{"id":17094,"date":"2017-12-22T16:58:09","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T16:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/?p=17094"},"modified":"2017-12-28T17:04:17","modified_gmt":"2017-12-28T17:04:17","slug":"life-island-times-christmas-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/life-island-times-christmas-traditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Life &#038; Island Times: Christmas Traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Marlow: During our 27th consecutive road trip to this year&#8217;s Army-Navy game two weeks ago, we oldsters recalled annual Christmas traditions that we and others had experienced.  Some were touching.  Others had pop culture connections from our, our children&#8217;s and grandchildren&#8217;s youth.  Some were funny.   Some were creepy.  Here are my notes on those that bear sharing.<\/p>\n<p>Singing &#8220;Happy Birthday&#8221; to Jesus when they got up<\/p>\n<p>Themed Secret Santa gift exchange for the adults<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/secret_santa.gif\" alt=\"secret_santa\" width=\"274\" height=\"146\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17100\" \/> <\/p>\n<p>Watching Elf, It&#8217;s a Wonderful Life, Christmas Vacation, Muppet Christmas Carol. Bad Santa, Holiday Inn, Christmas Story, Scrooge, The Grinch  . . .<\/p>\n<p>Eating and drinking enough for 19 people<\/p>\n<p>Adults sitting by ourselves late on Christmas night talking about those we miss<\/p>\n<p>Recently &#8211; lamenting failed Novembers and bitching about cable news programs<\/p>\n<p>Extended family Christmas dinners<\/p>\n<p>Volunteering to feed the hungry and clothe the homeless<\/p>\n<p>An ode to Eddie Murphy &#8212; wishing Merry New Year to unsuspecting strangers on the street and in stores<\/p>\n<p>No one mentioned exercising on Christmas day.  I don&#8217;t know why.<\/p>\n<p>Going to church services<\/p>\n<p>No one mentioned spending the holidays with their wife in Paris.  <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/122217-2LIT.gif\" alt=\"122217-2LIT\" width=\"383\" height=\"250\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17095\" \/> <\/p>\n<p>Calling the cops after the annual canned cranberry jelly vs cookbook cranberry sauce debate and throw-down occur.<\/p>\n<p>One new one was mentioned &#8212; handing out Chuck E. Cheese tokens to people on the streets while telling them they&#8217;re Bitcoins<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/122217-3LIT.gif\" alt=\"122217-3LIT\" width=\"452\" height=\"205\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17096\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Streaking through a friend&#8217;s condo association Christmas party<\/p>\n<p>Elf on the Shelf &#8211;  either it&#8217;s a troubling sign of the deep state surveillance system or good modern parenting.  Either would be utterly American.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/122217-4LIT.gif\" alt=\"122217-4LIT\" width=\"244\" height=\"247\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17097\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/122217-4LIT.gif 244w, https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/122217-4LIT-100x100.gif 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 244px) 100vw, 244px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Voting on which holiday song is the sexiest &#8211; Baby It&#8217;s Cold Outside or Santa Baby<\/p>\n<p>Creepy Santa dolls\/figurines from the 60s<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/122217-5LIT.gif\" alt=\"122217-5LIT\" width=\"214\" height=\"305\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17098\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Nonstop Christmas music on the radio beginning the week after Halloween <\/p>\n<p>Eating cream cheese wrapped in bologna.  This tradition from one of my friend&#8217;s uncle is nauseating.<\/p>\n<p>Alle-mew-yah!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/122217-6LIT.gif\" alt=\"122217-6LIT\" width=\"248\" height=\"345\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17099\" \/> <\/p>\n<p>Special tree ornaments from long ago<\/p>\n<p>Singing carols<\/p>\n<p>Driving through neighborhoods with holiday lighting dsiplays<\/p>\n<p>Live nativities<\/p>\n<p>Sitting our children on the lap of a bearded seasonal worker<\/p>\n<p>Mistletoe at the holiday office parties of various Washington DC beltway intelligence agencies.  Ish.<\/p>\n<p>Merry Christmas, all y&#8217;all.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2017 From My Isle Seat<br \/>\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Marlow: During our 27th consecutive road trip to this year&#8217;s Army-Navy game two weeks ago, we oldsters recalled annual Christmas traditions that we and others had experienced. Some were touching. Others had pop culture connections from our, our children&#8217;s and grandchildren&#8217;s youth. Some were funny. Some were creepy. Here are my notes on those [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-island-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17101,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17094\/revisions\/17101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}