April's Writings – Here and Now
Tonight is a big party in the streets of downtown. I heard that they got some big names bands to play some free concerts and that we night even be televised, as this celebration is supposed to be the third largest in the USA! Isn’t that amazing? And I’ll be there – look for me!
Whew! I’m so glad that the holidays are almost over. The whole thing about shopping for gifts, cleaning house, decorating a tree, cooking and baking, and then visiting family will wear a girl out!
I was glad to see almost everyone in my family, especially all the children. I missed seeing my pretty niece and her new baby, but they had car trouble and couldn’t make the trip down. I will have to go up there and see her after the first of the year. I feel badly that she missed out on the family dinner, but we didn’t find out about the car trouble in time to make other arrangements for her to get there.
This Christmas, I hope you and your family and friends are able to gather around and enjoy each other. The Christmas gifts and cooking the big meals are nice, but the holiday is really all about being with the people in your life who matter the most.
I wanted to buy a pack of hot dogs for this weekend. We will be busy shopping and putting up the Christmas tree and I don’t want to have to cook anything special. I have enough on my hands with a holiday decorating and gift buying list.
I thought that hot dogs, mac and cheese and then some baked beans would be a nice, quick dinner. For some reason there are a bunch of different brands of hot dogs at the grocery store and now there are regular lengths, bun lengths, turkey hot dogs, beef hot dogs and regular mixed mystery meats hot dogs.
I had a hard time deciding, but ended up getting Oscar Mayer bun length hot dogs for almost $4 a pack of 8 hot dogs. The hot dog buns were only a dollar, the mac and cheese is only $2.50 and the baked beans were $.89 – so that was a cheap and fast meal for about two bucks per person.
Tonight I didn’t feel like cooking dinner, so I decided to get Chinese Takeout. We don’t have delivery service to my neighborhood, so I have to plan ahead and order the dinner, then I pick it up from the restaurant on my way home. I almost never get home and then decide to order Chinese and go back out to get it. So tonight I ordered the house special and topped it off with a special treat of Chinese donuts for dessert.
This year we are doing something different for Thanksgiving. We are cooking a goose. I’ve never cooked one before and am looking forward to learning some new tricks in the kitchen. Most of the side dishes will be traditional Thanksgiving foods – like green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. But We are going to have turkey at Christmas so I wanted something different for Thanksgiving. I hope that whatever you are cooking turns out moist and delicious, and that you have a wonderful holiday with loved ones nearby
There are a few rolls of leftover wrapping paper from last Christmas, but I cannot seem to find them anywhere. I checked the basement, I checked the hall closet, and I even poked around in the garage. I wonder who moved the wrapping paper and where would they have put it? I certainly hope they were not stupid enough to throw it away. Wrapping paper is expensive and it does not go bad unless it gets wet. I am about on the war path about this. I had better find that wrapping paper by this weekend or there will be drama in this house!
There was a news item about road closures tomorrow for a Veteran’s Day parade. I was surprised that they are actually having a parade. This area just does not seem to be in the spirit of many parades. They do have a short Christmas parade downtown, but it seems that whatever day they pick for the Christmas parade is guaranteed to be bad weather on that date. I wonder if they will have good weather tomorrow and I hope they have a good turnout to honor our Veterans.
Ads are on TV for Christmas already. I really don’t like that. We have just finished with Halloween and haven’t even done Veteran’s Day yet. The next holiday is Thanksgiving. I like Thanksgiving and want to celebrate for the day of thanks in which it was originally intended – not for it being the day before Black Friday.
Can’t these holidays get their own due without being tarnished with Christmas advertisements? Why am I having to think about Christmas already?