Rochester, NY
Christmas has come and gone with much anticipation and fanfare. All of the shopping and planning has panned out to big smiles and hugs from those receiving your gifts. As much as Christmas is a marketers dream, they have still made it a lot of fun for me. It is a great feeling when you pick out the gift that you know the receiver will enjoy.
We did the holiday up in its entirety yesterday. The 8:30 AM time was decided upon on Christmas Eve, after a church session filled with carols and singing. I’ve been a bit under the weather and you could’ve put me right up there with William Hung if you had a tape recorded version of my Joy to the World or Hark the Herald. The morning came quick and after a face wash and teeth brushing, my parents, sister and I were ready. Santa did come to the house and did not leave coal. We all made out well even though this was a year we said we were going to scale back. I am not sure how scaled back it was.
After gifts it was on to a mega bacon, eggs, potatoes and toast team made breakfast. Then I had my annual Christmas nap. This one lasted 2 hours.
At 5 my aunt, uncle, cousins, and my aunt’s sister and husband came over. We had a few cocktails and feasted. There were more gifts, some games, and some great cheesecake. My lady friend came over in the middle of all of that and we did out gifts. She spoiled me.
The 4 cousins and her went out and about at around 10. We met up with a few people in a way too crowded mall bar, but saw some unexpected friends. After fighting the crowd we went to a local watering hole and realized that we are older and should let the youngsters be youngsters. At about closing time some idiots decided it would be cool to get in a fight on Christmas. Our eyes were glues to the mass of people fighting and trying to break it up. Luckily, it was all the way across the bar. We stared and then decided it was time to get out of there. We tried to find a back exit and ended up in the bar’s kitchen, eventually finding a back door. 5 police cars were out front trying to sort things out. We did not stick around. From what we saw, no one was hurt too bad. C’mon, it’s Christmas, grow up already. I guess you could say that to me for being at the bar to see the fight at 2 AM. It was a great day with an interesting twist at the end.
Both yesterday and today make you think how lucky so many of us are. If you read this website, that probably means you were not affected by the tsunami, or Katrina, or a lot of other things that people have been hit with. My journey to share people’s stories of purpose and passion continue, but I am blessed to be able to continue on. There are so many others that are struggling just to get their life back. We cannot forget about 200,000 people washed off the earth. Or a half of a city uninhabitable because of mold. Be thankful for what you have and help someone who is not as fortunate as you.