Santa Claus is coming to Town and all the crap that goes with it.

Well it's getting near that time of year again and with the occational cold weather comes all the things about Christmas that I hate and love. When the girls were younger Christmas was a lot more fun. They'd get up at the crack of dawn and I'd take videos of them opening their presents. Now with both of them in their twenties, it's a little different. Nastia has a new boyfriend, he is the brother of Amanda's friend.So when I drop Nastia off at work I tell her be safe, work hard and not to have sex with her boyfriend too quickly.

Times have changed. The last few years at Christmas when the girls get up at the crack of 11:30 and stumble down stairs to get something to eat, wait who I'm I kidding, when they stumble down stairs to get a cup of tea or drink some Mountain Dew, they reply to our salutations of merry christmas with their own mumbled hosannas to us about christmas. When presents are not opened at the crack of dawn and everyone waits for someone to get Aunt Nancy, it bring to mind that Teri and I were cheated of the first eight and ten years of their lives and really now they should be just eleven and nine, opening their presents and saying in their broken english, "oh, wow, thank you!",I miss those days. The innocence of those days when I didn't have to ask my daughter not to have sex with her new boyfriend too quickly. When their christmas gift lists and I do have them somewhere consisted of things like gum and candy. It broke our hearts when we read that list. Now they are all American kids and they don't do christmas lists, plus they don't really need anything.If they want something, they work, they get it. I remember my first Christmas when it wasn't magical. Eric come to the door of my room. I was in the front part of the house then and he goes, "Joe, get up it's Christmas" and in my mumbled voice I truely believe my daughters now use on me, I said, "I'll be there in a minute.", but I wasn't. Before all of the joyous celebrations there is the yearly question and fight over the Christmas tree Teri and I have. And it is not even what you'd thing it would be over, well maybe you wouldn't. Well it's not over whether or not we'll have a real Christmas tree. We agreed that we would alternate between them each year, so for the last dozen years wev'e had one real christmas tree. During that time I've usually been overwhelmed by the season even

though Teri does all of the gift buying except for her and my mom. I just get blue sometimes and I don't know why. After the holiday which during the seriously blue times I'd call the hollowdays, I'd promise myself to d better next year. When it was finally next year. I promised myself I'd decorate the house and get a real Christmas tree. I was going to start just after Thanksgiving. I even started looking for the first sign of the season, the tree lots to appear. Yea, I know, the real first sign of the season comes in October when the Christmas displays go up in stores. In the good old days it was when they started playing the Christmas shows on TV and you'd first notice the chill in the air, with it's hint that maybe there would be snow coming and we'd get a white Christmas.

SO last Wednesday Teri meets us at the Covid bowling alley and if you regularly read this blog you know that is when I found out thta Christmas trees are a minimum of fifty dollars. To some that may be a minuscule amount, but I can remember when trees were $19.95. I love live trees and have many fond memories of decorating them, but how can you defend spending fifty dollars on a tree that if yo are lucky will be up in your living room or other room for a mazium of four weeks. And the perfectly retched tree that comes stright out of a Charles Brown Christmas when Charles and Linus are walking through the lot of Christmas tree and they bang on one of the tree and it gives off a metal sound. We bought the perfectly retched tree a few years ago. It is only retched because it has come to represent everything I hate ablut Chrismas and it forced gift giving. It is fake, it is prewired with lights AND MUSIC! Bang on that Charles Brown!! While I'm on my soap box let's talk about whats wrong with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Teri loves it and the funny thing about it and don't read further if you don't want to be delusioned it is a tail of abuse, rejection, eliteism and an unhappy Santa. I read a story about the creation of the story. It was written by a man who'd just lost his wife to cancer I think. He was related to Johnny Mercer who created the song from it. About 1963-4 a company, maybe Norelco Razor ( I remeber Santa Claus riding down a hill on the electric razor) wanted to promote their product. So ADVERTISING MEN Rankin and Bass (I always thought they were Hollywood types) took the song and created the first Christmas special, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. It opens with Rudolph being born and rejected by his father, Donner, one of Santa's own. It goes down hill from there. I won't bore you with a blow by blow account of the rest of the tail I'm sure we all remember. But let me finish with Rudolph is only accepted by Santa and the rest after he is found to be useful. Kind of sounds like an abusive relationship is foring there. Now I know why there was never a sequel. It'd have to be called 'Rudolph the crack nose, I'll do you for twenty reindeer'

It's December 13th, 2020, the year my wife bought a Christmas orament that says "Fuck 2020" That kind of sums up the year for me too. I have witnessed a change in the world that no one will understand for many years. I do know that Covid has stopped both of my daughters from prusuing higher education. When Covid hit almost a year ago Nastia was trying to become a kindergarden teacher, then a school aide because becoming a teacher was too hard. While Nastia was floundering in her life choices, Elena was avoiding hers completely. She took a pass on going to class in her first semester of College. Then she thought she might be interested in auto mechanics. Neither wanted to do on line classes which are extremely tough on students. I fully expect the two of them to work in their respective grocery stores for the foreseeable future. Maybe they will be like Teri's cousin Kim who worked in a grocery store until she found, maybe not her passion, but at least a path to follow that she is not misserable doing.I can hope. Nastia would be happy just being a mom. I'm not sure if it would be as fulfiled as she thinks it would. Yes having a baby that depends on you for everything is right up her alley. but she what happens after they don't need her any more and she is left without anything to do. And no education or little job experence to do it. Plus if she has also been out of the work force for twenty plus years and if the revolution I see coming arrives and there are no more entry level jobs like cashier. When my grandfather was a kid his dad was a book binder. Then my grandfather was several things, none really a career. My dad was a breadman and a milkman. None of those occupations exist anymore. Boy am I off topic today. Elena is a little more flexable, but I can also see her not finishing her working career in a supermarket. Back on to topic. Well I'm sure you're tired of reading, so I will get back on topic with either part two of this or I will name the next entry something witty or maybe not. I usually can't tell if I'm being a jerk or being funny. /