From the seat I sit on and compose, on Tuesday morning, I can still see four foot-wide white figures of celebration that include Santa swirling on an egg-shell-like-nog-painted wall, as I had spied on a garage door twice in the past two nights on the way to holiday gatherings.
So Christmas lives, at least another day and eve. As we went to this point …
Some things are simply, yet silly, and still a bit decorative. Like the big spray can of very all-purpose (useful around the holidays, like a gift-accessing-past-the-paper-as-in-wrapping multi-purpose exacto or bigger knife for those naive to opening) containing sealer, along with a small old-fashioned prayer book with a looks-like-wood cover, set in a circular tin with low rises and positioned next to a small Christmas tree.
– Might see some of that, but not all, at church. It was packed to the gills, and not just with angels, and as people exited, one woman said to her family, “where is the child?” Appropo. On the way over there, a silent solo bicyclist at night crossed in front of our car across a four-lane. His Christmas wish? Likely don’t get struck, like all those buck deer that have been out and about. Even church needed to put up a no-turn-lane sign at one spot.
Later, at the brother’s house, as he was my keeper for the night, there were a set of four candy canes set at quarters on his lawn’s decorative rock-patch, facing the four winds (there is more on that below.) One such pair of opposing canes also added whole lines of them going back across a large yard to a (gingerbread) house. Last, back at the nursing home, sat two tiny Santas the size of elves, and one great big stuffed one, greeting all who took their family members back for the night. Midway was a candied Christmas tree that was decked out much like a combo of gingerbread house and fruitcake, meeting with the Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters, and yes, do we notice that the two fall holidays actually have a lot in common? —
And then those Agave Kitchen marquee signs, paraphrased: Wrap up gift cards of all denominations, not our custom nachos, as that would be gnarly, (unless down on The Nachos Farm where they make the milk for the cheese); and seasonal sleigh parking for Santa only on our slightly slanted rooftop, (with first three hours free for Him only.)
That Northwest Wind blew not Santa off-course, but short and cold just prior to and during Christmas Down Under as in Down Here, meaning that a sign of a next-to-me business also known by that name, of Northwest, was whipped by wind, past a sidewalk and over into the edge of the street by its curb. That particular business has been in business since 1973, so I wonder how many times in those five decades a similar blowing-off by gust has been shown. And Santa? After completing his duties on Christmas Eve, and apparently taking a rest if not fully sleeping, he was laid to rest on his side by wind the next day, despite his girth that was even bigger than the actual version of he, due to being inflatable. Those puffed out sleeves would not save him, just like in my first-time-seen, TV viewing of The Christmas Story. (That brings up some more stories for a later post.)
Another thing deliciously warped. That one bleached pure-white-dyed sock dried just prior to the rush to get to church, had a hole in the toe, so it was tossed into the trash can as he loaded into the family van. It could have been a Xmas stocking stuffed with candy just after the kids had been scooted out the door. But one of a pair, of course. So what if you have a twin? My non-cooking except for grilling, and only meat not fajitas, nephew got a big-bag gag gift of ten-bean-soup to make, put into his. Is this what you end up finding in your holiday sock? I suggested the gathered-over-the-last-days-or-weeks-of 2023, old toenail clippings
As such aided by the aides, my dad now resides in a nursing home (see my post from over Thanksgiving.) As we pushed him along in his wheelchair in his not-so-big-room, we twice clipped the small (and as required fake) tree my brother had insisted he needed, spinning it around like it was a different holiday, that being Halloween.
Other sites were to be seen on the way to brother’s house. Like a fruit tree devoid of leaves, just having big gnarled buds, but also now sporting dozens of separate strings of cranberries, along with thick green wire, replacing the color missing leaves.
Threes are of course a thing this time of year. Two Santas were still standing despite the wind, and another laid on its side. A couple of the Santas were just huge, using up enough plastic to drown an ocean, like the photo cutline of mine as an old joke, St. Nick on the stick, needed to keep their again, girth propped up. The length of a reindeer’s leash away were some big balls, as ornaments mind you, this is not an AC/DC Christmas. There were some polar bears covering in plinkey lights, and two more facing opposite directions of a driveway, with such positioned candy canes also concocted. There is that star above a garage door that was going on and off, well timed with its seconds, and this was not a Chevy Chase moment, it was intentional.
The bottom line appears to be that where there are inflatable snowmen, as a starter, there are almost always other inflatables of various other creatures. You will know them by their snowmen!
But however, a mistake you do not want to make …I am all for diversity, and dark skinned Santas are fine, as we do and for the good see more and more in Hollywood. But you do not want a black snowman. This is snow, after all, and the only time it’s not white are the “snow boogers” alongside your tires, or the black ice beneath them.
I will close with by favorite yard-decoration of all. At the feet of a snowman (do they have these appendages?) and/or a Santa, there was this cool looking combo of sled/kiddie wagon/toy box. Made of plastic, yet again, but looked more like wood when lights shown on it. Could this be a Red Ryder? Or was that the aforementioned holiday movie’s theme? Or a Red Radio Flyer. Or with could go all the way back to Christmas in the time of Citizen Cane and invoke Rosebud, the famous sled.
Revel in whatever you got for Christmas and enjoy the rest of the holiday season! Joe.