Christmas Notes

Since I didn't post the last couple of days I have some catching up to do, not for political stuff, but just some observations from our Christmas celebrations:


1. The Big Drizzle


The Weather Service folks promised us a big Christmas Eve storm that was going to drop as much as 2 inches of rain where I live and endanger burned hillsides around the area. I kept watching the radar all day but there was very little showing up. I figured there must be a large green blob lurking just outside the radar coverage bearing the promised deluge.


As we left the church about 5:45 some big drops started hitting the car and I thought "ok, here it comes".


Then it stopped. And that was pretty much it. Most of the storm moved south and hit San Diego pretty good but all we got was scattered light showers during the night and Christmas morning.


Every time somebody tells me with great certainty that we're all gonna die from global warming and then proceeds to make predictions such as what the global temperatures will be in 10 years or that the arctic ice pack will disappear in five, I'll just think back to the Christmas Eve when during the afternoon news huge rains were promised but drizzle was received. If that can't get the forecast right for the next 8 hours, how are we supposed to believe anybody that tells us what will happen in 10 years?


2. A Christmas Eve Service That Felt Like a Christmas Eve Service


This was a new experience for me, at least new since about 2000 or so. I've attended a Christmas Eve service just about every year this decade but since 2000 haven't really attended one that felt like a Christmas Eve service. I've attended made-for-Fox News extravaganzas that had lots of singing, though not necessarily Christmas music, and preaching that was interspersed among the big musical numbers. I've taken to calling them "Music Man" services, after the song "Pick a Little, Talk a Little". They're "Sing a Little, Preach a Little" services, and I find them so disjointed as to be distracting. After awhile you forget why you were there.


We attended the service a Christ Community Church in Laguna Hills, the same church that hosted our "Quartet Night" concert in November. We visited the Sunday before for the dedication of their new sanctuary and decided to return for the Christmas Eve service. It was very well done.


The service opened with "O Come, O Come Emanuel" played by a talented trio featuring a cello, violin and piano, and continued with lots of traditional Christmas music sung by the congregation along with scripture readings and a good message. When we walked out of there we felt like we had attended an honest-to-goodness Christmas Eve service. We'll be back.


3. Thank you, Chili's!


We left the church to eat dinner out and I was a little bit afraid that most restaurants would close early. Our first choice was Chili's and as we drove up it didn't look like there was a soul in there. I was sure they were closed.


We were pleasantly surprised to be greeted at the door by the staff and welcomed into a nearly empty restaurant. There were only a couple of other families sharing dinner together, but as the hour went on more and more people started showing up as their services ended. As always the food and service were great and we appreciate them staying open on Christmas Eve just for us (yes, I know it wasn't just for us, but it sounds better that way).


4. Presents on Christmas Eve


We often opened presents on Christmas Eve in my parent's house, but since we've been married we've always opened them on Christmas morning. We kind of had to do that when the kids were small but continued even beyond the Santa Claus years. This year our Christmas morning schedule was such that we decided to break with tradition and open gifts on Christmas Eve.


There are advantages to this. Teenagers don't like getting up early in the morning on Christmas like excited little kids do, and in all the pictures and videos we have of earlier Christmases everybody looks like an unmade bed. Hair disheveled, old robes and jammies and such. Christmas Eve this year everybody was dressed up nice after church and the pictures look a lot better.


It was a bittersweet evening as most of the presents we opened came from my wife's father. Grandpa had purchased them for us earlier in the year and he loved to buy beautiful things for his daughter and granddaughter, and the gene that controls the love of guns, knives and coins was passed to my son and Grandpa always knew what to get him. He passed away suddenly on December 2nd and part of our sad duty as we cleaned out the house was discovering the gifts he planned to give this year. I'm sorry he didn't get to see the joy his well-planned gifts brought (but, maybe he did).


5. I'm Tough to Buy For


I'm terrible at birthday and Christmas time because I can never think of things that I want and frankly, it doesn't really matter much to me whether I get anything or not. This year was no different. I couldn't give my wife any good ideas for gifts, but I did mention that rather than buying me another shirt or something, I would rather take a fun trip somewhere.


It seems like we've spent more nights in hotels this month than at home, but I'm always ready to travel. I wondered where we could go on short notice that wouldn't cost a fortune and the traveling would be reasonably easy?


Answer: Las Vegas.


The economic downturn has hit Vegas pretty hard with both room bookings and gambling revenues in decline, and the period from early December up to New Year's Eve is one of the slowest times of the year in Sin City. I did a little online checking and found that I could get a nice room in the middle of the Strip at Planet Hollywood for less than $79 a night. Consequently, we're going to head out of here on Sunday morning and spend three nights in Vegas visiting all our favorite Vegas haunts.


We won't help their gambling decline (much), but we will fill a room for three nights and buy some meals in town. We'll do our part to turn things around.


After making so many 475 mile drives each way to Northern California and back in the last month, a 275 mile jaunt to Vegas is a piece of cake, and the weather gods will be smiling too as there is no snow forecast in the Cajon Pass for at least another 10 days. Planet Hollywood here we come!