jimsjournal
| It's almost Christmas -- 12/21/03 |
jimsjournal |
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Sunday Brunch 1. Is your Christmas shopping complete? If no, how much is left to do? It's just about complete -- have to get a couple of things for Jeremy (youngest child -- age 18) from Nancy and me. Other than that, it's complete... although I might pick up an item or two as stocking stuffers, just odd little things, like if I happen to see a Santa Clause Pez dispenser or something like that while I'm in a store. 2. If someone not on your Christmas shopping list buys you a present, do you feel like you have to buy one for them? Yeah, I suppose I would... but I can't think any situation where that might be likely. 3. What is your favorite Christmas special or holiday movie? That's an easy one: It's a Wonderful Life. It was one of my favorite movies from the very first time I saw it on tv when I was a kid (junior high school age) even before I came to associate it with Christmas. Nancy and I probably watch the whole thing every two or three years. 4. Tell us about one of your favorite Christmas memories. A favorite Christmas memory is of taking the kids to see A Christmas Carol as performed at the Cider Mill Theatre when we lived in upstate New York... a wonderful performance and a wonderful sharing of the current performance with happy memories of prior years. 5. Tell us about a holiday mishap. (i.e.: tree falling over, dog eating presents, etc. Christmas 1966 -- fully decorated Christmas tree, covered with many fragile antique ornaments, ornaments fondly remembered from my childhood. Yes, the tree tipped over on a hardwood floor. Many ornaments survived intact, but many others were broken. Fortunately, my most favorite ones survived. No entries up all week long -- I was just too busy. In fact, it was only today that I finally caught up with a backlog of email. This was partly due to being very busy at work, trying to get lots of loose ends wrapped up before Christmas vacation -- I'm taking the rest of the year off -- in fact, I was trying to squeeze in a vacation day this past week (vacation days can't be carried over to the next year, use it or lose it) -- Jeremy and I had gone out and brought home our tree last Sunday, but it spent the week on our front porch. One of Nancy's aunts passed away this past week and Wednesday night Nancy and I drove her mother over to Connecticut for the viewing -- Nancy and I came back that night (this is a tough time of year to find qualified substitute teachers and she did not want to have her students miss a day) and her mother stayed over with one of her brothers and his wife. Nancy's sister Janet went to the funeral on Thursday and drove her mother home. Thursday night was a Christmas dinner get-together for the teachers in Nancy's school at a private room at Spain Restaurant in Narragansett -- very tasty food, good party. Friday was supposedly that vacation day I was trying to squeeze -- so I did make it a bit of a vacation day: after Nancy left for work I got back into bed and finished reading a book I'd been attempting to read for the past week and a half (a good book, but I just can't seem to stay awake long enough at night to read for very long) -- and then I got up and ran a few errands and then went to the office, hoping to be able to leave in a couple of hours or so but ended up spending around four hours there. Rented The Italian Job -- the new one, not the original 1969 version (which was the better of the two)-- but it was amusing, not bad for sipping a glass of wine and watching on a Friday night after a long busy week. Saturday I finally managed to finish my Christmas cards, Nancy and I went to the library and ran various errands together, then in the afternoon I went grocery shopping, etc., managed to get in a workout (at last!), fixed dinner, collapsed in the evening and just vegged out reading books -- miserable sinus headache all day. Today we finally brought the tree in and set it up, my sinuses are still bothering me, and now I have to dash because we're having dinner with Nancy's mother (and Nancy's sister Janet and her husband and daughters and son and his girl friend -- yes, there are very few low-attendance meals in Nancy's family *grin*) |
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