Coming to an End

 

Thought I’d toss in a few things as this last day of 2020 approaches the close

and the New Year prepares to come in.

Christmas at my house was very nice.  My oldest granddaughter drove over from San Antonio Christmas Eve and spent the weekend with me.  Made the day extra merry and happy.

Growing up, my family always had a big fancy dinner on Christmas Eve.  We all dressed up – my mother always said – Everyone should have to dress up at least one day of the year and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be Christmas Eve.  You’d never know who would be there besides the 5 of us.  Friends and relatives.  Occasionally my father invited a visiting doctor from another country.  You just never knew. 

Ellen and I

Mother and brother, John.

Sometime in the 1980’s I took over the job of THE CHRISTMAS EVE DINNER.  Same rules applied – everyone dressed up though not quite as spectacularly. 

So, all of that is leading up to – I decided to do a small version of Christmas Eve dinner.  Ellen and Marc came over.  Vicky was here.  I invited Bobby to come.  It was nice with ham, chicken (not really big on turkey), cornbread dressing, green beans, and mashed parsnips (rather than potatoes) (they’re similar but a bit sweeter and slightly carroty tasting), salad.  Ellen brought dessert.

Christmas Day, Vicky and I did very little – watched movies.  The most memorable – Attack of the Crab Monsters (c: 1957). 

OMG – it is awful!  Really terrible.  We laughed throughout the movie!  A perfect way to spend Christmas Day!

The rest of the week has been warm verging on hot-enough-for-shorts.  Until last night.  Last night a cold front came charging in and along with it came rain.  Not just ordinary rain – Victorian-mansion- in-the-dark-spooky-woods-thunder-lightening-pouring-down rain, rain.  I checked my rain gauge about 11am and it was full to the top – that’s 5 inches.  Emptied it because it’s still raining.  Temperature has dropped and we’re expecting lows in the 30’s tonight (hey! I live in south central Texas – 30 degs is cold).  Which is fine, it’s winter for heavens sake!  It’s supposed to be cold.

Myself – no big plans to welcome in 2021.  In fact, I’ll probably be asleep long before the midnight hour arrives.  In the long past days, my husband and I stayed home and watched movies rather than go out.  He always said – he wasn’t going out with all the amateur drunks on the roads.

Okay – just a few Did You Know’s to close out the year . . .

In Scotland, today is celebrated as Hogmanay.  Hogmanay is a time for clearing out the old and welcoming in the new.  This celebration began during the Middle Ages when religious reformation meant celebrating Christmas was discouraged and instead Scots celebrated on December 31st, with singing, dancing and a number of other traditions and customs.  They even exchanged gifts as they rung in the New Year. 

It is also New Year's Eve Banished Words List day.  Each year since 1976,  Lake Superior State University wordsmiths, compile a list of words to “uphold, protect, and support excellence in language by encouraging avoidance of words and terms that are overworked, redundant, oxymoronic, clichéd, illogical, nonsensical — and otherwise ineffective, baffling, or irritating.”

So far, more than 1,000 words or phrases have made the list.  An example of past inductees are words such as “absolutely,” “BFF," “covfefe,” and “yuh know”.  This year the nominees are:

COVID-19 (COVID, coronavirus, Rona). “A large number of nominators are clearly resentful of the virus and how it has overtaken our vocabulary,” the committee wrote. “No matter how necessary or socially and medically useful these words are, the committee cannot help but wish we could banish them along with the virus itself.”

Social distancing. “This phrase is useful, as wearing a mask and keeping your distance have a massive effect on preventing the spread of infection,” members said. “But we’d be lying if we said we weren’t ready for this phrase to become ‘useless.’”

We’re all in this together.

In an abundance of caution

In these uncertain times

Pivot. “Reporters, commentators, talking heads, and others from the media reference how everyone must adapt to the coronavirus through contactless delivery, virtual learning, curbside pickup, video conferencing, remote working, and other urgent readjustments,” the committee wrote. “That’s all true and vital. But basketball players pivot; let’s keep it that way.”

Sus, short for “suspicious.”

 

And you thought it was just New Year’s Eve!
speaking of which

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

31 Dec 2020