Christmas in Texas

Today, for the first time this year, I heard a phrase I hate hearing, as in "the Holiday Season is almost here." Said as if this is a good thing.

I've been seeing Halloween stuff in stores for a couple months now. I'm sure if I looked closely I'd see some Thanksgiving stuff. It's probably only a few weeks before Christmas starts its yearly appearance.

I've never enjoyed much about the Holiday Season. Okay, I do like turkey dinner. Last year I got a turkey from Sprouts and made a real good turkey dinner. That's way too much bother. I doubt I'll go through that again this year. Maybe I'll have turkey hot dogs.

People who talk about how busy they are during the Holiday Season, acting sort of like it overwhelms them, with so much to do, annoy me. Why not just opt out if it's too much for you? I pretty much opted out decades ago and I've not suffered too much.

I think, maybe, part of the reason I have an aversion to the Holidays is it always involved way too much family interaction. Going to a combo Christmas/Grandma's Birthday deal a week or so before Christmas. That seeming to come up before I'd recovered from whatever the family Thanksgiving thing for the year happened to be. Followed way too closely by Christmas.

One year for Christmas Eve I had my mom and dad and baby sister over and made Chinese food. That was fun. My baby sister does not remember this, but at the time she was all pleased at the unusual Christmas Eve dinner.

For years my strategy for avoiding Christmas and all it entailed was to simply leave. I spent more than one Christmas in Reno. I enjoyed those Christmases. From Reno I'd go on to LA and have a fine time at Disneyland and playing in the LA zone. I remember the last time I did this was Christmas of 1994. Spent that Christmas at Disneyland. Best Christmas ever.

I did have a good Christmas experience in the year 1999. Right before that millennium thing happened. I'd been up in Washington. It'd been a scary drive north. Way too much ice and snow. So, I decided to return to Texas by heading south down I-5 and then east across the Southwest.

This plan put me on the path to Yuma. Where my mom and dad lived at the time. So, heading south there was much debate along the lines of Disneyland for Christmas. Or Yuma. Yuma won the debate. It turned out to be the right decision. Christmas Eve my dad drove us around Yuma looking at the lights. It was a totally different Christmas. Due to being warm, people were outside, like having a party. These luminaria candle things were everywhere. So many people outside sitting in their yards watching the people drive by.

Christmas morning mom and dad took me to their favorite casino so we could have the 99 cent Senior Citizen Special for breakfast. Me, not being a Senior, but hungry, had 3 of the specials. After the casino we took off for Algadones, Mexico to do some Christmas shopping. That was fun. The best part was watching my mom chasing parking tickets, blowing in the wind, because each one was redeemable at the casino. Which is where we went Christmas night.

Christmas of 1999, in Yuma, may end up being the last time I get to spend Christmas with mom and dad unless I make an effort to get to Phoenix. Phoenix would probably be fun for Christmas. It is very similar to Yuma. Plus they have an In & Out Burger joint. Best burgers ever.