Welcome All
Casses Home for the Gracefully Aging January 2015
This 1st photo is downtown Franklin on the morning of Dec 23. Christmas Eve Eve is my favorite day of the year.
A bit gray as you can see but that doesn't dampen the Spirit of the coming holiday.
I liked the repeated lights of the Holiday LEDs in the tiny raindrops everywhere.
The photo didn't capture what I saw but the neat part kinda gets through.
A week before this photo I had a real date (with a girl) - dinner and a live concert by The Manhattan Transfer
(if you don't know of them, they are a world class jazz vocal group - totally thrilling in real
time - I think my date liked it too!)
Right here in River City! (Fine Arts Center)
A great way for me to kick the holiday into gear. It was big fun.
Via a serendipitous mishap I gladly acquired house guests for the Holiday.
It was really nice to have bodies in-house for the duration. Made
the atmosphere cozy with conversation and companionship. These two are
the real grandparents of my proxy grandkids so it was like extended
family all the way.
My family - The Casses were invited to our first
NC Christmas in 1985 by these dear folk and I've known many of them
since the Florida days.(30 yrs).
I had a grand time the next day, Christmas Eve Proper, doing my last
minute shopping. The stores were alive with joyful people & color.
It was a real Norman Rockwell day where I met all kids of happy people I
seem to only see on holidays. Lotsa smiles, I shook bunches of hands smiled at babies and a got half a dozen hugs.
(maybe I should run for office?)
Then I ran into Heaven and the kids inside Walmart and got to pick out
my own present - pre wrapped! A pair of comfy blue slippers with a
hard rubber sole so I can venture out on the deck & feed the birds
etc. without messing them up. (the shoes not the birds) How cool is that?
I had lunch at the nearby Chinese restaurant (they loaded me down with
those yummy green Guava after-dinner candies - love 'em) and then scurried
home on the still sunny though a bit breezy Dec 24.
It had been rainy - remember the photo? for days before so we were all
a bit worried it might be a gray Christmas but it blued up and got
sunny bright right on queue.
My guests were out on similar holiday errands so I had a time slot
to wrap without discovery. I like the wrapping and all the last
minute things this nerd can think of.
I go for the kid flavor - the abandon and joy. It all goes too
fast for me.
I have "Mistle Toads" on the heater and my sacred
videos are running in the background for the duration:
"We're No angels" - Bogart, Ray, Ustinov & Rathbone - Christmas on
Devil's Island. A wonderful comedy, probably my Mom's favorite,
"Mixed Nuts" - a delightful Steve Martin Christmas in LA. movie,
The colorized "Miracle on 34th" with Edmond, Natalie & Maureen.
National Lampoon's "Christmas Vacation" can't be missed along with
the classic Jean Shepherd's "A Christmas Story" ("You'll shoot your
eye out kid.").
These flix and some traditional cooking smells complete the Holiday
ambience at my place.
OK, next day. It's past the dawn's early light and I'm waking up
and one eye remembers it's Christmas! Yay! I'm thinking of
all the kid riots going on at this very moment.
It's just before 7 a.m. and my I-phone gives a merry "ding!". A message has
come in. I figure it is my first "Merry Christmas" of the day and
wonder who is the lucky winner? (besides me).
Surprise, surprise - it is the lady I'm dating with a "We have to
talk." Well, we all pretty much know what that means so I put it
off until the morrow - not nobody is going to hijack my Christmas
Day!
My grown-up guests and I took it easy and broke fast in a leisurely
manner since there were no young'uns in residence, we could do
that peaceful easy Christmas Morning without being rushed.
Later in the day we would catch up to the kids and others who were
no doubt at the same time, indulging in what Jean Shepherd called
"the orgy of unbridled greed".
It just looks like greed to an adult - we know better. I can't put
such a Protestant spin on it having been a willing joyful
participant those many years.
I also attempt to light a spark of it with gifts to my adult
children - something practical & something fun! (It was RC
helicopters this year - quads for my sons, Air Rescue for my
houseguest Bill and myself.)
The weather was relatively warm - can't say I've seen any snow
stick at all so far this season. I don't mind. It ain't Currier &
Ives but it ain't expensive (heat) either. I'm OK with it.
As
mentioned, it had been threatening to stay gray for the duration
but the clouds cleared and the sun broke out bright. You could
hear angels singing ahhhhh! (the chickadees were happy too.)
I rode out to the proxy family compound instead of driving. It is
something I rarely do and I sat in the front passenger seat like a dog -
sniffing and storing every Christmas Day scene I could assemble.
Blue sky and wispy "Mare's tail" clouds with a significant breeze - it would be
cold in the dark places but pretty nice in the sun.
We drove past the street where one of my dear friends lives and I
saw him out walking his dog Sheila. They both had cold breath
steaming out and looked pretty happy. Good Folk. Why is Christmas
special? Because we agree and make it so.
Traffic was easy and we got to kid city with no problems. The morning
conflagration had burned down a bit. It was about 10 o'clock and
the rest & play stage was current.
My four little sweeties were ecstatically describing and
demonstrating their prizes. It was a total delight.
One of the weirdest was a toy shark - about 3 inches long. It was
electronic and programmed and had its own fishbowl. It would swim
around the bowl for a while and then dive to the bottom and then
repeat. hmmmmm I heard when it got into the tub that someone's hair
got caught up in the tail (motor). They seemed to love it though.
Every so often I am presented with a new wonder of science. This
Christmas it was a gadget called a RipStick. It is an extremely
engineered and upgraded skateboard - almost to the sophistication
level of a Hover Board.
It has only 2 wheels in-line on ball bearing rings and the wheel bases are
angled so the momentum is always "falling into itself". Makes it
very responsive to any weight shift.
The center of the platform is
a swivel joint which lets the rider "pump" the front against the
back so it goes with almost no effort.
It was Malyka's favorite
thing - what she "Really Wanted".
With the tiniest movement, a shifting of weight from one foot to the
other, She quietly floated around all day smiling from ear to ear - glorious to see.
The day went too fast. Along with cash and do-dads (I gave then all
my old board games - quite a pile) all the kids got new BB guns.
????
OK I'm nonviolent and so generally against juvenile weapons but these kids have
exemplary parents who taught them safety first and set up targets.
A plinking parade soon established itself. The smallest had a tough
time cocking her rifle so an older sibling (or a proxy grampa)
would do the labor and little Kelsie would blast away.
At one point it looked like a firing squad with all 4 young'uns and
a few pals shooting from the front porch.
One of the local cats was attracted to the plinking noise and when she came into range,
everyone stopped and somebody went and carried kitty to safety.
Good kids.
Down the hill 80 yards to Uncle Rick's place where the food was
being prepped all day. It smelled fantastic, tasted even better and
was over in an hour plus.
Goodness! it goes fast. We visited the extended
family and then went back to town to the rest home to visit Nana - the
Matriarch.
She was so much more than happy to see us. We crowded in, held
hands in a circle, did blessings and all that teary stuff.
Mary Jo
(Nana’s name) told us her doctors said she wouldn't see Christmas
Day and here she was totally enjoying the blessing. Can't beat it -
a life triumph.
The photo is with Caren (daughter) & Tanner
(Caren's son) in her room.
My guests and I had a late dinner and we finished the evening by
the fireside with a glass of wine and phone calls to kin. Pretty
cozy.
It's just one day - same as all the others and yet it isn't.
I read that our current holiday traditions were generated pretty much
by Charles Dickens and commercialism (we all know that "That" Santa
is a Coca-Cola character, etc.)
Well no matter, I love it because it is my
(our) tradition and it engenders the warmth of thought and feeling
needed for a happy winter and other good reasons I can't think of right
now.
