Fact: Dry Christmas trees spark more than joy. Neglected, dried-out Christmas trees spark about a hundred fires in the United States each year, cause an average of 10 deaths, and result in $15.7 million in property damage, the Consumer Product Safety Commission reports.
Bare branches of a Christmas tree consumed by fire
I had to watch Amos & Andy again. This episode is special at Christmas.
The 1952 Amos ‘n’ Andy Christmas episode (‘The Christmas Story’) was one of TV’s first holiday-themed broadcasts – based on a script that had been performed yearly for more than a decade on network radio’s most popular program.
This moving holiday tradition began in 1940 with a 15-minute episode centered around Amos sitting by his daughter’s bedside and explaining the Lord’s Prayer to her. It was a powerful and touching moment, perfectly capturing that simpler, religiously inspired Christmas spirit that prevailed decades ago.
Nearly half the nation tuned in to those annual holiday broadcasts.
For the past thirty years, I have gone to the play “A Christmas Carol,” but with the COVID restrictions, we skipped two years. The tradition restarts with Dr. Mary and our friends and family.
Did You Know? Published on 19 December, the first edition sold out by Christmas Eve; by the end of 1844, thirteen editions had been released. Most critics reviewed the novella favorably. The story was illicitly copied in January 1844; Dickens took legal action against the publishers, who went bankrupt, further reducing Dickens’s small profits from the publication. He went on to write four other Christmas stories in subsequent years. In 1849 he began public readings of the story, which proved so successful he undertook 127 further performances until 1870, the year of his death. A Christmas Carol has never been out of print and translated into several languages; the story has been adapted many times for film, stage, opera, and other media.
Today we went with the Liles’ family, Michele and Franklyn Adams, Crazy Greg, Doctor David, Bob & Nick Duda (Robin is on a cruise), and Will & Iris. It will be fun!
Mary and I are slowly establishing OUR traditions!
Join ALL the fun on the website for the play!
We got to the theater early as we had to exchange tickets; we did have a late November reservation, but I had COVID, so we moved it to today. There was no problem doing the exchange, so we went inside and had their “drink of the day”. The drink was called a Scrooge, and it tasted somewhere between pickle juice and horse we-wee; we sipped and tossed it. We went to our drink which was chardonnay.
A nice couple took this picture of us; we were happy to prove we were here and together!
Just us!
Greg joined us and will give us the run-down on all the changes made since the new Scrooge began. Greg and our grandson Nick jabbered away about theater subjects. I can hear Greg now quoting Charles Dickens:
“If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.”
We remember when Nick was not so tall!
Franklyn and Bob caught up on things before the first act. I overheard them telling Christmas jokes:
-
-
- What happened to the man who stole an Advent Calendar? He got 25 days!
- Who delivers presents to baby sharks at Christmas? Santa Jaws!
- What do they sing at a snowman’s birthday party? Freeze a jolly good fellow!
- What do Santa’s little helpers learn at school? The elf-abet!
- What kind of motorbike does Santa ride? A Holly Davidson!
-
They grow taller every year!
Theo could not make the play, so we call Dr. Bill last night and were happy he could join us. Bill and Mary have been friends for years, and he went with Mary to Starlighters several times. Bill is a podiatrist and a real gentleman. Dr. Mary and Dr. Bill also catching up on things.
Dr Bill and Dr. MAryl friends for years.
Amy, Joe, and the boys joined us today. Another year or two and the boys will be taller than all the adults! The lineup is Charlie, Joe, Paul, Mary Amy and Alex.
The Liles’ family.
It was like herding cats but we all got together and another nice lady captured the moment!
All of us!
Michele and Mary finally got to talk after the show. We will see them on New Years Eve at the Elks.
Sweet!
After the play, we wanted to eat, so we went to South Coast Plaza and select Persian food. we selected Darya in Santa Ana, CA, which has been voted the #1 Persian gourmet restaurant in Orange County by the OC Register.
Mary had a cucumber salad and Barley soup, chopped Barley, parsley, cilantro, and shredded chicken. I did the #6: shrimp, chicken, and filet mignon. It was so large that we took half of it home with us.
Lunch.
We really pigged out and had dessert.
Who ordered that??
From there, we went o Jan’s as we brought her Persian salmon and cheesecake!
We were so tired when we got home that we jumped into bed and crashed instantly.
