Holiday Memories '09

A quiet, peaceful event for me this year. The week before Christmas week I had an unexpected day off work so lunched with friends at a new Indian restaurant that just opened downtown. That following weekend, Mother Nature dumped almost two feet of snow on us so I spent parts of three days digging out. It started snowing Friday evening and snowed all day the entire day Saturday – twice Saturday I cleaned the front sidewalks even though it was still snowing—I decided a little bit at a time, two or three times, was better than two feet all at once! This time the logic worked. Even though it snowed all through Saturday night, there wasn’t that much of an added accumulation Sunday morning when I started in again. The hard part was digging my car out of the drifts and out of the muck the snowplow had piled along the driver’s side of the car. With the help of a neighbor, we actually dug not only my car out, but two neighbors’ cars as well! Cooperation is a wonderful thing. That week I happened to be off on that Monday – which was a good thing because it was very difficult still to drive around town. Schools were actually closed all that week leading up to Christmas because of the snow.

Wish I had taken vacation time the entire week—the commute home on Wednesday, Christmas Eve eve, took me two and ½ hours (my usual commute is 1 and ½ hours)! I expected Christmas Eve to be bad but not the day before! Christmas Eve day, I lunched with my friends again – all of whom had the day off of work – at Laila’s, an Afghan restaurant in town that I had not yet had the pleasure to dine in. The food was great and the people were so nice – same as at the new Indian restaurant mentioned above . We exchanged our gifts – good thing it wasn’t too crowded that day – we took up THREE tables – two for us and one for the gifts. Had such a good time. Christmas Day dawned with sleet and freezing rain. I decided I did not need to go anywhere, so stayed in and essentially became a couch potato for the day—it was actually very nice to chill out, watch TV if I wanted or catch up on my reading. I did no work at all – no office work, no housework. It was nice. Saturday, I was invited out for dinner by some friends I don’t see too often to a Japanese steakhouse they enjoy where food is cooked in front of you. Very entertaining and the food was good too! Later that evening, we met some other friends at Hempen Hill BBQ to enjoy The Fox Hunt, a bluegrass band from the local area that we all enjoy. They have been touring the country and have only just come back to their home area—I was eager to see them again—last time was the previous March! HH’s acoustics are not that great, but with this group it didn’t matter – their groupies and friends all showed up anyway. It was a great welcome home for them. I am so happy they are doing so well with their music!

As part of celebrating the holidays, I went with friends to The Full Circle Theatre in Shepherdstown to see a play entitled “Watson and Holmes.” Extremely well done – actors were super! We then went to dinner at Kazu’s, a Thai restaurant. Easy Christmas gifts – I paid for the theatre tickets and dinner. I think they enjoyed the outing and getting together as much as I did and it sure beat buying material things that they might not be able to use or even like!

The New Year was also quiet. The weather was nasty early in the day and called for freezing that evening, so I decided to stay in. The friends who invited me along to Mercersburg for a pub crawl ending with dinner and champagne at Flannery’s said everything up there did freeze and walking was very treacherous. I think I would have been okay in going to the local Hard Times Cafe to catch Stack-O-Blues, but those friends were going to a private party after and I didn’t want to be left in the lurch; I turned them down as well. And, yeah, I fell asleep before the midnight hour, but it must have been a quieter New Year’s eve in my neighborhood as well – the usual firecrackers and gun shots of past New Years’ eves were missing this year and I slept right thru.

I had to work as normal the week between Christmas and New Year’s (don’t usually mind because so many people are on vacation and this is a perfect time to catch up on any backlog and clean out file cabinets and drawers of stuff no longer needed). I did catch up with some friends after work one evening for dinner at the Olive Garden and catching the new Sherlock Holmes movie—yay, Sherlock again. We’re such fans of the sleuth – read all the books, watch all the movies—great stuff!

I had a warm, memorable holiday with the companionship and gathering together of friends and family . These occasions are appreciated and much more personal than any material gift. Plus, right now, I am spending an inordinate amount of time trying to clean out my attic and basement—all those odds and ends that I never got rid of before, I have to now try to decide what to do with. I certainly don’t need any more “odds and ends” to add to the chore! And, besides, I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings if they found out I passed on a gift that someone gave me, or sold it at a flea market, or just plain trashed it because I could no longer give it a home. This sort of cleaning can be very emotional—but the space gained is very satisfying!

So, pressing onward into 2010; yes, I have made resolutions and have set goals for this new year. Realistic, obtainable ones, I think.

Best wishes and Happy New Year to you and your families – I hope it’s a year that is rewarding and fulfilling of all your hopes and dreams. Take care.