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‘Twas The Day Before Xmas 2022
When all through the house 🎄 everybody is stirring like a cat with a mouse…
Christmas 🛐 Eve
Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values. ~Thomas S. Monson
The stockings are hung in the kitchen with care 🏘️ and her collection of Plasticville houses are there
The kids are waiting, their presents to share 🛍️ they’ve picked them and bought them and wrapped them with care
Kelly is baking and cooking and stressing herself 😞 while I’m busy working like a harried old elf
Between my day job and writing out Merry Bells 🧠 I haven’t much left of my little grey cells
I don’t have any more presents to wrap 🎁 so I’m quite looking forward to a long winter’s nap
My doorbell camera tells me there’s some kind of clatter 🌨️ but it’s just reacting to some meteorological matter
Feeling at ease with loved ones all here 👨👩👧👦 I’m more than ready for some Christmas cheer
So, if you’re still shopping, I’m glad I’m not you 🛒 I’d rather be home than stuck in a queue
I hope you can get home to be safe and snug 🎄 and your Christmas tree lights up when you put in the plug
With warmest regards from my household to your 🎅🏻 Merry Christmas to you and those you adore
A 🦌 Christmas 🎅🏻 Eve ⛄ Classic
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer 1964 FULL MOVIE 1080P HD
Yeah, I know, I showed this one a few weeks ago at the beginning of Christmas special watching season, but it’s specific to Christmas Eve so I’m putting it here again. How can you go wrong with Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer?
A Christmas Carol (1951)
Okay, another Christmas Eve Classic is the redemption story of the original Victorian Grinch known as Ebenezer Scrooge.
I must admit that I also enjoy the reverse Scrooge version presented in the Blackadder Christmas Special. The Victorian incarnation of this comic villain is actually painfully nice and gets a visit from a Christmas spirit who happens to be Hagrid. The spirit shows visions of his ancestors who had a great deal of fun being naughty people, leading our nice guy to the conclusion that “Bad guys have all the fun.”
Stealing Christmas Presents | Blackadder | BBC Comedy Greats
Another Christmas Eve Classic is It’s A Wonderful Life. It’s really not Christmas until you’ve watched this classic tear-jerker.
Back in the days when Saturday Night Live was actually funny, they did this skit of an alternative ending to Frank Capra’s classic tale of being a nice guy paying off in spades.
It’s a Wonderful Life: The Lost Ending – SNLs
If there are others that you enjoy, I hope you have a chance to watch them while we enjoy the holiday season before us.
The 👼🏼 Gift 🎁 Of ✍🏼 Creativity
Every act of creation is first an act of destruction. ~Pablo Picasso
Of all the gifts I’ve received in my life, creativity is my most valuable.
It has allowed me to see things from various perspectives in order to cover bases that are less than obvious when coding applications.
It has allowed me to enjoy time with my friends playing roleplaying games, living imaginary adventures in fantasy worlds.
It has allowed me to write and publish stories in worlds of my own creation.
Everyone has a creative impulse. Everyone uses it in unique ways to produce a variety of things.
Some people use their creativity to decorate homes, style hair, paint nails, do makeup, arrange furniture, find the perfect fishing spot, play the ultimate game of tennis and so forth.
Some people use their creativity to cheat on their spouses, defraud investors, betray their constituents, hack personal data for fraud and profit, commit insurance fraud or other nefarious ends.
Creativity, in itself, is neither good nor bad.
You can come up with ways to destroy or to create.
Nuclear fission can be electricity for entire zip codes or it can be an atomic bomb that erases a city.
Nuclear fusion can be clean electricity for entire zip codes or it can be a hydrogen bomb that erases a city.
Even something as timeless as a sculpture is simultaneously an act of destruction and creation, as Mr. Picasso has stated. When a statue is a statue, it is no longer a big block of marble.
While my form of creativity seems like it’s making something from nothing, it’s actually not.
I’m making something from the time taken to create it.
When I’m creating code, converted data, utilities to facilitate that and so forth, I’m not creating intellectual property that’s able to be sold in perpetuity.
When I’m writing my stories, I’m not getting caught up on my dozens of projects at work.
When I’m trying to burn the candle at both ends to ensure that there’s some balance of effort, I’m not getting enough sleep to facilitate either end.
Sometimes, I just need to stop and veg out for a while.
Sometimes, I find that I lapse into a work-induced coma.
That’s not really time that I can spare. Things need doing, but they can’t get done unless I take some time to recharge.
I’m not getting that right now.
After a year on fast-forward, things are actually piling on instead of slowing down.
Christmas is supposed to be my time to slow down and recover from a high intensity year.
It would be Fuckin’ Awesome if I was actually able to make that happen.
Instead, it’s looking like 🎅 may very well bring me an aneurysm or a major depressive episode.
Well, Return To Sender. I can live without that.
It’s Christmastime and I need a modicum of hope, peace, joy and love. Mostly, I need a freaking nap. 🛌🏼
Again, from my family to you and yours, we wish you the merriest of Christmases and all the joy of the season.