Wyszdom

A couple of pictures of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center, 2008:

Wow, Christmas Eve is already here. Have a great Christmas, everyone.

At a Christmas brunch, earlier this afternoon…

My cousin Chris, sitting across the table, got my attention:
“Can you do me a salad?” he asked.
“You want me to get you a salad?”
He laughed. “Yeah. Do you have any Tabasco sauce?”

I went into the kitchen and retrieved the Tabasco bottle, and presented it to him in a hilarious fashion, as it it were a bottle of wine. He played along and tasted a small portion of it before applying it to the rest of his omelette. With one of his requests fulfilled, I headed back into the kitchen and piled Caesar salad and some fruit onto a plate, and set it next to him.

As the meal ended, there was a salad plate sitting near me at the table. Nobody at the table would claim ownership of it. I started to think that maybe Chris thought that I brought him a salad plate as a joke, and I asked him if he moved the salad that he had ordered earlier.

“I asked for a salad?” He couldn’t believe it.
“Yes, you asked for a salad and then Tabasco sauce.”

I was then taught the definition of “Do me a solid.”

Harry and Potter, December 2006

Stille Nacht

I’m probably going to be pretty tired when you read this after a cross-country flight, so this post’s song is “Stille Nacht” performed by Mannheim Steamroller. No, they don’t turn things upside-down and go all Mannheim Steamrollery on it like with “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.” It’s a peaceful track, and it’s best enjoyed when it comes on at just the right time in a mix, and isn’t followed by “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.”

Home for Christmas

This is my last post in the series I began on December 1st. I’m sure I’ll still have a bit more to say about Christmas this year, but during my vacation I don’t want to be tied to (self-imposed) blogging deadlines.

If everything goes according to schedule, this will be published at the time I land in Philadelphia for my Christmas vacation. I don’t have an incredible story for this post. I just want to say that I’m where I want to be.

Christmas tree, Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto, CA

White Christmas

“White Christmas” is today’s song pick. I feel a little nervous choosing it just hours before I embark on a journey across the country in December, but I do want a white Christmas, and I suppose it’s not as dangerous as choosing “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”

The song describes a white Christmas as being “just like the ones I used to know,” and this is true. In my memories, I always associate Christmas with snow. While my Californian friends may assume that my home state is a frozen tundra from December through mid-March, the probability of a white Christmas where I live are actually well below 50%. So a white Christmas still requires a bit of dreaming for me, and when it does happen, it’s quite magical.

Christmas in California

Sometimes Often when I miss home, I give California a hard time. After going home for Thanksgiving, I even claimed that California doesn’t celebrate Christmas. But I’ll admit, after I settled down and got back into California mode, it did start to feel a bit like Christmas around here. It’s different, but it’s still Christmas. I’m excited to go home, but I will admit that there are some things over here that I will miss while I’m gone. I’ll miss my friends, I’ll miss my desk and ridiculous Internet connection at work, and I’ll miss some of the food. At home I’ll gain family, older friends, and homemade food, so it will still be a very merry Christmas, but just because home is good doesn’t mean California is bad. I’ve even seen some nice decorating around here, and wow, it’s actually been cold.

19th in a series of Christmasy things.

Christmas Wrapping

Today’s song pick is “Christmas Wrapping” performed by The Waitresses.

Advent calendar

I don’t believe I don’t have a picture of it, but I can’t find one right now. Our family has an Advent calendar which we use every year to count down the days until Christmas. Most Advent calendars you may be familiar with have small doors that you open, revealing a picture or perhaps even a treat. Ours is a bit different, and was sewn by my mom. It’s a felt Christmas tree, covered in green and gold sequins. At the top is a star, and at the bottom are 24 numbered pockets. Each pocket contains a wooden ornament for the tree. There’s a bear helping to decorate it. Each day, one of the children takes the ornament from the appropriate pocket and hangs it on one of the sequins. It looks similar to this tree, but I’ll try to get a picture of ours when I go home.

I remember in preschool we made chains made out of interlocking strips of red and green construction paper. They may have been purely decorative, but I think I remember part of the idea being that you would take off one link every day to count down to Christmas.

18th in a series of Christmasy things.

The Plaza at PPG Place, Pittsburgh, PA, 2004.

Do They Know It’s Christmas?

“Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid was written and performed to raise money for charity in 1984 and has remained popular.

Stockings

My sisters and I each have our own stocking sewn by my mother. We all got our stockings at a avery early age… all of us except for my youngest sister. Her stocking remained in-progress year after year, with my mom working on it during family vacations. It became a bit of a running joke that it would never be finished, but finally on my sister’s tenth Christmas, her custom-sewn stocking (before that she used a nice, but not custom-sewn stand-in) was hung by the chimney with care.

According to Wikipedia and this book, the term Pollyanna (when describing a secret gift exchange) is rarely used outside of southeastern Pennsylvania. All of my non-Pennsylvanian readers, did you know what a Pollyanna was before you read this post? Let me know in the comments.

Poppers.

Winter Wonderland

“Winter Wonderland,” reportedly inspired by a scene in the Poconos, is today’s song pick. There are plenty of good versions of it, and since people at work have joked that I listen to Michael Bolton on my headphones (I don’t… well except for right now), I’ll go ahead and recommend his version. Johnny Mathis also does a good job.

Mad Lib

Sophia recently sent me a story on NPR about two men who have been sending the same Christmas card to each other for 60 years. She said that it reminded her of me, and is what would happen if I met my twin. My aunt and uncle have a similar tradition. I’m afraid I don’t have the full details tonight, but maybe I’ll send this off to my aunt so she can fill in the blanks in the next few days. Hmm, blanks… let’s do this Mad Lib-style:

Item 1: “Aunt” OR “Uncle” (pick one): ________
Item 2: Relative NOT chosen above: _________
Item 3: Movie Title: _________

One year, my [item 1] bought my [item 2] a copy of [item 3] for Christmas, and put it in my [item 2]‘s stocking. A year later, [item 3] had not been watched or opened by my [item 2]. My [item 1] wrapped it back up and put it in my [item 2]’s stocking again. [Item 3] has been wrapped and placed in my [item 2]’s stocking every year since the tradition began.

I’ve been providing pictures, stories, and song titles, but if you want to have the full multimedia Christmas experience, head on over to Rowyn’s blog for a playlist of Christmas videos. First up: “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.”

Festive house in a Pittsburgh, PA suburb.

A Holly Jolly Christmas

“A Holly Jolly Christmas” performed by Burl Ives is today’s song pick.

Keepsakes

Every year, there is one gift that I can count on receiving. In my stocking will be a new ornament for the tree. I don’t know exactly which year they started, but for over 20 years now my parents have been getting us the Hallmark Keepsake ornament. Each one has the year on it, and says either “Son” or “Daughter.” Mine, of course, are the ones that say “Son.” When it’s time to decorate the tree, if we are home (and not living on the other side of the country), we hang our own ornaments, which my sister Sara carefully organizes into separate piles. I could probably take a look at this year’s ornament with a quick search, but I’m going to save the surprise for December 25th.

15th in a series of Christmasy things.

Little St. Nick

“Little St. Nick” by The Beach Boys is today’s song pick. I prefer the original, but they also have an “alternate mix” if you’re looking for something different.

Black olives

I’m not sure if this came from a holiday tradition, but I love black olives, and my family serves them on the table at Thanksgiving and Christmas. My grandmother likes them and even my cousin’s young children enjoy putting the olives on their fingertips and sucking them off. I don’t know if this love of olives is genetic or not, but I love it when they get passed around and am craving them right now.

14th in a series of Christmasy things.