Santa

An unidentified man distributed $100 bills the other day in Reading PA according to an article that appeared recently. I find that truly amazing. He apparently distributed an estimated $20,000 at a bus station downtown. First I find it amazing that a person would be able to hand out that amount of cash, and secondly I find it amazing is that he didn’t get mugged while he was doing it. I suppose a person dressed in a Santa suit might be immune to being attacked?

A $100 doesn’t go very far these days, but it can buy a week’s worth of groceries and two tanks of gas for a person who is scrapping together every cent they can get. I remember when that amount was a lot and I was really happy getting only slightly more than that for a weekly wage when I was in high school. Of course back then my mother spent $36 for a week’s supply of food and I could replace the gas I used in my mother’s car for $1.

But still just giving away a $100 bill to that many people is over-the-top generous and should give you pause as to the impact this person made in those poor people’s lives. That is the real meaning of Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

I don't know why, but I am all excited for Christmas. I usually don't get this way, but for some reason I am as giddy as a three year old. It isn't as if I am expecting much; my teenaged boy has been sullen for the last few days and he has told me that he doesn't believe in Christmas and didn't want us to get a tree. But I got him gifts anyway and I hope he likes them. I never know what to get my husband, because he takes back most everything I get, but I did get a few things for him and everything is wrapped and under the tree.

The biggest present that I am giving are two miniature rooms to my parents. Both are pianists and I made music studios for them which are electrified and decorated. I can't wait until they open them. My mother is not going to see hers until Boxing Day as that is when we typically celebrate as a extended family. Every year for the past few years, we have been doing the day after Christmas and having a Mexican feast. We started that tradition because my brother and his wife are musicians and typically have gigs on Christmas which made it hard to get together. I guess I am excited because I am anticipating her reaction to her roombox. I am also anxious to see how my sister-in-law is going to take it as we have this little contest to see who can get my mother the best gift. She doesn't know its a contest, but I feel very competitive about it.

I don't know when I am going to see my dad, but I think it might be next week sometime (they have been divorced for many years and he lives over an hour away). He has not been well, and it's a crap shoot as to how he is feeling every day. A few weeks ago he didn't even think he was going to make Christmas, so we are all thankful he is doing well - at least for now.

So Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope that 2010 is everything you want it to be.

Oh Christmas Tree...

Well I went out and I did buy a small Christmas tree. It was at a local shop and I went in and told the man I wanted the smallest tree possible. He had one that was about 4 feet high and cut it down a little and charged me less than it was going for. I rushed home and got a tree stand and put it on the table in the dining room where we usually put our big tree. I just got finished decorating it and the phone rang. It was my husband who cooed into the phone that he had a surprise for me! My heart sank just knowing that he got a tree.

A few hours later and my husband came home with his "surprise". It was a small tree that he had gotten from his boss for free - well as a partial payment for the plowing that he was doing. We both had a laugh when he saw the tree that I had up and decorated. Since the tree he brought was nicer and a little bigger, we took the other one down and put the new one up, but this time we had to use the other tree stand that we normally use. He said that he just couldn't come home after seeing my puppy-dog eyes after telling me that it was not going to be possible to get a Christmas tree this year.

After a little time we decided to put the other tree back in the small tree stand and put it out on our front porch. So now we have two!

The Christmas Blues

So now I am officially bummed. I took a look at Marths Stewart's blog and she was showcasing her home Christmas decorations. Well I am about as far from Martha Stewart as a polar bear is from Africa. But I try to have a nice Christmas docrated house every year. This year, though, things are different. First of all we haven't gotten our tree yet. I said yet but it is a real possiblity that it will be not at all. I don't have the car to get a large tree, and my husband has been plowing snow after we got hit with about 15 inches of the white stuff in our area. So he is busy, and today when I suggested we get the tree, he balked.

My son doesn't like all the hubbub of the holiday so he is not going to help. So I did my Nativity Scene and my angels and today while my son is at school and my husband is at work (I have vacation until the beginning of 2010) I am going to get a tree on my own. A little one and it will be all decorated when they come home.

So I best get going.