Tag Archives: Holidays

The Christmas Goose Comes Early

Saturday shoppers strut through Tyson’s Corner mall. Christmas is in two weeks. You can see the building stress in their faces. The line for Santa is long and coughing and features a juggling elf amid a gauntlet of snotty sleeves … Continue reading

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It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year?

Let’s all gather around the fake tree – the tattered Tannenbaum that no one will want to take down in January – and pretend we can’t wait to watch “A Christmas Story” for 24 straight hours on tbs. Fah-ra-ra-ra-ra. It’s … Continue reading

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What Will You Be This Halloween?

Halloween is big business. This year it’s bigger than ever. In a recent survey, over 40 percent of respondents said they will be wearing costumes. Americans plan to spend an average of $66.28 each – or upwards of $20.4 billion. … Continue reading

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Smoked Angus, Burnt Wieners and God Bless America

In mid afternoon, the National Weather Service in Wakefield, Virginia issued an air quality alert. The Weather Bug app on my Droid relayed this stifling event to me. The message was like a tornado warning except instead of twisting air, … Continue reading

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Riding the 4th of July Stretcher

Clear, blue skies pushed choking humidity to the last 20 feet above the crabgrass. That way, even tall people on a ladder or a drunk sitting in a lawn chair on top of his RV could feel it. Temps flirted … Continue reading

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Sniffing Around The Christmas Tree

  Christmas morning 1972. Smells of link sausage hang above a table filling with grits, eggs, cathead biscuits and homemade jelly from the blueberry bush out back. The aroma of Prell shampoo sneaks out from under the bathroom door and … Continue reading

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Meat? Log? Both?

  I get a lot of catalogs this time of year. They are filled with fruitcakes, hams, smoked turkeys, cheese, jelly, cookies shaped like Santa, etc. So what do they do with this stuff come January? Hopefully they don’t save … Continue reading

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34 Bowl Games Is Not Enough

  Go to ESPN or Sports Illustrated and check out the college bowl games this year. There are 33 of them. We all know the Rose, Orange and Sugar Bowls. We know about the BCS Championship game. I’ll get excited … Continue reading

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Lights and Kremes

When I was growing up, we weren’t exactly wealthy, to say the least. For entertainment during the holidays, my family (and sometimes friends) would brew up a Thermos of strong coffee, pile into the old Bel Air, fog up the … Continue reading

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Lit and Loaded

I heard part of this story and witnessed the other part of it. The year was 1974. Down on Highway 29 headed south out of Andalusia, Alabama towards Florala and the Florida line, a single, tall evergreen tree leaned achingly … Continue reading

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Gifts in the Yard

Rudy loves to eat a big meal, ride around in the car, listen to seasonal music and look at Christmas lights. The sparkling strings hypnotize him into a holidaze. Last night we took him for a little ride through the … Continue reading

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The Unlucky Bird

Today is Thanksgiving. Turkeys work all year for this day. Only Groundhog Day is more associated with an animal. Bunnies and reindeer have prominent places at Easter and Christmas, to be sure, but bunnies, reindeer and groundhogs survive their holidays. … Continue reading

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Merry Hallowgivingmas

By October 1st, most stores have their holiday stuff splayed across several aisles where the garden paraphernalia resided for months. A row of Santas, chubby and grinning like Americans in line at the drive thru wait next to snowmen, reindeer, … Continue reading

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What I Got For Christmas: Fire Ants

I have written about fire ants before. But things have changed in the South. Call it global warming. Call it a fire ant invasion. Call it an environmental rash, whatever. I have experienced fire ants up close all of my … Continue reading

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This Year, I Was The Fat Man. Again.

Many years ago when my nephew (now in his early thirties) was a child, I did something so stupid it has attached itself to me like a permanent holiday appendage: I wrangled a Santa suit and scared him so badly, … Continue reading

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