Tag: Christmas

A Modest Moratorium

photog Current Events, OCF, Reclaiming the Family, Trump , , ,

So tonight, Camera Girl was unleashed on the baking supplies she’s been assembling for the last week or so.  Tomorrow our daughters and our granddaughter will be showing up at noon or so for the tradition grandma-cookie baking ritual.  Grandma cookies are Camera Girl’s mom’s recipe for what some people in the family call white cookies.  These are lethally addictive.  With a large mug of coffee (or milk for the kids) it’s almost impossible not to binge on every cookie that’s left in harm’s way.  It’s hard to believe that the ingredients are only things like flour, eggs, butter, sugar and vanilla extract.  There must be some cocaine or opium in them somewhere.

Well, anyway, tonight she baked alone.  She baked all the other cookies for the holiday.  She made oatmeal, chocolate chip, M&M and sugar cookies.  And then just to make sure I won’t survive the year she made a big pan of baklava.  Oh, man.  Even Zorba the Greek after dancing for a week straight wouldn’t be able to finish off the portion she made.  Between the butter, honey and walnuts I can see myself in the local emergency room receiving last rites as the intern on duty calls for the crash cart and the body bag.

Tomorrow I’ll be on a road trip to northern New England; to Vermont.  I’m riding shotgun just as company.  It should be fun.  Meanwhile the womenfolk will be bonding in the kitchen and indoctrinating Princess Sack of Potatoes in the mysteries of family tradition of the female variety.  All very sacred proceedings.  So, the holidays are progressing satisfactorily.

But it’s not as if all is normal.  After her latest shopping trip for the holiday supplies, Camera Girl was horrified at the increase in the prices of such staples as eggs, butter, flour and coffee.  I felt very sad for her so I tried to cheer her up by saying that after the holidays the prices would come back down based on supply and demand.  I think she could tell I was making it up but she forced a smile and we moved on.

Trump will have his hands full trying to fix the economy and deporting ten million illegals.  Just doing those things would be hard enough but he’ll have to do it in the face of not only a hostile Deep State but also the Congress.  The House has a razor thin Republican majority and the Senate is packed with RINOs who want to please their corporate paymasters and don’t give a damn about making America great.  Yes, he’ll have his hands full.

But despite all this resistance, I am surprisingly optimistic.  I was very pleasantly surprised by his victory.  And because of it, I no longer assume that the Left will have everything its own way.  Trump has seen a lot of the worst that the powers that be can do against him.  If he’s half as smart as I hope he is, he’s going to eliminate a very large number of his enemies from the ranks of many of the the agencies that he controls, basically the whole executive branch of government.  Unless he’s crazy he knows he has to eliminate large chunks of the management of the FBI and the Justice Department.  Once that’s done, I expect he’ll have an easier time dictating terms to the rest of the departments.  And in fact, after he has loyalists in charge of the FBI I wouldn’t be surprised if the various RINO senators suddenly become much more cooperative.  All of these people must have files that are kept for just such an eventuality.

Now maybe my optimism is foolish.  But the holiday is upon us and I think optimism is better for my digestion during this season of overeating.  January is the time for resolutions and facing facts.  So, unless a planet killing asteroid is discovered approaching Earth or I see the incoming ICBMs over Dunwich between now and Christmas I’m declaring a moratorium on gloom and doom.

I’m going to eat way too many cookies and much too much roast beast and spoil my grandkids and watch way too many old movies.  I think that’s a plan.

A Pretty Good Deal

photog Current Events, Reclaiming the Family , , , ,

The holidays are upon us and today we got a taste of them.  A gathering of my children and their families at the Compound was deeply enjoyable.  The youngest grandchildren were triumphantly underfoot.  They had a game where they spaced out some pillows on the living room floor and hopped haphazardly between them to avoid the “lava” that surrounded these tiny islands of safety.  They were a menace to navigation and a real danger to themselves from collision with doors and walls and other solid objects.  So, they kept me busy refereeing their wilder excesses.

And Camera Girl outdid herself in the kitchen.  The food flowed impressively onto the table and then into the mouths of the delighted diners.  I give her all credit except for one decision that I was responsible for.  She had baked a huge Italian cheese cake and a chocolate cake and a chocolate pudding dessert.  Along with whipped cream she declared that no other dessert should be offered.  I insisted that vanilla ice cream must always be available as a component of dessert.  When the dessert was being served, I quizzed the kids about this and the reaction was electric.  They shouted agreement with my position.  Well, Camera Girl must have known in advance that I was right.  Not only did she have a half gallon of   vanilla.  She had chocolate chip and cookies and cream.  I was magnanimous in victory.  I openly applauded her willingness to accept advice and avoid disappointing the future of the family.

We talked about this and that.  Local politics and town affairs like the volunteer fire departments and their trials and tribulations.  And I talked to the kids about the upcoming Thanksgiving celebration here.  I mentioned that they would have the option of joining me in watching my traditional viewing of the 1930s versions of “The March of the Wooden Soldiers” and the Max Fleischer cartoon “Gulliver’s Travels.”  I also mentioned that there would be viewing of some of W.C. Fields’ classic movies, “It’s a Gift” and “The Man on the Flying Trapeze.”  I emphasized that they should take special note of the similarity in behavior of the wife in these movies toward her husband (Fields) to the way that Camera Girl abuses and disrespects me.  I think it’s never too early to use the classics to teach valuable lessons to children about how the world works.  I’m sure Camera Girl heard me making these statements because I detected a growling sound coming from the kitchen at this point.

Well, before we knew it the night was getting along and everyone had to get home to their own things.  After they left, I noted to Camera Girl that it isn’t such a bad world where such nice people can surround us with life and energy with only the cost of some peasant Southern Italian food and desserts needed as fuel.  Sure, the world is falling apart at the seams and Joe Biden is still causing damage everywhere you look.  But things could be much, much worse.  And at least we’ll get to do Thanksgiving and Christmas at least one more time before the world comes to an end.  That’s a pretty good deal.  I’ll take it.

Weaponized Cuteness

photog Life in Dunwich, Music Reviews, photog's Corner, Reviews , , ,

My five year old granddaughter, Princess Sack of Potatoes, learned “Feliz Navidad” in kindergarten.  While she was visiting I went to YouTube to play the Jose Feliciano version as an historical record for her, but opened this one by accident.

She was fascinated by this pint-sized crooner.  And so it goes for every generation.  Well, no harm done.  Her mother and her grandmother and her great grandmother had their crooners too, whether it was Frank Sinatra or Paul McCartney or whatever singer was out there.  But so soon?

 

British Perspective on the Movie “The Holly and the Ivy”

photog Movie Reviews, Reviews , , , , ,

The Holly and the Ivy is one of my favorite Christmas movies.  But it is an intensely English movie and so I thought it would be interesting to hear what a British movie critic would have to say about it.

Whether it is interesting or not I’ll leave to the individual viewer but I enjoyed it.  However I was already a fan of the movie and didn’t require any convincing.

Christmas Day 2023 – Quotation

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King James Version

Luke:  Chapter 2

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

2(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

5To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

18And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

20And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

So Many Cookies

photog Current Events, Life in Dunwich, OCF, photog's Corner , , ,
Christmas Cooking, Sony A7 III, Sony 90mm f\2.8 macro lens

Camera Girl is like a food terrorist. She festoons treats around her kitchen like so many high-caloric land mines. And there I am blasted to bits over and over by all of these irresistible gastronomic pyrotechnics. I know how awful will be the penalties I’ll suffer when the holidays are over and how many hours of exercise will be needed to work off the hundreds of thousands of calories of delicious, delectable evil that she has surrounded me with. But eat I must. Over the course of almost five decades, she knows which foods I cannot resist. The cookies; grandma (or white), chocolate chip, oatmeal and the chocolate dipped coconut macaroons. The pies; apple, coconut custard, pumpkin, cherry and more. And that’s not even counting the ice creams and cheese cakes. And all of this will be after the sheer tonnage of lasagna, meatballs, sausage and filet mignon. Oh, the pain, the pain.
I rate my chance of surviving this onslaught as minimal. I reckon that if the EMTs arrive while I’m still breathing, they will advise her that as a purely practical triage decision they should leave me and move on to the next 911 call. At most they may spend a few moments berating me for allowing myself to come to this pathetic end.
But in all honesty, I acknowledge, that all things considered, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Gathering around the holiday tables groaning under the weight of Camera Girl’s bounteous feast is the highlight of every year. Enjoying delicious foods with family and spending time with the people closest to me in the whole world is well worth any bout of indigestion that might occur. Each of the rituals and ceremonies is a touchstone to the past. These same words and actions bring me back to the time when I was a child and eating these same foods and gathering together with family was the highlight of our holidays.
And to ensure that this tradition will continue, Camera Girl has her daughters and now her granddaughter over each year to knead the dough and shape the cookies that they bake for Christmas. And my son and sons-in-law and grandsons share in the expectation that these cookies will be there in the years to come. And I hope they do. Family traditions and gatherings may be the most important social functions in our human existence. They don’t fall under any government program and they aren’t mediated by any of the organs of modern life. TikTok and Meta don’t decide what’s the correct way to break bread with family and I doubt that the Kardashians or Taylor Swift even know what a grandma cookie tastes like, never mind know how to bake one.
So, whatever your traditions and whoever you gather with for Christmas, enjoy the time off away from the soul-deadening dictates of our woke institutions and brain-dead social media influencers. Use the time wisely to spend time with the people who actually mean something to you and enjoy that time together.
God bless us all, everyone.

A Christmas Wish 2023

photog Current Events, OCF
Christmas Cooking, Sony A7 III, Sony 90mm f\2.8 macro lens

Christmas Eve is again arrived.  And even the busiest among us will, hopefully, put aside the day-to-day struggle and embrace the traditions of the past with friends and family.  Of course, those with young children are in the thick of it and have the primary responsibility to transmit all the customs and follow all the protocols for the children.

But even oldsters like myself are free to join in and contribute to the atmosphere of traditional cheer.  In fact, as a bridge to the long-ago times when a richer meaning was attached to the holiday, we ancients can perform a special function.  We can give a perspective into Christmas that provides a more satisfying rational than just an excuse for Amazon to sell toys and demented pop singers to screech and gyrate to “All I Want for Christmas is You.”  You can explain that even non-Christians recognize the beauty of the Christmas story and empathize with the holiday’s mandate for all people to share in a truce from preying on each other and try to feel a kindred spirit with all mankind.

And for Christians it is a celebration of the coming of a new covenant that calls on all men to treat each other as brothers and recognize the divinity of the human soul and the necessity of treating each other with the requisite dignity.

And just as importantly we can have a great time and make memories that will last a lifetime.  I always eat myself into a stupor on Christmas Eve and Day.  Camera Girl is a wonderfully good cook who always overdoes holiday meals, especially desserts.  And I’m often in danger of eating myself into an early grave.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how I eventually go.  But as they say, “What a way to go!”

We’ll be out at a family feast on Christmas Eve and at home with about the same crowd on Christmas Day.  This year will be much like the recent past but as always there will be new happy and sad tidings to talk about and we’ll welcome new acquaintances and remember sadly those who are gone.  And we’ll tell all the same stories but including to some who have never heard them before.  And we’ll talk about the New Year and everyone’s hopes and plans.

And after everyone has gone home, we’ll finally stagger into bed at some late hour and groan from all the food eaten (at least I will).  But the magic will still have performed the miracle.  I will feel at peace with the universe for at least the week between Christmas and New Year.  After that, the horrors of our fallen world will have a whole year to wear away at my faith in humanity and my stomach lining.  But it’s enough to have this holiday and to share it with the people I love and try to regain my equilibrium and pack on a few pounds that I can use as an excuse to keep up with an exercise regimen.

I hope whatever rituals you follow are joyful and satisfying and provide the mental and spiritual renewal necessary to make it through another year.  And as Dickens wrote, “God bless us all, everyone.”  Even you Democrat weirdos.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2023 on OCF

photog Current Events, OCF , ,

I am going to try mightily to avoid politics tomorrow and the day after.  I’ve already written a political screed but I’ve scheduled it for 5 am December 26th.  Essentially, “Do not open until the day after Christmas!”

I’m going to look around and try to find some holiday related material to post or to link to.  Of course if the storm troopers swat my Christmas party I’ll probably defy my own edict and produce a screed from the back of the Bradley Assault Vehicle but short of that I’m going to try to take the high road this year.