Spencer Jack Counting Down To Christmas With Me In Grinch Mode

This morning, soon upon waking up my computer and checking on email, I came upon the first evidence I have seen that the dreaded, by me, holiday season, is upon us.

Two emails from Spencer Jack and his dad.

The first email had a photo of Spencer Jack and his dad in full Christmas costume, with text asking me a question along the line of wondering if I  think we will be getting the same surprising Christmas presents we got last year.

I have no answer to that question,  except  to say a repeat, in various iterations, would not surprise me.

The second email included only that which you see above, that being Spencer Jack with his Christmas Countdown artwork, which I assume Spencer constructed at school. I think this photo was taken yesterday, so by today I assume Spencer Jack has changed the days til Christmas Countdown to 51 days.

Below is the aforementioned photo of Spencer Jack and his dad all decked out and ready for Christmas.

I was not expecting a Christmas related photo from Spencer Jack and his dad. I was sort of expecting a Halloween photo. Especially after I read that Spencer Jack's and my former hometown, Mount  Vernon, had a downtown Halloween Trick or Treat event which attracted thousands of kids in costumes.

I assume this Halloween event took place on Mount Vernon's new Riverwalk along the Skagit River, with its large plaza.

I do not believe any similar event took place on Saturday in the downtown of my current hometown, Fort Worth, where there is a river, but no Riverwalk. There is a plaza, but it is a bit small compared to Mount Vernon's. Fort Worth's could not accommodate thousands of Trick or Treaters.

Seems ironic that little Mount Vernon, population of around 30,000, has a Riverwalk and Plaza that can accommodate a lot of kids, while Fort Worth, population around 800,000, does not have such a venue. I wonder how many people can be crammed into downtown Fort Worth's little Sundance Square Plaza?

Now that the dreaded, by me, holiday season is upon us, that means that very soon it will be that day one is expected to consume too much turkey and that bird's assorted accompaniments. I decided yesterday that I am not cooking a big bird this year. This will be a Tex-Mex Thanksgiving in my abode, with a big buffet of all the Mexican food type stuff I know how to make, which will make for a very limited Thanksgiving Buffet.

Then the day after Thanksgiving I do all my Christmas shopping in downtown Fort Worth. I do my Christmas shopping at that location because I buy no Christmas presents. Doing so is impossible in downtown Fort Worth because there are no stores selling such in the biggest downtown in America with no downtown department stores and very few retail stores of any sort, making downtown Fort Worth pretty much a ghost town on the busiest shopping day of the year.

I have no idea what I will do to avoid the next holiday in the holiday season lineup. When I lived in Washington, going to Reno or Southern California, or both, was often my Christmas escape. I think the last time I did so was 1994. Christmas Day in Disneyland.

I suppose I could escape to Six Flags Over Texas, if it is open Christmas, what with it being only about six miles to the east. But Six Flags, for want of a better word, sort of sucks, compared to Disneyland, which used to be known as the Happiest Place on Earth. Til other Disneylands opened elsewhere and spread the Happiness.....