After Christmas

What a miserable day! It's cold and it's raining and who wants to be out in this mess?

We are making plans.

We are going to the Chick Fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta. We will stay at the Marriott Marquis where the Auburn players are staying. On Jan 2 Fred will fly to San Diego for a company sales meeting. Later in January, Freddy is going to Hawaii to see his cousin Jaime marry James.

We have plans.

Christmas Day 2007

The Hudsons unexpectedly spend the day at home. We had intended to drive to Muscle Shoals as has been our custom in recent years to visit the Herrings: Scott, Dawn, Tiffany, and Tony. But we are sick, fighting off something the 3 of us, Freddy in particular, and so we are at home on Christmas Day, 2007.

We exchange family gifts and talk to Fred's sister Joanne, who lives in Snellville, Georgia. We get updated on the McDonalds. Joanne expects to see all of her crew today. Everyone seems to be doing well including Joanne. She is still working full-time at Stone Mt. Amusement Park but is thinking of going to part-time.

The day in Shelby County is dull and cold. It is winter after all.

Merry Christmas to one and all.

Article About Us

Our family was honored today by an article in The Birmingham News detailing our Christmas activities. We are so elated that the state's most prestigious paper would feature us that we decided to publish the article here on our family blog.

MIDDLE CLASS PELHAM FAMILY BUYS PRESENTS TO FIND THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS
by Jane Gashen

Christmas is when families gather, carolers sing to their neighbors, and Santa's reindeer whisk through the cool night skies as children sip cocoa by a warm fireplace. But for one middle class Pelham family, the Hudsons, that spirit of love was forgotten this season until they began receiving boxes upon boxes of presents they bought to give friends and family.

Fred, Moyna, and their son Freddy lost the true meaning of Christmas. They became stagnate from carrying out the same traditions of years past. Their list of people to buy for is the same this year as it always has been, and the decorations they put up around the house are years, sometimes decades, old.

"It was so tiring doing the same things we do every Christmas," said Moyna. "I got so depressed that I didn't even realize that this time of the year is about love and family, not presents and how nice your house looks. It's really about the spiritual."

In addition to Christmas repetition causing them to lose focus on what Christmas is all about, their despair reached a pivotal point in late November.

Usually, the Hudsons put up their Christmas tree then, typically just after Thanksgiving. This year, however, they did not. The effort of taking the tree out of its box and adorning it with hundreds of ornaments, as they have done every year before, was just too hard.

"We lost sight of the fact that Christmas is a celebration of togetherness. Because of that, taking the three days it takes to do our tree was just too daunting. We lost the spirit, and we didn't know how to get it back," said Fred. "If you have the spirit, then you are committed to doing the things you do at Christmas, and that includes putting up a tree, and we didn't do that."

He added, "As W. Somerset Maugham observed, 'Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.'"

The climax came when the Hudsons did not send out a family newsletter with their Christmas cards, something they had been doing since at least the late 1990s. In the newsletter they tell friends and family what happened to them throughout the year and what they're up to. Like the tree, it was just too much work.

However, things started to turn around when Moyna started ordering tons and tons of gifts and the presents began to be delievered daily, usually at least four boxes a day. They had so many boxes of goodies, mainly chocolates and other sweets, that one of their bedrooms was overly crowded with stuff, making it nearly impossible to walk around in it.

"When we would go into that bedroom, you basically couldn't walk in there, and things were stacked often five feet high. It was a wonder," said Freddy. "We began taking Christmas presents out of the room to wrap, which with so many presents, it took three full days to complete. Even then, we had so many gifts that we couldn't possibly give everything away to our family and friends."

The Hudsons bought so many presents, and were still getting boxes upon boxes daily, that the sheer volume of it all made them realize Christmas is about giving to those you care about and the love that is shared with family and friends. They realized too that it's a celebration of Jesus' birth. It's a gift the Hudsons know they'll always remember.

As one of their UPS delivery guys, Harry Weltz, put it, "Like so many poor people suffering in other countries, their receiving the boxes I brought was like relief aid. It's really not the same thing, of course, but the Hudsons needed a lift, and I'm happy I helped provide it."

Their three other UPS delivery guys, all of whom Fred got to know personally because of their frequent visits to his home, agreed.

The Hudsons' regaining the true meaning of Christmas is startling because most families of affluence are so lost in making food and rushing to buy gifts, including all the hottest items and latest gizmos, that they forget what Christmas is really about. For a middle class family like the Hudsons to experience the opposite effect, it's quite hard to explain.

According to Yale sociologist Harvey P. Moulich, "The Christmas spirit is a rare commodity usually found only among the poorest classes of people, who without as much are better able to experience the holiday for what it's meant to be. Those with means, in contrast, are typically too vain."

The only question that remains is what the Hudsons will do with all their extra gifts. Moyna is unsure, but knows some of it will go to their neighbors. Today she will send a big box of over twelve different packages of chocolate treats to the Denisons, who live down the street from them.

"Moyna called and told me she is going to send a bunch of chocolates. It's amazing how much they bought for Christmas, for I nearly fainted when I saw their bedroom full of it all. But I certainly do look forward to all the goodies coming my way!" said Dinah Denison.

My Thoughts as Christmas is Nearing and the Year Comes to An End

When I left this morning to get breakfast, it was frigid outside. Frost hung from my car. I poured water to clear my windshield, opting not for Pelham tap water, but instead Dasani raspberry flavored from a bottle in the refrigerator. It's my way of doing a part to conserve. Along with this cold comes Christmas too. It's nearing fast, and like Dad I'm not ready (and I don't want fruitcake either).

Cell phones are also popular presents. There are 3.3 billion cell phone accounts, about one phone for every two people in the world. Personally, I don't have a cell phone, and nor do I want one. Being old fashioned, I prefer yelling.

Now that Mitt Romney delivered a speech saying it's O.K. to elect a Mormon as president, a counter to Huckabee's rise among Christians, the debate over religion and the presidency is only heating up. Osama Bin Laden, a Muslim, announced the formation of an exploratory committee to determine the viability of his running for president. The decision ends weeks of speculation by political pundits that he would put terrorism behind him and enter mainstream politics. He aims to run as the only "End the War in Iraq" candidate by capitalizing on the unwillingness of any major Republican or Democrat to oppose the war. Although single issue candidates are rarely successful, Bin Laden supporters believe America's sentiment against the war could help an Osama Bin Laden for President campaign, provided he overcomes his image as a mass murderer and backward cave dweller. The only question is with which party will he seek a nomination. On the one hand, his war mongering policies and killing of innocent civilians makes him attractive as a Republican, while his cave dwelling, low carbon emission lifestyle appeals to the pro-environment Democratic base. Either way, it certainly will be interesting to see how well Bin Laden does.

In other political news, who can forget that July 8 when Sen. Edward Kennedy was speaking on the Senate floor, and his head exploded, a culmination of his head's growing steadily bigger since at least the 1960's. If only his head had exploded a day earlier, I would have won $40 from my friends from our pool on what week his head would finally go bust. Thankfully, however, Sen. Kennedy was able to keep talking and finish his speech.

This has been a big year for celebrities too. They all went to jail or rehab at least once. For Halloween this year, I wanted to dress up as a celebrity, but couldn't decide which of my favorites to be. At first I wanted to be Michael Vick, then Lindsay Lohan, but then as Halloween approached and it was getting colder, I started wearing my pair of black gloves. That gave me the idea of trick-or-treating as O.J. Simpson. I still couldn't really decide though. So, I slapped on an electronic ankle bracelet and stayed home on Halloween, figuring that to be a good compromise.

Bob Barker left The Price is Right. I'm still sad about that. Every time I pet my cats though, I mutter under my breath a quiet thanks for reminding me to spay or neuter my pets.

Many people have been asking me what my New Year's resolution will be. After much pondering, I have decided that in 2008 I will start my own Internet search engine. It has long been known that the amount of useless drivel on the Internet is increasing exponentially on a daily basis. There is so much information written by people who have no idea what they are talking about that I decided we need a thorough search engine, similar to Google, to harness it all. That way, people will have a fast and reliable source to find stupid stuff that is as inaccurate as what we've come to expect from the Internet. As we all know, it is so difficult nowadays to find sites with worthless opinions on important subjects and that are a waste of our time. With my search engine, however, it will be possible for people not only to get things wrong by their own ignorance, superstition, and prejudice, but also to get things wrong by believing information posted on the Internet by people who are also idiots, thereby further increasing the amount unverifiable and pointless nonsense populating the world.

Christmas 2007

Here it comes, ready or not, another Christmas!

By the way, I get so sick of people asking me, “Are you ready for Christmas?” Of course, I’m not ready. I’ll never be ready, but it will happen anyway.

We get ready to celebrate the birth of a child over 2,000 years ago. No, not Andy Rooney. You know who I mean.

Run for your life! The fruitcake is coming, and by the way, I hate fruitcake so don’t EVER send me a fruitcake. The last time I recall taking a bite of fruitcake was in 1956. I took one bite and left the fork in the cake. I doubt the fruitcake would taste much different even today.

During this Christmas season I was stunned to hear about the death of Ike Turner. I did not know he was real. I thought he was somebody that Tina just made up.

Christmas sleighs me every year. I can’t get enough of it! (For those of you who don’t know me, I’m being facetious, ho, ho, ho) Elvis once sang, “Why can’t everyday be like Christmas?” Was that when he started with the drugs?

I'm glad we don't have to buy for young kids anymore. I'm too old and too tired to keep up with the latest gizmos for the youth.

We will have a quiet Christmas this year. SSSSHHHH!

The Box

We’ve known for a long time that the Defnalls are kind of strange----ever since Don Defnall came to our annual neighborhood Christmas party in 1998 and sat mute on a kitchen chair by the Christmas tree for an hour. We tried to engage him in conversation, but all we could pull from him were grunts and barely audible yesses and nos. Then he got up and left the house without so much as saying a word.

We heard later that Mrs. Defnall had some kind of cancer and wasn’t doing well and that they had 2 little ones, Justin and Angie. Then we heard that Mrs. Defnall was bipolar and was a big-time management problem and maybe that was why Don was the way he was. Then we heard that Don had a problem with clinical depression. The only time we saw the little ones was when they were occasionally seen playing in the yard.

Then all of a sudden one summer the Defnalls disappeared. We kept waiting for a “For Sale” sign to go up, but nothing of the kind. They were gone for several years, the house seemed to be falling down, some one coming in the summer each time the grass got knee deep to mow.

The Defnall house is across the street from us next to the Moores. Paul Moore is a Baptist preacher semi-retired. Barbara Moore is the neighborhood go-to person to know what is going on in the hood. One day we met as we both went to the mailbox at the same time, and she told me that the Defnalls had moved into his father’s house in Hoover because his father was in declining health, and Don, indeed, suffered from depression, and she didn’t know about Mrs. Defnall or the kids.

Then the Defnalls came back last summer. At least, as far as we can tell, Don and Justin came back. We do not know what has happened to Mrs. Defnall and Angie.

Justin rides the school bus each morning, and he crosses the street and walks thru our yard to catch the bus. As I see him some mornings, he looks like a normal kid.

Yesterday I pulled into our driveway in the afternoon as Justin exited his bus. I walk out to our mailbox as he walks by.

“Hi, Mr. Hudson!” he says. “Want to see something?”

“Sure,” I say, somewhat startled that he spoke to me for the first time. His voice is high, almost falsetto. His dark brown hair is long, covering his ears, and his teeth are too big for his mouth---all you can see is a mouth full of piano keys.

“You got anything you want to make disappear,” he says as he shows me a small box.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“I have a disappearing box. Put something inside this box, and it disappears.”

“Oh, really,” I respond, thinking he’s going to show me a magic trick.

I pick up a rock from the road.

“What about this rock” I ask.

“Sure,” he says. Justin places the rock inside the box, closes it, closes his eyes, and clinches his face like he’s in pain. He opens the box. The rock has vanished. He shows me the empty box.

“Wow! That’s great, Justin. Nice trick. How do you do it?”

“You just put something in the box, close it, wish it to disappear, and that’s all there is to it.”

“Oh, I get it. A magician never tells how he does it. Right?!”

Justin looks at me like he doesn’t understand what I’m saying.

“I guess so,” he says.

“Let me see the box.”

I take the box and open it. It’s about 4” X 4” and has black felt inside. It looks like a music box with the music element removed. I cannot see any way the trick is done.

“How about this leaf,” I tell Justin as I pick up a leaf from the road.

“OK,” he says.

Same procedure. The leaf disappears.

Suddently I realize that this is real. The box DOES make things disappear.

“Where did you get this?” I ask Justin.

“Found it in our garage,” Justin says.

Before I can say more, he says, “Gotta go. Dad’s waiting.”

He walks on up the road to his house.

I am stunned. What am I to make of this? No one will believe me if I tell them. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

MOYNA'S SOAPBOX (3)

HO, HO, HO!!!!!!! Here come those holidays...once again...every year at this time. I swear it's only been 8 months since Christmas 2006, but the calendar begs to differ.

So far (it's only Dec. 3rd), my nerves aren't too bad. Our Christmas cards are done and will be mailed this week. It went smoothly this year because Fred and I decided NOT to send a newsletter this year. YES, you read that correctly - NO newsletter this year. We just said we didn't want to do one. I'm sure we will be back next year with the newsletter for those of you who look forward to it.

I will spend a couple of days this week wrapping gifts. Not one of my favorite things to do, but it must be done. Fred is looking forward to clearing out the "blue room" (that's our spare bedroom). Right now it only has a small path to walk around. Fred keeps saying I bought way too much. I keep telling him I haven't bought that much this year, it's just that what I bought is large, thus taking up a lot of room! I don't think he believes me...

Next week, the stress really begins. I will be "in the kitchen" making the goodies I have planned for this year. After 20-some years of my peanut butter balls (Freddy says it's not Christmas if I don't make them), I will be making a different recipe of peanut butter balls. I'm safe, though, Freddy has given his approval for this recipe!!
This recipe takes a little more time to do, but the change is worth it. After 20-some years of the other recipe, we just need a change!

I will also be doing lots of other goodies such as sno-ball cookies, rum balls, and tiger chow to name a few. There will be a plethora of goodies; I even had to order some more Lock & Lock containers to hold it all. Now, I know you're saying we don't need all of it, and you're right, we don't. BUT..., a lot of it will be given as gifts - especially to our neighbors in their "goodie bags." I do this about every 3 years - go crazy making a lot of sweets - and this is the year. Everything looks & sounds good to me so that it's hard to choose which ones to do!!

One thing we also decided for this year - and it was a really tough decision - was NOT to put up a tree. We have decorations (though not as many as usual) around the house, but no tree. We all talked it over, and decided we just didn't want to have to take it down. We don't mind putting it up, but taking it down is a nightmare for us. It looks a little strange not to have the tree up since we have other decorations around, but we just think about taking it down, and it doesn't look that bad not to have the tree up!!

I guess that's about it for this installment of my soapbox. Holiday wishes to all, and to all a goodnight!!!!!!!