Christmas Party

You know the year is getting near the end when the rounds of Christmas Parties start up. The Legion Auxiliary (of which Sam is a member) had their party on Sunday. A few of the auxiliary and Legion members did the setting up on Saturday morning and the party was to be held on Sunday evening. Sam and a couple other ladies filled up some goodie bags for the kids and I helped decorate the tree and setup the tables and chairs.

This year the Auxiliary was trying something a bit new as they opened up the party to the whole town (and surrounding area). With that in mind it was unknown how many kids they would end up having to sit on Santa's knee. The intent was to have the mom and dads come with their children but of course there would be some that just sent their kids on their own. At one point there was a thought to not allow parent-less children, but then you are penalizing the poor kids. After all what is the intent of a Christmas party but to get the kids psyched up for the upcoming Christmas season. So the more kids the better if you ask me.

Along with the Santa visit there was going to be a pot luck supper to cap off the affair. These suppers are usually just great, however, for any that know me, you'll know that I just detest going out to eat. Even restaurants give me the heebies for the most part. It is not that I'm a picky eater or anything, I just don't enjoy eating out. I do/will force myself for extra special times, but for the most part I would just as soon stay at home.

To top things off, as we were setting up I heard a few of the ladies chatting that the tables would not get to eat supper until they sang a Christmas carol. Right then I knew for sure that this cowboy would not be eating at the box lunch that day. There just is no way in hell that I would be singing any Christmas carols or any other type of singing for that matter. I do hope that the party went off without any hitches and everyone had a good time. It just was not for us on this day.

Yesterday was also one of my growlly type days as a few things were not going smoothly in our world. I just did not feel like mingling at what was supposed to be a happy, merry time. Of course I checked with Sam to see her wishes and thank goodness she was on the same page as me in that she just was not interested in attending the party.

In retrospect I guess this takes both Sandra and I back many years in that the Christmas season is not our favourite time of the year. It seems so rush, rush, rush and so very commercial that all the fun just is not there any longer. When the kids were younger it was great. Then when the grand kids came along it was enjoyable once again. After the kids got to be an age where it was all commercial and prior to the grand kids, it was just a major pain in the backside. Of course in my working life I seldom got to have the actual Christmas day off as I normally had to work at one time or other during the day. There is nothing like getting off work at 6:30 am or 7:30 am and opening up gifts and then dad has to go have a nap as he works again in the evening. We aren't even going to touch the workload that normally is prevalent during the festive seasons (ie drunks, fighting, accidents, blah blah blah)

Both Sandra and I still enjoy the season, however, we do take it at our own level and try and not get hyper with the whole commercial aspect of the season. To us the season is for the younger kids and we thoroughly enjoy how they get so hyped up. We normally do put up a tree and do a bit of the decorating thing (not lots though), but that is about it. As to gifts, we do try and get all the grand kids a small gift to put under the tree, however, that is about it as far as gift giving is concerned. As well we send out a few cards to our special friends and certainly don't go overboard sending out boxes of the darn things like some folks do.

As to eating and all that, well turkey is just not a favourite food of ours but once in a while we will partake in turkey and the trimmings. Neither one of us are big sweets eater type person, so we don't get overloaded with the sugar thing or anything like that. If it comes right down to it, we would just as soon have a nice juicy rib eye steak cooked to perfection on the bbq'd on New Year's eve to celebrate another new year coming in.