Tomorrow is both Christmas Eve and the first day of Hanukkah so I assume Jews and Gentiles alike are scrambling to get everything done in time for the celebrations of your choice! I am sitting here watching the sunset. I had things I felt just had to get done today, but instead, the only time I left the house was to go to Burger King with Banjo so he could get some Chicken Nuggets. Don’t ask. I on some morbid count down to Banjo’s eventual death that most likely will happen sometime in the 2020s. It will pass. Meanwhile, he is being spoiled.
Outside is a pinkish glow at the moment. It’s really quite beautiful. I noticed an increase of beautiful sunset photos on Instagram lately. I wish there was a way to capture this light for you all for the holidays. It has totally distracted me from this post. Be right back.
Okay, darkness has fallen. Maybe after I get this up, I’ll take Banjo down to the Griswolds. Actually, from my house, the Griswold’s seems a lot more tasteful this year. I think they have new lights and they are all white. When it’s dark out, the inflatables are more palatable. Honestly, I’d miss the Griswolds if they stopped decorating.
The topic of this post was supposed to be the last-minute frenzy of the holidays. I used to go to the mall every year on Christmas Eve for last-minute presents and just because I used to love the mall, all the people and the hustle and bustle. I also did all the black Friday and day after Christmas sales too until they turned into stampedes.
I was thinking today about the dead sister that the deplorables are so invested in. She and I would always be at my parents for Christmas and we would stay up on Christmas Eve and stuff stockings and add more decorations and get everything ready for Mother to see when she got up. My sister was a single mother, and one year, when her son was a young teen, his big gift was a very expensive pair of tennis shoes. At that time she lived in Athens that was just under two hours from my parents house. So she would load everything up and bring it to Mom and Dads.
During the Christmas of The Shoes, waited for the parents and the teenager to go to bed, and would watch a recording of Oprah and a live episode of the Pope and wrap presents and decorate. Around 1 a.m. it occurred to sister that she had forgotten the shoes. I suggested a wrapped box with a note from Santa explaining that the elves delivered to shoes to his house, but she insisted that we go get the shoes. So, in the dark of night we sped to her house in Athens, grabbed the shoes and sped back in record time. At least it was still dark out when we returned. And Christmas was saved.
Have you ever had any last-minute holiday glitches? Are you having any this year?
Such a wonderful memory of your sister. Merry Christmas!
Love the story of the shoes. That is what family is all about. My only drama this year, other than being laid off right after Thanksgiving is that my family Christmas Eve gathering has been moved to my house as of 3:00 central today. So along with the last minute shopping I now have to get my house ready to host 30-35 people at noon tomorrow. My brighter and his wife usually host as they live our grandparent’s house (my parents bought it when my grandpa died and it’s next to theirs). Mom can’t host due to she and Dad both have gone gun crazy the last few years and they don’t want kids in their house, because them they’d have to lock up the guns. I kid you not, my mother said these words to me today “I know we don’t have enough room in the safes for them all and I don’t want to go buy that many trigger locks for just one day.”
Oh my. I just….don’t have any words…
I’m laughing at your description of it all but it’s like a nervous, side glancing, uncomfortable giggle.
Luckily nobody like this exists in my family. Good luck to you!!
What a sweet story ❤ Just what I needed to brighten my night. Happy holidays, everyone
Sisters can be wonderful. My sister and I loved each other…in small doses.
It sounds as if you and your sister had a wonderful Christmas Eve tradition.
Tomorrow I will make sweet potato latkes. I have an electric menorah for the window. It’s safe and easy. Then Christmas I’ll fix a prime rib for my husband. Talk about having the best of both worlds. We’re lucky!
My sister and I had a multitude of relationships over time. The early years were LOADS of fun. Then…well she changed and so did our relationship. Her terminal illness made her lash out at the world. It was not a good time in the life of anyone who knew her. But she went out the way she wanted to. So that is I suppose all one can hope for. There were a lot of bodies in the wake though.
To lighten this comment a bit, once she was terminal, she became selfish and very materialistic. I guess that was always there, but it REALLY intensified. I think she was around 60 when she died. I tend to black out everything about death. But at one point she claimed to this new group of friend that her 50th birthday was approaching and she wanted a huge party. So she got one.
When she died, and they read the now famous obit, her new friends were quite confused. LOL..
One of my good memories of my Dad’s illness is when a doctor came in his hospital room to give him a death pep-talk and he started it out with, “Well you’ve had a good long life, and done everything you wanted to do…” , when my Dad and I both interrupted the Dr and said “NO!”.
We also spent some time chasing Hospice away which made things a little harder at the very end. And he was noticeably grouchy on his death bed.
Your story about your sister TT, reminded me of my Dad. Maybe they will meet up in the afterlife and laugh about how they fought death even when they didn’t have a chance of beating it, and faced death on their own terms.
I’m sorry that your sister died, but I can tell by the way that she did NOT “go gently into the night”, that she had style.
We are not Jewish but having a matzo-ball soup Christmas because of one person being stomach-sick. Xmas isn’t completely canceled here YET, but they are trying.
Going to fancy-schmancy luxury condo on the Jersey side of the Hudson tomorrow hopefully, and I always get an extra kick that it is nicer than any apartment on RHONJ or Manzos. (McMansions not included-just condos and apts). If any of them ever get a nicer condo, I’ll probably be a little jealous. But it always makes me wonder when they have condos or apartments, why they don’t go for the full-on luxury models with awesome views when they are out there. But when the have a house, they go too far in sq. feet and overdone.
During our final Christmas concert on sunday, I started coughing and had to leave the stage. I went home and missed the cast party. Tuesday I was in the ER. Diagnosis…pneumonia and flu. Prognosis, I’ll live. Wednesday, bed rest and the sound of coughing and hacking from the living room.Thursday; first light of day, its off to a different ER. Diagnosis; Griffin has the flu. Prognosis, I may kill him. Friday; I’m on the mend and he’s still alive but wishes he were dead. He may get his wish.
Sunday I’m supposed to play piano and sing Christmas carols at a convalescent home for sick old people, dinner and bickering at the in laws house ( ham instead of over cooked prime rib for a change) then play play piano and Christmas carols at a friend’s open house.
Let’s see you top that for last minute glitches…
DO NOT GO KILL THE OLD PEOPLE WITH YOUR CRAP. AND STOP GETTING SICK AND GOING TO ER,
Stay home, drink lots of hydrating fluids, DO NOT KILL GRIFFIN, he is the pretty one.
xo
Have you had your parathyroid checked? If Griffin a cat?
LOL, you actually wrote that.
Thanks for the memory —
Merry Christmas TT.
Those memories are something no one can take or ruin.
Thanks for that post, really liked it.
I’m pretty certain your Banjo’s everything.
My list of Christmas drama is too long to recount. Sufficient to say that a giant ice covered rock shattered my windshield an hour before headed for a twelve hour road trip with car already packed for trip. This was beginning of Murphy’s Law kicking in with numerous clusterfucks to follow.
Our Christmas miracle was that we were resourceful and all made it to our destination safely and will be spending our holiday with the ones we love. Have learned to find the positive and meaningful blessings despite the chaos. Life, love, kindness still exists, and all the good holiday FOOD! ?
Many Blessings to all for a Happy and healthy Holiday and New Year!
This is why you should never try to leave your house.
We went to the mall today to START our shopping with a 2 year old and 2 month old and our high-strung, people-hating asses and managed to have a great time with no melt-downs from any of us! And we didn’t even need to pop into a restaurant for a couple drinks to stay sane. Bizarro World.
Oh and we’re broke asses with a new baby so there will be very little gift giving from us so that helped! Everyone is getting socks or candles, except the babies of course!
YAY! A Christmas miracle.
My Christmas present was from the doctor. I get the privilege of having a partial hysterectomy in February ??? evidently all my junk is falling out lol
We’re having 20 on Christmas Day. Should be mostly drama-free. Food’s bought, silver’s polished, tree’s trimmed, etc. I will report back if it goes horribly wrong.
So, I would have been 21? /nods. Odd numbers are bad.
I’m not counting my multiple personalities.
Well I think TeeCee might be dead. I just asked her on the twatter and she isn’t answering, No tweets in almost 2 weeks. I am worried I disassociated her or something. Sorry. I know you liked her.
AM I NEXT!?!?!
You can’t kill all of us, you’d have no commenters.
Which would allow me a lot more time to work on my financial scams.
/pauses booking ticket.
Will there be soup?
What is on the menu?
No soup! I’m not 100% sure why but we’re only setting up tables for 12 people. I think my imaginary friend didn’t want to figure out how to get into our storage space in the basement to drag up some more tables and chairs. It’s scary down there!
Apps are spanakopitakia, cheese, smoked salmon, shrimp, olives. For the main it’s tenderloin, stuffed tomatoes, asparagus and potatoes dauphinoise.
Pretty low key really. And wine. Lots and lots of wine….
Well, the olives sound nice… Seriously? This is what rich yankees eat at Christmas? I feel sad now.
Yep!
Dear God. I googled potatoes dauphinoise it’s scalloped potatoes WITH NO CHEESE and really dumb spices like nutmeg.
I feel like I need to fly up there and extract you or at least send up some scattered smothered and covered.
In all seriousness we got yet another new Waffle house recently. I kind of want to go there tomorrow for breakfast whenever I wake up. Country ham, double SSC and maybe a pecan waffle to go.
SSC? Am I going to regret I asked?
Only thing better than SSC is SSCCD
Scattered, Smothered and Covered.
It’s grated potatoes scattered on a hot Waffle House grilled, smothered with onions and covered with cheese food product.
It is what the poors eat after a night of drinking. Either before or after the sleeping it off part. I usually have a cheeseburger with mine, but I am in the mood for country ham. That said, I’m unable to leave the house because I’m torn between what I should do (drop off a present to a friend, visit my family) and what I want to do (Maybe get Waffle House to go and eat it on the couch watching TV).
Also, don’t listen to AAL the next C is for CHUNKED with ham, I prefer a side order and the D is for diced tomatoes which has no place in the dish. SInce it became the most popular dish on planet earth decades ago, they tend to keep adding options like chili and peppers. It is very important not to order SSC ALL THE WAY. One must exercise refinement in ordering.
And only yankees call them hashbrowns. They are called Scattered, Smothered and Covered.
I’ve never been to a Waffle House. Thinking I’ll take myself and the boys on a southern food tour this summer. Hit up all of the traditional stuff that we miss up north.
Tomorrow I’ll be delegating cleaning and errands and cooking to my boys and husband. In the evening we’ll be having dinner at my moms house and then opening presents. She built a house in our backyard so it’ll be a short trip.
Christmas Day we’ll have husbands family to our house, and my mom as she’s included in anything we ever do. We’ll have buffet style potluck munchies and drinks all day.
There is generally little to no drama at these events because 1.) everyone knows I don’t tolerate/allow it and 2.) because we all really like each other for the most part. The exception being my husband. He has recently renounced atheism for Pastafarianism and it is a hot topic in the family. Should be interesting!!
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Blessed Yule to everyone here! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
You sound like a tyrant.
I kind of do in that post!
Mee-yow. I like it.
I got my Mom a puppy for Christmas. A hyper little bugger who thinks that the entire house is his chew toy…she’ll thank me later. I finished all of my Christmas shopping tonight and am now watching “White Christmas” with a plate of nachos. Happy Holidays everyone!
Happy Holidays Jenn!
First, one of the packages UPS delivered was stolen off our porch? Something for one of the kids. Then, I thought I left an ingredient out of the Italian Cream cake (I was in the wine, particularly with the thievery). So the husband and I cut into it and it’s one of the best damn cakes ever, forgive the wine bragging. Laughing so I don’t cry and taking deviled eggs tomorrow instead. Cheers, all, and Seasons Greetings?
I love deviled eggs. That’s all.
TT, Merry Christmas to you! I have been visiting very sporadically lately and happened to check in on the day the post about all the crazy shabiz you were dealing with was up. I was shocked. Always knew there was a window kicking section but the goings on here were nuts. WOW. Just wanted to say thanks for still sharing daily. It is just fun to read. Like a cup of mental tea when I need a break. Hope you are all recovered from the surgery and the crazies. Best to Banjo too!
WE are doing a Friendsmas Eve with a few of our best friends families, the kids drew names and exchange gifts. We will have pizza’s, and salads, and the adults will have adult beverages. The kids will bob for candy canes and make gingerbread houses…. all the kids are age 11-17 so there isn’t so much craziness, just moody teen hormones. Christmas day I will make prime rib, twice baked potatoes and such and have some friends over. My parents are gone now and mother in law is in California, my sister has gone off her rocker since my dad died and is falling down drunk most of the time so we will see her monday morning. I don’t really want her at my house when i have guests if she is gonna do a repeat of Thanksgiving. Should actually be low key and comfy, I will break out the peach moonshine..
My mother’s only brother, Jerry, is extremely forgetful. Always has been. Some time around 1975 we were all at my maternal grandmother’s house for Christmas day late lunch, milling around and noshing, when Mama asked Jerry what he’d gotten for his wife. “What??? Gift?? Nothing!” Holy shit, Mama and I took some money from Jerry and her two younger sisters and went in search of an open store – in a town of 10,000. Luckily, there was a privately owned 7-11 type place from which we procured socks, panty hose, cheap-ass earrings and a fake turquoise ring. Jerry was spared the shame of having gotten nothing for his wife and she was spared from everyone knowing that he forgot. And he never forgot again 🙂
I LOVE IT!!!
Beautiful story♡.. Merry Christmas Adam
My husband retires next Mar. We’re lucky and able to do this at 55. Found his dream toy 2 weeks ago (Manx 4-seater) awesome deal and he’ll be blown away. I bought it and was taking it in to get it ready the next day (it’s also street legal along with off-road ) all transferred and insured but we’ve been having the biggest dumps of snow ever this last week. Can ‘t seem to get it tuned up and ready now due to all the snow tire emergencies. SMH . Have spent the whole 1.5 weeks trying to get it here for Xmas. Tomorrow I have to shop for 12 @ dinner Xmas day, plus hit the malls as my online orders have been stuck in customs since Nov 29th don’t think they’re getting here FML
Tomorrow night I’ll have to sneak out and put the tow bar on our truck and go get the buggy myself and plop it in the driveway. He can’t drive it though due to weather & tune up,etc.
Next year I’m renting a place with my dogs somewhere hot.
But hey, life is good right now. I baked, I’M baked, I have no worries till 7 tomorrow morning
MERRY CHRISTMAS T, and to your readers, have a safe and mellow holiday.
What a lovely story of you and your sister. That is such a good memory.
This year I forgot to get gifts for my Dad. He is an awesome man, despite only having a ninth grade education, he has always provided for mom, sister and me. He worked hard for forty years as a custodian, and he always made sure we were cared for, even if our toys or clothes were from garage sales or goodwill, we always looked good. I think girls are so much more expensive than boys but he says he never regretted for one moment not having a boy, he wouldn’t trade us for anything. So tomorrow I will face the crowds and craziness and make sure my dad is happy when he opens his gifts!
23years ago, the first year of marriage for me and my husband, our car broke down mid December. We were young and broke. My grandmother stepped in and paid for it to be fixed so we could get to work and I promised to her back. Well unfortunately she passed away 1 month later before we could pay her. Almost every year since then between October and December we have had some type of car issue. Last year hit a deer 2 days before Christmas. This year the engine blew last Friday in the same car. My grandmother had a real sense of humor I guess she is reminding me every year I owe her $120. I’m gonna figure out some way to get it to her if it kills me I just need to see if Ups will deliver to heaven.
Happy Holidays to everyone. I hope your weekend is filled with love and joy. My prayers will go out to all who are alone and unhappy.
WOke up this morning thinking I would see a winter wonderland of snow..I despise these weather people.. they always get it wrong. Once that has been said..will probably get the worst snow fall in ages later. Great holidays to all
Tamara, enjoyed your post…both the reminiscing & your reflections.
Hope you & Banjo have a contented, peaceful holiday filled with delicious things.
I enjoyed your reminiscing as well. Hope you got Banjo some nice Xmas treats, via toys and eats. Got my dog some squeaky toys as he takes chew bones to the yard and hides them, never to be seen again. So no more of those. No drama but will be missing my 25 yr old who is in LA pursuing the acting dream. LOL he says drivers are not as crazy there as in Atlanta. Guess that’s cause you sit in traffic most of the time forever. I sent him a huge xmas box and he was expecting somthing else so he opened it early. Good news is for once , he liked everything , even the clothes so win, win. Just great food here and my birthday is Monday so hubby is taking me to the mall to get what I want. This is best as he is great but can never just wing it. I am way too picky. I blame Mom for that!! Rooting for the Falcons right now.
Traditionally Thanksgiving is the dress rehearsal. Running for five weeks Why wait to the last minute?
And I heard him exclaim as he flew out of sight, Merry Christmas to all! And to all a good night!
Even the mother of non pearl clutching fucking cuntsatchels over at TT’s.
Or he may have said let there be peace on earth. Being hard of hearing and fond of beer and fairly well certain it was one or the other. Or did he say both? Best get a cold beer and try and figure it out.
I really need to go to the grocery store. I was motiviating myself when I realized it will probably close early. ARRGH Gotta get going!
So I spent an hour and fifteen minutes inside Kroger on Christmas Eve. I just viewed it as an adventure and it was fine. No panic attacks. You had to wait through the line to get out of the parking lot three times before it was your turn and every single register was open with huge lines.
I got in line behind a lady in a scooter. I did it on purpose, because I went through a few weeks where I was not supposed to lift much of anything. I am almost off all lifting restrictions, just a few more days. Anyway, I had to shop during that time and I had to ask someone to take my groceries out of the cart for me. So I offered to help her. She was appreciative. And began telling me her entire life story.
We were a good ten minutes in until I realized she was drunk.
Her stories began with Thanksgiving and who made what and where it was held. And continued on to her plans for Christmas dinner, all of which sounded fantastic. She had been drinking liquor and had three aluminium pints of Coors light in her basket. She told me three different places where she lived.
As she was explaining how she drank vodka from a water bottle on the car ride over, I was starting to lose a bit of my zeal for this particular Xmas adventure. It was not so much her breathe wafting up from the scooter as it was that the damn cashiers need to place the bars that delineate the orders in the slot, AND THEN SCOOT THEM DOWN TO US. We don’t need them if we can reach them from the register. We need them at our end, So we can get all our stuff up before you start ringing shit up.
My drunk friend, senses my consternation and demands that the guy in front of me give me his bar. I explain that is not necessary. Then later, when she sees the cashier not putting the bar where I can get it, tells her quite loudly to slide the bar down the railing. The cashier is not amused, but does so, with some neckrolling. My new friend is not about to be out neckrolled, and says perhaps the cashier should “choose a new line of work.” Oy vey, I try to quiet my buddy explaining it is Christmas and everyone has a lot going on.
So she goes back to her story. Which has changed again. Now she says that she has a two month old baby at home. She doesn’t look to me to be of child bearing age, so I figure someone dumped their kid. Until she says, “That is why I only drink one beer, or one glass of wine. Because I am breast feeding.” Then more talk about dinner. She is making a lot of things. A. Lot. Of. Things.
At this Kroger, there is only one line where you can purchase cigarettes. We are in it. She mentions that she is in this line because she needs cigarettes. This I believe.
When it is her turn to check out, things are a bit frosty between my new buddy and the cashier. She loudly, for reasons I don’t understand announces that she is paying with an EBT card. She ends the conversation with Merry Christmas.
I was feeling a bit too over indulgent for buying myself a big Christmas present at Kroger. Two things really, A bottle of Moet and a bottle of Veuve. One for tonight and one for tomorrow. Scandalous luxuries. Now that I am home, I’m glad I did. The fireworks are already going off. It’s going to be a long night.
Plus at Thanksgiving, there was a major debate on which champagne was the best. Both were available to some of the guests and the two camps both insisted their brand was best. I am therefore, practically compelled to save some of the Moet from tonight to blind taste test against tomorrow’s Veuve. I predict I will prefer the Veuve, but you never know.
So that was my last minute Drama.
I will be headed to The Clermont Lounge on Monday to apply for a stripper position. Bubbly ain’t cheap!
For some reason this year (the last week or so), if I had drama I wouldn’t even know it. Been in non stop good place. Just really lucky, or really fresh Xanax. 🙂
And it was mostly due to my ventures out in public. (Which I try to avoid).
People have really been kind and friendly. Don’t know if it’s my reaction or their behavior? Doesn’t even matter.
Happy Holidays everyone. The dog & I are just chilling alone. Getting ready to check out Santa tracker and see where he is with our presents. It’s cold & rainy in AZ today. I’m gonna have homemade tamales in the morning. Since I’m skipping Christmas not a lot of last minute shit going on. I had to brave the pharmacy this morning. I also had to hit the grocery store before it closed. I’m thinking a bottle of wine & a fire while I watch Hallmark Christmas movies. Be safe everyone. I have a feeling it’s going to be a loooong night & even a longer day for me tomorrow.
Cheers to you Dee. I skipped out on everything today as well. It’s been a really good day. Just me and the dog, and some sausage balls. lol.
I’m gonna past my sausage ball recipe here because I am blathering about it on Twitter, and I need more room,
First of all, this recipe requires Bisquik. The new version is full of really bad for you stuff, you could probably use selfrising flour, and extry baking powder and the teensiest bit of powdered sugar. But I just used the Bisquik and I will be using the rest of the box for an evil plot against the neighborhood, out in the yard. Um, nevermind about that.
Ingredients
I tube of Jimmy Dean HOT Sausage, or if yer rich, buy a pound of some kind of HOT sausages from Whole Foods, take the condoms off and use that.
3-4 cups of shredded cheese. Sargento Sharp Cheddar works fine or buy some fancy pants kind that is cheddary,
1-2 cups of Bisquik.
1/4 -1/2 of cayenne (optional) I forgot it and if you use hot sausage you should skip it anyway. The seasoning should really come from the sausage.
Preheat the oven to 350 or 375 depending on who you ask. I sorta split the difference.
I like to let the sausage and the cheese come to room temp. It makes it easier to work with.
If you have some fancypants thingy on your fancy pants KitchenAid mixer, run your sausage through that to break it up. If not just break up the sausage best you can by tearing it apart into one bowl, in the other keep the cheese, Sprinkle some Bisquick over both bowls.
In a third BIG bowl add in a third of the sausage, a third of the cheese and sprinkle heavily with Bisquik. Repeat until everything is in the big bowl. Add about 3/4 a cup of the Bisquik as you work the ingredients together by hand (or whatever fancypants thing you may prefer to use) If you use cayenne put that in with the bisquik you used to sprinkle on the meat and cheeese. Again, you don’t really need it.
Do what you have to do to get the sausage and cheese mixed together, the Bisquik is there to help bind the two and make it more biscuitlike. Don’t work the mixture any longer than it takes to get things all mixed together.
Then roll into inch balls. This recipe makes around 4 dozen balls or so depending on how much Bisquik you use.
YOU CAN FREEZE THEM AT THIS POINT and bake later.
Bake at 366 for about 12-15 minutes, or until there is a nicely brown cheese layer on the bottom.
Then, I flip the balls (they won’t be round anymore) over, turn off the stove and let the tops cook a bit, Because no one want to eat raw pork.
I am probably the only person in the world that does not serve these with any sort of dipping sauce. Some people like grape jelly, other have BBQ type sauces and God knows what else. Sauce is heresy. It’s wad of sausage and cheese biscuit.
Which reminds me use a dark baking sheet without oiling/greasing. It’s sausage and cheese, it self greases.
You’re welcome.
I use the same recipe and this year I added 8oz of cream cheese for extra blocked arteries and deliciousness, so good.
I made an amazing country ham and an extra cheesy hashbrown casserole. Plus black eyed peas and from the box stove top dressing.
You were doing so well right up til that last part. 🙂 Never boxed, and you don’t need dressing with ham. That said, I’d eat it. I’d eat it and like it!