Merry Christmas

[oldr_n_wsr]

I will be MIA from here til next week, so here's wishing every and their family and friends a very Merry Christmas. May it be happy and safe.

[Rick]

I resemble those feelings..

[Sue U]

Merry Christmas, oldr, and Happy New Year to boot! Going to the lake house?

[Crackpot]

Going to the lake house?

Avoid Keanu Reeves at all costs!

[Guinevere]

Merry Happy y'all! See you in 2011!

[Gob]

Have a great one O-n-W, thanks for being a major contributor here.

[Big RR]

The best to all in this holiday season, whatever holiday you chose to celebrate or ignore.

[dales]

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

hic

[Sean]

Merry xmas you bunch of argumentative sods!

[rubato]

Spoil any kids in the area, eat too much, drink too much, and generally carry on ...

yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

I will be MIA from here til next week,

Tell everybody at The Betty Ford Clinic I said hello, oldr...

[loCAtek]

Feliz Navidad!

[tyro]

Joyeux noel.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Merry Christmas, oldr, and Happy New Year to boot! Going to the lake house?

No lake house trip, dad (who lives there full time) comes down for Christmas. We all (my family, my borthers and sisters family, cousins and their families) get together at my aunts house (used to be gandma's house when she was alive) on Christmas Eve, sing Christmas Carols (a German traditition, gotta sing before you can get your presents) drink plenty of Henkel champagne (sparkling wine?) then open presents and then have cold cuts around midnight.

another good time this year. Hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas.

ETA
We got hit with the first major snowstorm of the year on Sunday/monday. Over 16 inches. Figures the starter on my tractor died so for the first time in over 15 years I had to shovel by hand. Good thing I have a 25 year old son to help. 100 feet of driveway is a bit much all alone.
Hope you Jersey people faired well.

[tyro]

Say oldr, do your German traditions include having goose for new years?

Our family did that for many years before I was around. And when I did show up, I do remember the tradition included the advice that if the goose was tough, then so would be the New Year.

All of the geese were tough and we stopped the tradition when I was about 17.


The new years didn’t stop being tough, but we learned how to make do with out a damn meal of goose to kick it off.

[oldr_n_wsr]

No goose on New Years but I have heard of the tradition. Growing up my parents always went out New Years eve and were pretty hung over new years day. But that didn't stop them from packing us up and going over to their best friends house for new years brunch and getting drunk again.

Wild geese are tough as they do not have much fat on them (like most wild game) and are pretty strong birds. Need to drape bacon over it while cooking to get some fat into the meat.

[loCAtek]

I heard this story from a co-worker; I was going to writ e it into 'Happy Trails', but by the time I get a new installment down on pixels, I'll miss the seasonal reference. So here it is;


A co-worker's elderly mother is the spittin' image of 'Granny' from the Beverly Hillbillys, visual aid:



...and he doesn't deny it! Even telling me this lovely tale of one of her holiday traditions;

Back in their ancestral Southern home, come springtime 'Granny' loves to go down to the lake and feed the ducks and geese. She brings them a sack of seed, grain and bread that they soon love to look forward to from the kindly ol'lady. Seeing as she tires as they days go on, they don't mind wading ashore to get their gift of grain, a little bit more and more closer to her home. Soon, they're waddling to meet her at the road to her house; and as the months go by they'll walk their way right up to her door. Shortly before Thanksgiving she can stand in the garage and give the fowl, their favorite food in fist fulls. But on the day before the Holiday, *Boom* the garage door goes down and the shot gun comes out...


...


For weeks through the winter, the family feasts on grain fed fowl, all thanks to crafty Granny!

[BoSoxGal]

Isn't that sporting!


NOT!

[oldr_n_wsr]

Probably illegal too.

[Rick]

South and springtime.

Gotta be domesticated critters...