fact that I have the day off, the only thing on my radar is the start of the 50 songs in 90 days songwriting challenge.
You know what I want to do? It’s silly… but I want to buy some sparklers. Not fireworks. I have no interest in actual fireworks. Sparklers. I want to sit on the patio in the back yard and light up a few sparklers.
It could very well be the last 4th of July the United States gets to celebrate authentically. We very well could be a fascist dictatorship a year from now. We should do something to mark the last go around.
Also… sparklers are fun.
Like most American kids my youth was spent living for Christmas. You know, presents and shite. As I got older my opinions changed. Xmas changed from a joyous celebration to a months long stress-fest followed by one happy, wonderful day. It dropped way down on the list of favorite holidays.
Thanksgiving ceremoniously took over the top spot on that list. Meeting Jen and having a couple of kids in my life brought new life to Xmas, a new perspective and all, but I still saw Thanksgiving as my fav. Quality family time, good food, a happy celebration. All of those things make it my favorite.
Weight loss surgery has changed the perspective again. I can’t really partake in the Thanksgiving feast the way I used to. A tiny bit of turkey, a tiny bit of stuffing, a bite of mashed potatoes and I am stuffed like you’ve heard about. It doesn’t actually change anything, I just feel oddly self conscious.
So does that change what I see as my favorite holiday? Not really. A little? Does that move Halloween into the top spot? If the kids were still trick or treating it might. I really enjoy being the guy who hands out the treats at our house, but I enjoyed bringing the kids out more. So Thanksgiving still tops Halloween. Memorial Day is a contender, but only by association. We got married near Memorial Day so to me the holiday is more representative of our anniversary. 15 years, this year. We’re going to celebrate with a little trip.
So I think the answer to the question of the day is the same one it has been since I was a teenager and Santa Claus stopped being a thing. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It is the best of them all. At least for a middle aged red head living in the United States.
Share one of the best gifts I’ve ever received? No. I’ll share two of them. Today’s daily writing prompt is a two-for-one special babie, yeah!
When I was a little kid one of my friends had a toy Tonka ambulance. It was awesome. It was the best ambulance on Earth. It was the best Tonka truck ever. Damn if I wasn’t one jealous miniature red head. I did what most American kids do when they want something awesome. I asked Santa Claus to bring it to me for Christmas. Santa failed me. I asked again the next year. Santa failed me again. Santa never came through at all.
Fast forward to December 2007. I’d been dating this amazing woman for about eight months. She was amazing. I was nuts about her. I think she may have liked me a little in return. I say that because she went to Ebay, found the legendary Tonka ambulance and bought it for me as a Christmas present. Holy shit, what an amazing gift! I could not, and literally still cannot believe it. I told you she was amazing. I should note that I am still absolutely crazy in love with her. We have been married since 2009. She’s the one.
The second part of this two-for-one extravaganza comes from 2021. It was my 50th birthday. Things were very tough for me that year. My father was in the hospital and my mother was dealing with an advancing case of dementia. My brother and sister and I were taking turns staying with my mother while my father was recovering. I woke up at my parent’s house on my birthday and didn’t get home until the afternoon. When I did, my wife and my step son threw me a little birthday party. I was so happy. I can’t even begin to tell you how happy they made me that day, and that was before I opened any birthday presents.
There was one gift that they were both practically giddy over. I opened it and saw this:
They bought me a guitar. Holy shit snacks, My wife got me a guitar for my birthday. What a legendary surprise! Before I even opened the case it was already tied for first for the best gift ever. Then I opened the case and found a brand new Gibson Les Paul Standard ’50s. Absolutely epic!
There you have it. Two absolutely Earth rocking gifts. By far the two best gifts I’ve ever received. No question. I told you my wife was amazing. I told you!
Hey Gemini, generate an image of a jedi knight sitting under a christmas tree opening an amazing christmas gift.
It’s New Year’s Day. Is everyone having a nice holiday today? I hope so.
This is the day that we celebrate the new year by getting rid of all of the xmas decorations. It is the time for me to embrace my inner scrooge or my inner grinch and put an end to the season and put the house back to normal. Insert the sound of my sigh of relief here.
My initial plan was to wait for Harry to get out of bed at some point in the early afternoon and then Jen and Harry and I could just crank our way through all of the decorations together. It would take no time at all. Then when I finished my morning routine I decided to bring a couple of the boxes we store the decorations in upstairs with me and I’d pick off a few things on my own. Next thing I knew the tree was gone. Jen went from room to room and pulled most of the rest of the stuff out and stacked it on the dining room table. I took a break for some water and some meds and some real estate shopping TV show episodes and then brought a few more boxes upstairs and… next thing we knew, everything was gone. The house has been 100% de-xmased.
It is glorious.
I still need to move some furniture around in the living room, move a bunch of empty amazon shipping boxes to the cellar, put a new cat tree together, and then help Jen cook a super fancy dinner. That is a long to-do list, but it is fine because the decorations are done.
Again… glorious, said the grinchy scrooge.
We are home again. Another xmas gathering is in the books. We went to my in-laws and had dinner and swapped gifts. It was lovely and it brings the holiday to a close.
Tomorrow? Back to work. Not only that, but it’s an in the office day.
Crud.
The count down to New Years is on. We thought about New York (but not Times Square) but now we’re thinking of maybe taking a day next weekend and visiting Newport, RI. Newport is famous for gilded age, rich people houses but for me it’s more famous as the birthplace of Throwing Muses.
Will we do either of these things? Who knows. There are three more days until the next long weekend. As Traffic said on their amazing second album, who knows what tomorrow may bring?
Santa Claus came, but we won’t be opening presents here until later tonight. The kids are at their dad’s this morning. They will come here about noon and we will all head to my sister’s for dinner and niece/nephew time. My father will be there too. I’m really looking forward to it.
After we get home we will do our family gifts. I’m also seriously looking forward to that, HoHoHo. Tomorrow we will go to Jen’s mom’s and do another dinner/gifts celebration. Yet another event I’m looking forward to.
It’s going to be a busy couple of days, but it’s going to include a ton of holiday/family stuff so it’s going to be great.
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate. Everyone else? I hope you have an extra great couple of days.
HoHoHo
We went out for a drive tonight to see some xmas lights around town. Jen and I were telling Bellana about a pair of houses we saw a few years ago that actually had their light display stretch across the street. We couldn’t remember where it was though. It made us a little sad.
Jen was directing us around based off of a screen shot of a facebook post that had some addresses on it. She took us to Sampson Street and wouldn’t you know it, that was the place where the lights stretched across the street! It wasn’t two houses, it was practically the whole street, but the lights only crossed in one spot.
It was really cool.
It made me wonder… is this a case of multiple households collaborating, or is it one household who knocks on doors asking if they can decorate other people’s houses. I wonder.
Drives around town like this are attempts at jump starting xmas spirit for me. It generally doesn’t work. I still doubt that I will have anything resembling holiday spirit before the 21st or 22nd of December. That’s just how it goes for me. It would be fun if it weren’t true and I could get into it early, but nope.
Inside the Red Head's Head 