Stretching Christmas

There's a garland on the wall with ornaments hanging from it, containing the names of all of us, (I stole this idea from Days of Our Lives), including the new babies. Christmas cards frame the door between the living room and kitchen. A small tree dripping with candy canes changes colors constantly.  The counter-tops are loaded with chocolate, fudge, cakes, oranges, home made bread and nuts. Christmas is over, but we're not letting go.

It was the Christmas nobody wanted. The hype started right after Halloween, the songs, and then Black Friday with the stories of brawling and pepper spraying as people fought over toys we'd never even heard of. No one felt like shopping, or wrapping. But we got it done somehow.

The cooking was only so-so. Pumpkin pie sloshed into the oven; fudge didn't harden. We disagreed on how to cook the ham. Dinner was almost an hour late. But somehow, when we sat down, magic happened. From the Grinchiest grownup to the smallest child, Christmas spirit arrived. And it's still here.

Now the work is done, and all that's left to do is relax. The Jingle Bell barking dogs are gone from the radio. The lights are still on in the neighborhood, and should be for a few more days.  So I wonder: how long can we stretch it out? Through egg nog, Dick Clark and football games, at least, maybe longer. Pass me another chocolate-covered cherry, please.

Today we mark the passing of a true movie star. Cheetah, the ape friend of Tarzan, died at the ripe old age of 80. You remember Cheetah; he was the one without a loincloth.

As if the Forgotten Bookmarks book that I got for Christmas wasn't enough, yesterday in my mail there was fellow blogger Fancy Nancy's (Captionsbest) new book, Snippets II, "short, snappy stories" that entertain, educate, and inspire. The lady has spunk. I bet she can even make a decent pan of fudge.

The Given Day, by Dennis Lehane, the author of Mystic River, "unflinchingly captures the political and social unrest of a nation caught at the crossroads between past and future." It is the story of two families, one black, one white, in Boston in the early 1900's, of poverty and anarchy, corruption, and tragedy (the Spanish influenza epidemic; the great molasses flood of 1919; the police strike when crime ran rampant in the streets). A stunning book.

See you next week! (Are your guns loaded for New Years Eve?)