Amen Brother! I have memories going back at least 74 of my 78 years. My Gramma and Uncle lived next door and she always invited her old friends who had no family to an early Christmas Eve celebration. She was Scandinavian so Lutefisk was the entrée, with hotdogs for us kids! We had rosettes and cookies for dessert.Looks as though it's going the other way though.
Okay, I touched on this earlier, but Christmas traditions, what are they in your house (a general you including, well, you).
We have our tree and our movies, for one. We make an hour long Christmas eve journey to my wife's parents' house for early supper and gifts. I think I almost enjoy the ride home more. It's dark and often cool and we're bundled with the heater going and I play our Christmas, cobbled CD with Good King... (the Crosby version) or Angels We Have Heard on High (Andrea version) etc. and we sing along to them and know we're really driving into our personal Christmas, will shortly be in the middle of our most immediate family celebration. This year will be especially sweet given Jack's understanding of things.
Christmas morning my parents will come over to witness the wrapping paper bloodbath that is the aftermath of our human tornado at work and to have hot chocolate and watch him play. Then a lunch that would do Thanksgiving proud and an afternoon of drowsy peace.
Observations Great and Small
- Thread starter Town Heretic
- Start date
PureX
Well-known member
My folks, who drank very little, used to have one house party a year, on Christmas eve. And my grandparents and many family friends and neighbors would come and stay 'til the wee hours. Mr. Gaul from down the street would come by in full Santa costume to visit we kids (and to have a few drinks with the adults). I remember lots of loud laughing and colored lights and merriment and we kids were allowed to stay up late. (I presume they hoped we would sleep in, but that never happened.)
Christmas was a very happy time in our house, growing up. Unfortunately, it became far less so when I got a bit older and began drinking alcohol, myself.
Now that I'm sober (and have been for many years), I keep to a quiet Christmas holiday, with family. It's really always been about being with family and friends. But we're all older, now, and the big partying days are behind most of us. We play a funny gift-game on Christmas day to keep the laughter going, and the spirits light. It's all good.
Christmas was a very happy time in our house, growing up. Unfortunately, it became far less so when I got a bit older and began drinking alcohol, myself.
Now that I'm sober (and have been for many years), I keep to a quiet Christmas holiday, with family. It's really always been about being with family and friends. But we're all older, now, and the big partying days are behind most of us. We play a funny gift-game on Christmas day to keep the laughter going, and the spirits light. It's all good.
Thanks for sharing. Basically I remember good food, laughter and love!
Had a great end to my first semester back in the academic saddle. Carried a 4.0 into acceptance in the graduate program for a Masters in early childhood education. My experience with Jack, confirmed by every moment I spent in a first grade class tutoring and observing during the semester, has me angling to spend the last leg of my professional journey in life encouraging children to explore and love the act of learning.
That moving forward and the gift of the mild heart attack that likely saved my father from worse and will see him with us for, God willing, years to come, coupled with Jack's growing understanding of the season and excitement, has put a luster on the present I can't find a match for.
And a very merry Christmas to you all. :cheers:
That moving forward and the gift of the mild heart attack that likely saved my father from worse and will see him with us for, God willing, years to come, coupled with Jack's growing understanding of the season and excitement, has put a luster on the present I can't find a match for.
And a very merry Christmas to you all. :cheers:
And also with you! Blessings and cheer to you and yours!
So I was having a conversation with a lifelong friend of mine the other day, who is a staunch conservative and he was talking about a Gallup poll that had me looking into something I passed along to him. A lot of conservatives get bristly about RINOs, but I was telling him they need to reverse course and pull those back in, moderate them the way they do the hardest right, because if you're in the conservative camp and you don't you're in trouble.
Why? Because since Gallop started tracking things in 92, moderates have shrunk and both liberal and conservative camps have gained, but not at the same rate and that rate is bad news for conservatives, who still hold the lead in numbers.
In 92, moderates comprised 40% of the electorate. Now it's 34%.
In 92, conservatives comprised 36% and now hold 38%.
In 92, liberals comprised 17% and now hold 24%.
Or, moderates are being won by liberals at a two to one clip. Neither side can win without moderate support and when you're seen squeezing out people closer to the moderate position within your own party you're not helping the cause. If you can absorb some of the fringe on the right of conservative orthodoxy then you need to figure out how to do the same with those moving into the moderate range, or it's only a matter of time before you're politically empiriled.
Why? Because since Gallop started tracking things in 92, moderates have shrunk and both liberal and conservative camps have gained, but not at the same rate and that rate is bad news for conservatives, who still hold the lead in numbers.
In 92, moderates comprised 40% of the electorate. Now it's 34%.
In 92, conservatives comprised 36% and now hold 38%.
In 92, liberals comprised 17% and now hold 24%.
Or, moderates are being won by liberals at a two to one clip. Neither side can win without moderate support and when you're seen squeezing out people closer to the moderate position within your own party you're not helping the cause. If you can absorb some of the fringe on the right of conservative orthodoxy then you need to figure out how to do the same with those moving into the moderate range, or it's only a matter of time before you're politically empiriled.
PureX
Well-known member
By those numbers, most moderates remain staunchly moderate. Which is an interesting concept in itself!
Yes, but they haven't been around nearly as long as people think and there are many more fossils within the conservative ranks these days.
lain:
alwight
New member
Thanks TH, I like to keep up to date with American politics.Yes, but they haven't been around nearly as long as people think and there are many more fossils within the conservative ranks these days.
ok doser
lifeguard at the cement pond
i think you'd have to find something the democrats stand for first
wait a tic
:think:
i think i have it - a DINO would be an intelligent person who votes democrat
in other words, they don't exist :banana:
Post after post like that. :rotfl: How you aren't in the TOL Hall of Fame already I'll never know. :nono:
It's a travesty. There should be a petition.
Oh, it's coming. Especially if he sulks about it.
Indeed and I can't wait to see his Moderator style....:dead:
Just caught an episode of an apparently popular western called The Virginian (62-71)...not an actual Virginian in the bunch...the main characters appear to have been brought in from New York. Good cast even so, but funny.
no
there is no such thing as a democrat
there are only
feminists who want women to be able to kill their baby
unionists who want to protect their jobs
teachers who want to protect their jobs
cops who want to protect their jobs
blacks who want some kind of help but not jobs
some who want to protect rats, etc
some who want to protect their rights to your land
some who don't want you to shop at walmart
etc. etc. etc.
ok doser
lifeguard at the cement pond
:darwinsm:
PureX
Well-known member
Virginia is a strangely 'schizoid' state. I lived there for almost a decade and traveled around the state a lot. And it seemed every way I turned I found a culture that was profoundly divided in all kinds of ways, and had been for so long that it was just 'natural' for the inhabitants. It's not a bad place, but it sure is socially complicated!
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