Deck the Halls and Everything Else Too

Dear 123Greetings subscriber,

How are your Christmas decorations coming along? We’ve already started decorating around our office and the place is looking fabulous! We’re nearly ready for the holidays. That reminds me of a story that happened a couple of years ago…

One of my favorite Christmas songs is “Deck The Halls.” I love it especially when we’re decorating the house. My parents weren’t much interested in decorating for the holidays, but Mr. Elder next door certainly was. He started setting up his lights right after Halloween. Rick and I helped him out every year. One year, he had to go on a long business trip and wasn’t able to get back until a week before Christmas. He took the red eye and got home as soon as he could.

Rick, Kong and I went over to his place to help him out with the decorations. The door was open so we went inside. His place was a mess of course. Christmas decorations were everywhere. Then Mr. Elder came down with a big box of Christmas lights and saw us. “Oh good, you kids are here,” said Mr. Elder. I need you guys to help out with a little outdoor project.” Of course, we were excited. Anything outdoors to play with snow is fantastic.

Mr. Elder took out long strings of Christmas lights from the box. He said, “Okay, just untangle them and connect them together.” We started assembling the long string of Christmas lights and it became really, really long. “Let’s go out from the garage,” said Mr. Elder and we went out holding the long string of Christmas lights. We went outside onto the front lawn, Mr. Elder leading the way. Mr. Elder put down his end of the lights and said, “Wait here for a moment.” He came out again with a ladder.

He put the ladder against the house and grabbed his end of the Christmas lights and went up the ladder to the roof. “Be careful Mr. Elder. It’s icy and slippery even down here!” shouted Rick. Even Kong started barking. Maybe it was his way of telling us to be cautious. Mr. Elder got to the roof and secured the lights around the chimney. He was going across the roof slowly and the lights were coming along pretty well.

All of a sudden, he came sliding down the roof but his leg was caught with the Christmas lights. There was a loud CRASH against the living room window, Kong started barking even louder. It was like something out of a movie and I just froze. There was broken glass everywhere inside the living room. Startled, Rick yelled out “Oh No!!! It’s Mr. Elder hanging upside down from the roof!” I still could not move with all the noise. Rick shook me really hard and yelled, “Bobby! Bobby! Call 9-1-1. Get the paramedics and the fire department. Bobby, move it man!”

Life came back to me and I looked for the phone. Rick moved the ladder so he could reach Mr. Elder and hold him until someone else came to help. I called for an ambulance. When I went out, I could already hear the sirens in the background. The fire engine drove into the driveway and the ladder started extending. The firemen went up the ladder and rescued Mr. Elder.

“PHEEEW!” I let out a big sigh. Mr. Elder was fine, embarrassed and just a little bit shaken. I really didn’t want to visit anyone in the hospital during the holidays.

“The music bug bit Kate,” informed my buddy Rick. I hope you haven’t forgotten our famous “Soap-Kate”, the aspiring TV producer and the soap opera addict. Recently, Rick who moved near Kate’s house, gave me the news that he can hear music from Kate’s place almost everyday.

“She got bored of shopping?” asked Steve. To tell you the truth, I was curious too.

“Dunno,” shrugged Rick. “She’s been listening to classical music, like Beethoven all the time.”

Hmm… Kate and classical music don’t really go well together. We wanted to know what’s up so we headed over to Kate’s place. It was a bit of surprise visit and Kate was delighted to see us of course. As we entered her room, it looked like as if we entered a music museum. There were number of CDs of Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi and even books about them on the coffee table. It looked less like pleasure reading and more like a study hall.

“What’s cookin’ Katie? I never thought you were so fond of this kind of music.” I could not help but ask her. “Oh Bob!” Kate beamed. “Nothing special. Jeffrey gave me Beethoven CDs and I loved it. So I’m just reading up on the subject,” said Kate happily. Jeffrey? Who is Jeffrey? I narrowed my eyes. Perhaps Kate saw my mind wonder…

“Jeffrey is a friend who lives nearby. He’s studying at Julliard and he teaches piano to kids. He loves Beethoven and gave me a CD to listen. He introduced me to Beethoven again and I really liked it this time,” said the dreamy eyed Kate.

Well folks, I don’t know whether Kate is in love with Beethoven or the one who introduced her to Beethoven. But it was clear to me that she’s on a mission to find out what classical music is all about. And if I’m not wrong, I think it’s to impress Jeffrey. Really, love can make people do so many things. But you don’t have to be in love to enjoy music or Beethoven. So on this Beethoven’s Birthday you can listen to any of the maestro’s compositions. If you haven’t heard any, try his Fifth or Ninth symphony. They are the timeless classics! Rock On!

“Do you know who invented the airplane?” asked Rachel, my niece. I was gorging on a burger when she threw the question to me. Looking at her, I fumbled for some time. “Eh…I think…umm…I forgot,” I replied and concentrated on my burger.

Rachel, gave me a look of contempt, opened a children’s encyclopedia and started to explain, Wilbur and Orville Wright were two American brothers who are credited with the making of the first successful airplane. On December 17, 1903 they made a successful flight with a heavier-than-air, engine-powered aircraft. Thus 17th December was declared as the “Wright Brothers Day. We have to write an essay on them at school.”

“Why are you asking me when you have the book?” I asked. “Uncle Bob, our teacher says that you should have some basic general knowledge,” shot back Rachel. “Especially, you should know about the famous people who made big things! But you don’t know it!” her eyes were fiery. She was really mad at me. She kept nodding her head with disapproval and slammed her book and went back to her room.

Well, Rachel has a point. I should have remembered about the Wright brothers. But you see, a foodie like me is more interested in knowing about airplane food rather than airplane inventors. I finished munching on the burger to give some time for her to cool off. Afterwards I went to her room and we talked for hours about airplanes. We even planned to take a trip out west which will be Rachel’s first trip on a plane!

The preparations of Christmas are in full swing. Everyone is on a shopping spree, buying gifts and decorations for the holidays. Megan and Kate are spending so much time shopping that it seems the shopping malls are their only home. I’ve been ordered (read “nagged”) to do the decorations that people cannot reach. I don’t really mind because they keep bribing me with sweets and cake. I like decorating for the holidays but I love it better when I’m outdoors. There’s nothing like playing in the snow.

There was one year when I was a kid, my cousins were staying over for the holidays. It was right after a very heavy snowstorm and we were “snowed in”. Roads were blocked and some of the government offices were closed down. We were itching to get out of the house to go make a snowman but my mom told us we weren’t supposed to go out until she said, “okay”. As soon as snow stopped, we went out of my bedroom window because we couldn’t really get the doors to open.

We cleared out the snow in front of the garage to open up the garage door. Then an idea dawned on me and I shouted, “Let’s make the snowman inside the garage!” The idea made my cousin’s eyes sparkle. “YEAH!” they shouted out. We took out the wheelbarrow that Dad used for gardening and started putting snow in it. I shoveled some snow out of my neighbor’s walkway to get some pocket money too!

We piled up lots of snow inside the garage and started building the snow man. We were so involved in our work of art that we forgot about the time and what we were doing. Then suddenly Steve said, “Hey, it’s dark out!” I looked out the garage door and saw that it was really dark out and we were probably approaching dinner time. Then my mom came through the door of the house into the garage and she GASPED very loudly. She saw that we used stuff we found around the garage for the snowman’s face. There were old screws that made up his eyes and old nuts that were no longer useful that made up his smiling face. After the shock my mom braced herself and said, “I’ve been looking all over for you guys! It’s freezing cold out here. At least close the garage door. Dinner will be ready in 20 minutes.”

As soon as we heard the word “dinner” our interest was lost on the snowman. We put an old felt hat and a ratty old scarf on him, closed the garage door and our masterpiece was done. We headed out to dinner with our grumbling stomachs. Dad had nowhere to park his car anyway.

So if you’re decorating your place, think of decorating outside your home too not just the inside. That’ll give you a total complete picture. I’d never forget the face on my mom that day. She wanted to scold us but didn’t and she let the holiday festivities continue.

And for this week’s Moment of Zen: “Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice.” – Dave Barry

Have fun with decking up your places!

Peace,

Bob
Editor, 123Greetings
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