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Show Thank goodness for Christmas season the editor's By MARC HADDOCK I Jj By M ARC HADDOCK This is the time of year we should all be thankful for something. I'm thankful for Christmas ! Sure, it's still a good month away. And sure, it's jumping the gun to start celebrating one holiday before another one has been put behind us (which is where most of Thanksgiving seems to end up. ) But sometimes, the spirit of the holiday season seems to open up the pocketbook and provide those little extras that you always wanted but could live without. And while Christmas (is it really still that far away) might sneak up on some and catch them off guard -others of us are prepared. A good part of our Christmas is already stored away in that secret place that only Mom and Dad (and Santa) can find -yup, already. You see, I've been blessed with a wife who is thrifty and who has an eye for sales. She's not the only one. The pre-Thanksgiving Christmas sales have drawn a lot of interest this year. Just ask a sales clerk at the stores that have been having them for two months or so. But it's amazing just how much more enjoyable the holidays can be when you are ready for them well in advance. The other good part of our Believe me, we need it. For as long as we've owned furniture, it's been someone else's. You know the decor - early hand-me-down. It consists of a couch from her family and end tables and a chair from mine -- none of which match - all tastefully combined to create livingroom chaos. And the old couch is ready to be sent where all worn out furniture goes -- to the family room where the . kids can climb on it, and jump on it and do all the other things kids do to furniture when Mom and Dad aren't there. Not that we don't owe the old : furniture -- it provided a good seat for a lot of seats over the years. But then, it owes us too. After all, who else would have replaced the old foam when it started to crumble? Who else would have moved it from home to home, even thougrui never fit in any of the livingrooms? We protected that ragged couch, those deteriorating chairs, arid gave them love when no one else would -and longer than we should have. But it took the holidays to give us the incentive to make the final move to refurnish that livingroom for the first time with furniture we liked instead of furniture our parents liked years ago. Why? Because a family reunion is eminent at our home -and this k it's my family that's reuniting And Nancy could not bear fc thought of facing my two 0fe brothers with the couch we inhemr from her mother. And it's all because of Christe It's the holiday that's bringing rr", brother Jimmy from New km ( He wants to find out what it's lib ski on a real mountain, like we p, 'em here in the Rockies, instead a those wimpy mounds they "ski't back east.) It's the white Christmas ol Ik West that will bring us together and it's the getting together t prompted us to furnish our ta with a couch that's comlor rather than dumpy. Maybe it will even soften the to when my oldest brother learns ak his youngest niece. She'll be ak , Jour months old when we plop tec his lap and give him the joyful m (He's big on population cw.'ri, we're big on population.) For certain it will provide ate place to have people over -one w won't feel we have to hide In everyone in the neighborhood. So all day long on Thanksgiiir as I sit in the new recliner walch.a football games, I'll be giving tki for Christmas -- even if it is a lift early. , 'Christmas was scheduled to arrive Tuesday -- and it marks a major step in our ongoing struggle to become real people. And I'm so excited I can't wait to get home and settle into our new couch. (Ain't Christmas wonderful?) |
