In case you haven't noticed, the holiday season is in full force. Even now, you're probably having reconstituted Thanksgiving leftovers for breakfast while watching a Hallmark Christmas movie. Or wondering when Rudolph and It's a Wonderful Life will be on this month. Or regretting the fact that you threw a bottle and broke your TV because of the one-too-many times you've seen that back-for-a-second-season commercial about the chick who loves the black GMC Sierra truck her honey bought himself during the truck maker's Black Friday Event instead of the red truck her honey bought for her.
Google "Thanksgiving Christmas overlap" and you'll see a few cute cartoons, the funniest of which shows Santa brandishing a whip over the turkeys pulling his sleigh while sporting Pilgrim headgear. "This holiday overlap has gotten way out of hand!" one unfortunate bird remarks to the other. Another good one: the annoyed family patriarch remarking, "We're still eating" to Santa, the Nutcracker, Rudolph, Cindy Lou Who, the gingerbread man and a couple of others who have shown up at the family's Thanksgiving dinner.
In the true spirit of overlap, I, the Talkmistress, have decided to combine two lists: Things I Was Thankful for in November and All I Want for Christmas.
Without further ado:
Things I Was Thankful for in November ...
• Relative peace during a time when reality has gotten even crazier than the reality shows.
• That there's still a few remnants of good news to be found out there, from one as simple as a colorblind student seeing color for the first time thanks to special eyeglasses to one as spectacular as a lifesaving kidney donation or a rescue of someone from a burning vehicle.
• The lack of plans to travel in the icky weather this country, or at least parts of it, always seems to be hammered with "just in time for Thanksgiving/Christmas."
• The whole intermittent-fasting thing, which allows one to at least hang on, by a toe, to mindful eating during the tough holiday season.
• Survival of that Sunday afternoon, pre-Thanksgiving Kroger trip.
• That there are such things as treadmills and elevators (and one can appreciate both equally).
• That I possessed no need to rush out and subject myself to Black Friday Madness to purchase GMC trucks or anything else.
• The ability to think before posting, which I can't urge others to do enough.
• Knowing there's a much-less-than-rosy real story behind the Thanksgiving holiday, but also realizing that gratefulness, 365 days of the year, can keep one from losing one's dang mind.
All I want for Christmas is ...
• A (good) check for 10 grand, like that singer-songwriter performing at a hotel in Nashville recently found she'd received. Oh, it can be more.
• That buzz-generating micropurse carried by singer Lizzo to the American Music Awards. Just to draw attention away from the needfully suitcase-sized purse I'll have in my other hand.
• A mega-metabolism boost.
• To be in the same shape as Willie Murphy, that 82-year-old powerlifting Rochester, N.Y., woman who recently made headlines for whupping up on her home intruder. And I want Murphy's triceps, to boot: Five months of faithful workouts, and mine are still bat wings.
• Super Bowl contenders who didn't play in the last umpteen Super Bowl(s).
• As one whose spouse doesn't drive ... as one who puts a lot of miles in covering events for this newspaper's society section ... and as one who hates driving, especially on freeways, a little more by the day ... the perfection and affordability of the self-driving car, doggone it.
• And, one that looks a lot better than that Tesla Cybertruck.
• A moratorium on using the word "impeachment," with the following allowed substitutes: Imbananament, imstrawberryment, imapplement, imkiwifruitment and, yes, impearment.
• Peace on earth. Goodwill toward one's fellow man. And, hey, more gratefulness and blessings-counting from us all. Please.
Let's turkey trot to the Miracle on 34th Street, and email:
hwilliams@arkansasonline.com
Style on 12/01/2019