Random Christmas Report

Considering how scrambled i feel right now, it's the perfect day to be random and link up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked. 

Christmas is "over," in a way.  Actually, Advent is over and it is now the Christmas season.  The Twelve Days last until Epiphany, when we start having Carnival/Mardi Gras.  One party follows another, it seems.

Yesterday was exactly what Christmas with 15 people and four dogs should be, chaos and noise and laughing and watching A Christmas Story and Home Alone 3 and chasing the dogs out of the kitchen over and over and picking oranges from the orange trees that produce so prolifically that we have to give many, many oranges away and Bigger Girl makes orange cakes by the bushel.  

There was turkey and gravy and cornbread stuffing and meat/rice dressing (something only my family does, it's an old family tradition) and broccoli cheese casserole and macaroni casserole and brisket and sautéed veggies and salad and potato salad and mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes and creamed corn and shrimp/merliton casserole (which is a NOLA thing, you'd have to be from here to understand) and pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, key lime pie, and cheesecake.

If you leave the house hungry, you have no one to blame but yourself, i promise.  And i did not even mention all of the sweets other people had given as gifts, so much that it's all in the freezer waiting to be brought to gatherings throughout the year.  We should run out just about next Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, Sweetie called the people who adopted the dog, and they report that she is the happiest animal on the planet.  She gets to run and run and run, and chase squirrels and raccoons, and has decided she must jump in the truck and tag along any time they are going anywhere.  It's the perfect home for a high energy pet.  Apparently she has even perfected an over the back of the couch leap onto their laps.  Lovely.

Grandpa did a great job removing my stitches.  The cut is healing well and no sign of infection or any other trouble.  The area is still bruised and a bit swollen, and i cannot raise that eyebrow, but i am mostly recovered.

Grandma walked past me at one point over the weekend and said, "Oh, my hearing aid just told me it needs a battery."  That is something i had no idea about, that your hearing aid can now tell you when to replace the battery.  What these gadgets can't do these days.

Speaking of which, Grandma and Grandpa love many of those gadgets you see advertised in the Parade Magazine in the Sunday paper.  As Grandpa's hearing got worse, Grandma got him one gadget that makes it possible for him to hear the doorbell.  It's like a sound booster for the bell, when the regular doorbell sounds, this gadget chimes in and rings even louder and longer.

It also chimes in every time Grandma burns something in the oven and sets off the smoke alarm.  Nothing scares Lulu the dog more than the smoke alarm going off and then the doorbell gadget starts ringing.  It is so funny to be getting whatever is burning under control and hauling out the step stool to climb up and silence the alarm and the doorbell gadget is just ringing and ringing.  After it's all over, you have to go give Lulu the all clear and get her out from under Grandma's bed.

The dog ignores thunder and fireworks, but hides from the smoke alarm/doorbell combination.  It's not funny, but it is, if you know what i mean.

Today is back to work as usual as we wait for the year to turn over, and i hope all of you had a wonderful day yesterday and lots of fun to look forward to in this "waiting week."

Today is:

Awful Tie Day -- internet generated, go to the office and compare who got the worst tie as a gift

Blessing of the Wine -- Greiveldange, Luxembourg (winemakers parade to the church to have a barrel of wine blessed)

Boxing Day -- day on which boxes of goodies are given to the less fortunate or public servants, and sometimes servants and masters traded places for the day

Coffee Percolator Day -- patented by James Mason on this day in 1865

Day of Goodwill -- Namibia; South Africa

Day of Our Theotokos /  Synaxis of the Most Holy Mother of God -- Byzantine/Eastern Orthodox Christian

Family Day -- Namibia; Vanuatu

Holiday Magic Days -- Mystic Seaport, CT, US (reduced admission to fun, entertainment, crafts, and the lore of the sea; through Jan. 1)

Independence and Unity Day -- Slovenia(1990)

J'Ouvert -- Saint Kitts and Nevis (carnival-style street party for Boxing Day)

Junkanoo (Junkanoo Jonkanoo, Jankunu, John Canoe or Johnkankus) -- Carribean Islands, also on New Years Day (A special music and dance, mime and symbol that is an early traditional dance form of African descent.)

Kwanzaa, Day 1, Umoja (Unity)

Mauro Hamza Day -- Houston, TX, US (United States Fencing Association Foil Director)

Mummer's Day -- Padstow, Cornwall

National Candy Cane Day

National Thank-you Note Day

National Whiner's Day™ -- a day to encourage people to be happy with what they have; the previous year's worst whiners are announced (you don't want to be one!)   

Proclamation Day -- South Australia (day South Australia was established as a Province in 1836 by royal Proclamation) 

Recyclable Packaging Day -- started by someone who wants to remind us to gather up the reusable bags, boxes, etc., left from the holiday, and recycle the rest

Second Day of Christmas

Sports Days -- Falkland Islands (through the 28th, with the Boxing Day race at Stanley being the most famous part of the celebration)

St. James the Just's Day -- Orthodox Christian

St. Stephen's Day (Patron of casket makers, deacons, horses, masons, stone masons; Patron of over 80 cities throughout Italy; Kessel, Germany; Metz, France; Owensboro, KY; Toulouse, France; against headaches)

     Public Holiday in Alsace, France; Andorra; Austria; Catalonia; Croatia; Czech Republic; Germany; Holy See; Hong Kong; Ireland; Italy; Liechtenstein; Luxembourg; Poland; San Marino; Slovakia; Spain (regional); Switzerland (regional)

     Celebrated as Father's Day -- Bulgaria

     Day of the Wren -- Ireland; Isle of Mann (costumed mayhem)

Tehuantepec Festivities -- Oaxaca, Mexico

Thanksgiving Day -- Solomon Islands

Zarathosht Diso (Death of Prophet Zarathushtra) - Zoroastrian

Anniversary Today:

Rodney Dangerfield weds Joan Child, 1993

Establishment of Shenandoah National Park, VA, US, 1935

Birthdays Today:

Chris Daughtry, 1979

Jared Leto, 1971

Lars Ulrich, 1963

David Sedaris, 1956

Ozzie Smith, 1954

Carlton Fisk, 1947

John Walsh, 1945

Phil Spector, 1940

Alan King, 1927

Steve Allen, 1921

Richard Widmark, 1914

Mao Tse-tung, 1893

Henry Miller, 1891

Charles Babbage, 1791

Laurent Clerc, 1785

Juan Lovera, 1778

Thomas Nelson, 1738

Thomas Gray, 1716

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Do re mi"(Musical), 1960

"The Glass Menagerie"(Play), 1944

"Of Thee I Sing"(Musical), 1931

Judy Garland, as Baby Frances, makes her stage debut at age 2 1/2, singing Jingle Bells on the vaudeville stage, 1924

"Tragic Overture"(Brahms' Op. 81), 1880

Today in History:

Columbus founds the first Spanish settlement in the New World by leaving behind 36 men in what is now Haiti, 1492

The final trial of Louis XVI of France begins, 1792

A theater fire in Richmond, Virginia kills the Governor of Virginia George William Smith and the president of the First National Bank of Virginia Abraham B. Venable, 1811

The Erie Canal opens, 1825

Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. It does modestly well, but the two would not collaborate again for four years, 1871

King Mwanga of Uganda signs a contract with the East Africa Company, 1890

Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium, 1898

FM radio is patented, 1933

Time Magazine's Man of the Year is for the first time a non-human, the personal computer, 1982

The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the USSR, 1991

A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing over 250,000 people, 2004

Brazil overtakes the United Kingdom as the world's sixth largest economy, 2011