Worst Christmas Ever?

Clouds over the mountains, as seen from the Park Place parking lot at dusk.

Is it too soon to give up on Christmas 2006? John has already use the phrase in this entry's subject line to describe this Christmas, and we're not even there yet!

He has a point. The house is a pit. Most of the decorations (and the trees) are still in boxes, with no room to set them up anyway. We've barely shopped. John's concern is that the house is too full of junk already. Why should we buy more of it? And I haven't found the Christmas CDs yet.

But I still say that it's a bad idea to give up on making Christmas 2006 the best it can be. Tomorrow I hope to get some cleaning in, and some last minute shopping. Friends and family will get the same boring online gift they've seen before from me, but at least it's something they like. We didn't get alternate arrangements made, so I'm cooking again, and I don't think that's such a terrible prospect. There's still church and friends, music and Jesus. There's still another movie on tv that features either a really-real Santa or the Ghost of Christmas past or music by Guaraldi or Berlin.

Besides, it would take a lot to make it the Worst Christmas Ever. We have each other, and a home, and decent jobs and Christmas bonuses. Four years ago, I was morning my mom's death on 12/16. Thirty years ago, I was hanging a green bedspread over a bookcase as a fake Christmas tree. In between there were years when we were thoroughly broke and not really making the best of it. And of course, there are other people who have had truly horrific Christmases, filled with death, destruction an despair. Really, we have no cause for complaint.

I think this year we can do better than we've done so far. Will we? Depends on whether we work at it, I guess. I'll let you know.

Today I had lunch with the friend I was supposed to see last weekend. We went to Broadway Cafe, and I ordered this because it was too bizarre to pass up. Can you tell what it is?

Yes, that brown stuff is peanut butter. This is a King's Double Cheeseburger, with the optional peanut butter and bananas.

I asked for the peanut butter and bananas on the side, in case it was as awful as it sounds. But it turned out to be surprisingly good - not better than a normal cheeseburger, not worse, just different. I ended up eating all the peanut butter and banana, almost all of it on the burger. Heck, I may even try it again sometime.

Karen

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