I'm a confirmed child of the West. I've lived all my years well to the left of the state of Texas.
As such, that means that these concepts of "winter" and "Christmas" mean a little something different than they do in all the songs I've been listening to today.
Yes, I admit, I succumbed to Christmas music today.
Ever since I was a kid, while I did like the ol' Christmas tunes, I pondered about how many of them didn't apply. And it's not just about the weather.
Let's take a look:
"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas." Yes. But not here.
It was over 60 degrees today.
"Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh..."
Well. Again. No snow.
No horses dashing around much either.
"Frosty the Snowman." Nope.
However, there used to be a house in Albuquerque that had a flocked tumbleweed snowman in their yard every year, so this is a maybe...
"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire."
I don't even know what the hell that means.
Marshmallows roasting on an open fire? Yes please! With chocolate and graham cracker.
As an aside...to celebrate the anniversary of the day we met, The Good Man took me to stay in a Ritz Carlton Hotel at the beach. It is a beautiful and very high class establishment. One of the features of our room was a fire pit on the back porch, intended, I'm sure, to sit by, stay warm, and gaze romantically at the ocean.
To show just how classy we are, we cooked marshmallows over that fire pit.... One of the best nights of my life!
But I digress.
"Tis the season to be jolly...fa la la la, la la la la..."
Um. Huh? Cuz I'm looking around at all my fellow mankind and I can tell you that "jolly" is *not* what people are feeling this season.
"Fa la la la bite me" is more the mood out there.
"We three king of Orient are, sharing gifts we travel so far..." Well. Ahem. "Orient" isn't really politically correct these days.
"We three kings of the Pacific Rim" or "We three kings of AsiaPac" is probably more appropriate.
"Silent night, holy night" Hmph. Silent, eh?
Not after I've had a couple glasses of holiday cheer. Nope, then it's snoring night, drooling night. I sure can't handle the booze anymore...
But when it comes to good old fashioned spiked egg nog, I'm helpless.
So for The Good Man, ain't no silent.
"Silver bells, it's Christmastime in the city."
Ok. Sure. Those Salvation Army guys and gals are working the bells. I'll give you that one. Check.
We got one.
I won't EVEN go down the list from the Twelve Days of Christmas.
But if my true love gave me swans, French hens, partridges, milk maids, leaping lords and pretty much any of the items other than the five gold rings, we might have to have a little conversation about "did you keep the receipt."
And that little drummer boy can take his pah-rumpa-pum-pum up with the judge because I'm calling in a noise complaint!
Which pretty much leaves us with "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch."
Fair enough!
