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Tag: holidays

  • Giving Thanks

    Happy Thanksgiving or Happy Thursday

    I love Thanksgiving – but it has not been a family holiday in ages and has rather become an extended-family holiday where friends and visitors gather for a pot luck feast.  This was true in Boston, then in D.C. and now here in Portland.

    What started years ago, well before I moved here, is what is called "Orphan Thanksgiving" – and it has become an anticipated event.

    Many years ago, my neighbors were staying here for Thanksgiving and put out an invite to anyone who was also not going anywhere.  Since it was such fun, it has since become the destination spot for Thanksgiving – so much so that fewer go away and instead arrive with visiting family and friends.

    As we are a small neighborhood most everyone knows everyone else and a relaxing day with all sorts of good food to eat and good wine and beer to drink makes for a grand afternoon and evening.  [With football games on of course!]

    And we all live within walking distance so there is never a need to drive and be in traffic…..

    So readers, whether you spend toady with family, biological or extended, or take the time to get away for a vacation, enjoy today and remember that being social is good for your health!

    PS Don't forget to share lots of your social-ness with those 4 footed neighbors and family : – )

    In our neighborhood the water fowl are already gathering – they know lots of bread crumbs are coming today….


  • Holidays and Family = ?

    Holidays PLUS family equals [what] for you?

    Holidays can be very,  and I mean VERY,  stressful for grown ups who are spending that time with family of origin [those you had around when you were little.]

    Why?  People tend to have difficulty with change.  If you go back to the house and family you grew up with – it is often hard for them, and you,  to act differently than when you were all younger. 

    Parents tend to treat grown children as children and siblings tend to display all those not-so-lovely sibling rivalries.  As you want to be, or try to be an adult – there is a human tendency to revert to that lowest common denominator – family snipping.

    Can it be changed?  Difficult, but not impossible.  Change requires that all acknowledge that change has occurred and that we are all very different now.  Harder still at the old homestead.

    Solutions?  Neutral territory helps – meet NOT at the home of a family member but at a place no one has history with.  I admit this takes away from the idea of "family" holiday – but is it really going to be a pleasant one if your are at your parents or siblings home thinking STRESS  now – even before going?

    Your solutions? Please leave a comment

  • Holidays?

    Does anyone celebrate holidays anymore or have they just become part of a 3-day-weekend – for? SALES!

    Not that I am a big fan of Columbus Day – but it used to be on October 12th and it used to be a day where most things were closed. Now it’s only the day after the fat Sunday paper announces all the SALES you can go to on Monday…

    Maybe because it’s what I grew up with – but I liked it when holidays were celebrated on their “real” dates. Have an occasional week day off from school or work was sort of fun. It varied from year to year and broke up the week in a nice way – or at least it did for me.

    When I lived in Boston, there were Boston-only holidays so one got a day off in every month except August if I recall correctly. But now even those are Mondays – like April 19th…it’s permanently a Monday no matter when the 19th actually is.

    Makes it easier to plan for the marathon and make it a 3-day-vacation for the crowds that come to watch and/or run.

    And yes, I went to Costco yesterday as I needed a few staples and there were the Christmas trees – all lit up! Wonder where [they will find room for all the Halloween and Thanksgiving “stuff?”

    Think I have mentioned this before but – I’ll repeat. Again when I was a kid I worked at SS Kresge’s at the seasonal counter. Yes back when sales people were behind counters running their own registers….] We did school related items from mid-August to mid September. I sort of forget what came next but then we did Halloween til November – then Thanksgiving and only after Thanksgiving did we put out Christmas/winter related items and then end of year sales and so on. And when there were no special days, we did cookies, snacks, linens or whatever needed the extra space. Seems so quaint now. And back then I could add rapidly in my head as the registers only rang up the total sale – it did not do the adding – and then we also had a tax box for the NYC sales tax! Now I am so computer/calculator addicted I’m not so sure I could do that arithmetic in my head anymore : – (

    But progress in the form of computers? and word processing programs? Love it – I am a 2-3 finger typist and have to look at the keyboard as I type. So I live with spell checkers…they catch most of my typos….and I cut and past or click rather than type….

    Ah – progress is a mixed thing and guess it will always be so.

    We will continue to get advancing holiday seasons, 3-day-weekends, ad laden Sunday papers and the message to buy! But we will also keep getting advances in technology. It’s life – enjoy it…

    [but what will be the reaction when the 4th of July or December 25th become the “nearest Monday?”]

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