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December 22, 2004 |
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Christmas. One of the best times of the year. While American scribes tend to wring their collective hands kvetching the holiday season is, take your pick, “too commercial”, “too plastic”, there’s no remembering of the “real” reason for the season, the fact remains I love Christmas. Let’s count the reasons why. 1) Elf bowling. After an entire year spent wasting time on the computer attempting to guide the gorilla in swatting the sliding penguin into oblivion, it’s nice the holiday season allows one to change the pace and kill the hours helping Santa knock down those crazy ten-pin elves. My grandsons get absolutely hysterical when one of the elves “toots”. It’s nice at this time of the year when you can bond with your grandchildren wasting time together on the computer. 2) ‘Colorado Christmas”. Among the cacophony of Christmas carols, and oh deliver me from Andy Williams, this Nitty Gritty Dirt Band song makes the holiday season truly special in our Centennial State. Plus music with lyrics celebrating Christmas in Colorado while at the same time dissing So Cal as Emmylou Harris harmonizes on the chorus has to rank number one on the local Christmas music popularity chart. 3) Family newsletters that accompany a Christmas card. Some folks love to put the knock on these annual messages, “We were so pleasantly surprised when our Frankie won the Heisman trophy and the Nobel Prize for Physics in the same year and are bubbling with enthusiasm over our little Nicole’s promise to next year to bring about world peace, graduate from beauty college and get her own apartment” but I enjoy hearing from friends about what has gone on in their lives during the latest trip around the sun. Some of these notes are from acquaintances not seen for decades but because of Christmas letters one still feels connected. 4) Eggnog. I’m a borderline nogaholic. Whether downed straight or mixed with rum, be it eggnog latte, eggnog yogurt or eggnog cookies, my taste buds are just crazy nuts about nog. Were cod liver oil eggnog flavored I’d gulp a bottle a day. Thankfully this delicious delicacy’s availability is limited to the days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s since eggnog contains, conservatively speaking, 143,000 calories per teaspoon. 5) Christmas open houses. What’s not too like? You visit with friends, devour somebody else’s food and quaff their wine all the while wishing the world “Merry Christmas”. Note: Should I be on your guest list, humungous shrimp and Willamette Valley Pinot Noir’s are most pleasing to my palette. But my holiday highlight occurred a couple of weeks back. It was a Saturday morning just after sunrise in the Denver home of our four-year-old grandson. He and I were the only folks up and around at that early hour. “Come here, Grandpa,” he said with excitement in his voice as he gazed out a window at far distant Long’s Peak standing snow covered and shining in the early morning sun. “I think I can see the North Pole”, he murmured while holding my hand, “That’s where Santa lives. See, it’s far, far away and covered with snow. That must be the North Pole.” I assured him it was indeed Santa’s home he had spotted in the early morning of a Colorado day. Here’s hoping you have a Christmas memory equal to the thrill of witnessing where Santa lives through the eyes of a 4 year old. Happy Holidays. |
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