Christmas Cheer

Christmas is a time of joy and festivity, family and wintry fun. Last night, I saw it all, and some.

We left a family gathering and shortly after dark, and decided to give the kids a cheap thrill by taking a ride by one of the local houses where the owners do a very over the top job of decorating - every bit of lawn and home are covered with lights, various plastic statues, moving puppets, 12 foot snow globes, the works. Rumor has it the neighbors are thrilled, especially with the nightly procession of gawkers from near and far, causing a traffic jam on the otherwise quiet suburban street.

On this particular night a sign was posted above a chair on the driveway - Santa would be appearing at 6:30 - we were 5 minutes early - yippeee! I parked a bit down the street, and the four of us joined the growing crowd - I lost count at 50, mostly parents with young kids, with more coming. It was cold and breezy, and I was just a little annoyed that Santa was 5 minutes late, but the price was right. He had a few helpers, and they gave candy canes out and the kids were all generally well behaved, though there was quite a crowd bustling on the driveway. From the middle of the crowd a father raised his voice, "Honey, can you get a towel, the baby threw up?!" A frazzled dad, clutching his dazed two or three year old stood at the sidewalk part of the driveway, while his wife stared at the child, intently. The father shouted louder "You can stare all you want, she's still throwing up - get a towel!" As the agitated mother slowly stepped back, the pained child resumed spewing. This was no infant spit-up. It was a full on frat party spray, and as the crowd began to scatter, confusion was clearly in the air. New guests were pushing forward, blissfully unaware of the spectacle, while witnesses to the event were torn between getting our young 'uns to safety or offering assistance. The last thing I saw as we got out of Dodge was a parent dutifully filming his kid approaching the man in red, while inadvertently trudging through the still steaming puddles.....

Seems like old times

Last week was the holiday party for the consulting outfit I'm working with. Decent spread, Rockefeller Center, overlooking the tree lighting. Well stocked, open bar. I had a few scotches, big cups, and headed for home. It struck me on the way home that at my advanced age, a big advantage of drinking booze over beer is that I didn't need to hit the head, all two hours of the trip home - no teeth gritting, white knuckle waiting for some guy hiding in the train toilet because he's to cheap to buy a ticket. A far cry from college days, when the goal of doing shots was to get as plastered as possible.

That got me to thinking of other things I'm doing that I did back in the day, but for different reasons. Example: I stay up pretty late these days, like back in the old days. In college it was because that's when people were up and about, and you could enjoy the party; now it's when they're all asleep, so I can enjoy the quiet. I'm working two jobs, again, but actually enjoying the cash less....hmmmmmm. Oh well, there's always the scotch - big cups, ideally.