Happy Boxing Day

I never understood what Boxing Day was until I made some friends from the Great White North. I thought it was a day when we remembered the greats like Cassius Clay or Mike Tyson punching people in the face. It’s either that or a day when we box up all of our gifts that we didn’t like and take them back to the stores in which they came.

Probably the most ungrateful I’ve ever been for a gift was when I was a small child. I received a bean bag chair from my grandmother for Christmas. I loudly exclaimed in tears, “You don’t get furniture for Christmas”.  My childish mind thought that only toys were permitted. I remember her running up to the closest gas station that was open and buying me a green “suckerman”. At least I had a toy, my temper tantrum worked!

Christmas Day Checklist

Photo by Jessica Lewis on Pexels.com

• Wake up way too early because the kids didn’t sleep at all
• Open presents, either from Santa or hard-working parents who paid for them
• Eat breakfast – We make a sausage egg and cheese casserole.
• Jump in the car, take off (drive about 2 hours with no traffic)
• Arrive at the first stop
• Open presents
• Eat lunch
• Jump in the car, take off (30-minute drive)
• Arrive at the second stop
• Open presents
• Eat dinner
• Collapse in exhaustion
• Wonder how the kids are still going strong.

This is the shortlist, it used to be much longer and covered a much longer distance. Between the food, fun, family, and yes sometimes fighting, don’t forget about Jesus during this time. It’s the whole point of it all.

Christmas Eve Traditions

My Christmas Eve traditions have evolved over the years. Long story, bear with me.

Grandparent Traditions

We used to wait for my Dad to get off work and ride to my paternal Grandparents’ house. We would usually be one of the last to arrive since my father worked for Federal Express helping Santa’s sleigh finish its route. Upon entering their home, you would be greeted by the warmth of the floor furnace. It was an open grate that continuously pumped heat. I’m not sure how that was safe and that we didn’t get roasted as children. I swear you could smell your shoes melting.

There was plenty of food and it all tasted fantastic. However, you couldn’t smell any of it. All the adults smoked cigarettes which built a nicotine barrier that food aromas couldn’t break through. Christmas Eve always felt like the longest evening. We would stare at the mountain of presents under a 3-foot-tall tall already decorated tree that was erected before the evening and taken down the next day. The grown-ups wanted to sing by the piano but we wanted to see what was under all those wrappings. Once we started opening presents (after a few 10-minute delays) it didn’t take long before the night was over and we were on our way home.

Starting our Own

We live just far enough where we have to do our own thing for Christmas Eve. Otherwise, we would have to spend Christmas morning at someone else’s place. I want my kids to wake up in their own house on Christmas morning. We keep it pretty simple. We watch Christmas movies and bake treats. We have a nice steak dinner at a restaurant and then attend a Christmas Eve service at our local Church. We then drive around and look at Christmas lights. We come home, open one gift, and then put the kids to bed. We then watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation while we wrap and assemble the kid’s gifts.

It’s important to start and keep traditions, but also remain flexible. Someone in your family is always going to be unhappy, don’t let it be you.

How excited are you for Christmas?

Nothing like hanging a wreath on it.

You are either in one of two camps, you can’t wait for Christmas to be over or you are having a “hard” time waiting for Christmas morning.

Welcome to Cheat Week?

Photo by Public Domain Pictures on Pexels.com

Most diets will let you have a cheat day, but the days following Christmas to New Year’s are declared cheat week. If you know you will be going back on your diet, why not try to gain as much weight as possible to skew those top numbers so it will look like you accomplished more? Who are you kidding, you haven’t been on a diet since Thanksgiving and have been enjoying a cheat month.

One time at work they had a competition of who could maintain their weight during the holidays. If you stayed within a few pounds then you would get a gift card or something. I had a co-worker who actually lost weight during the challenge. Here’s how he did it. On the day of the weigh-in, he had on a big sweater with an undershirt, canvas cargo pants, and boots. When he was weighed after the holidays it was unseasonably warm and he was only wearing a Dri-fit polo shirt, some light khaki pants, and loafers. He lost 4 lbs over the holidays! Talk about a real cheat month!

But seriously, why not just treat food with respect and enjoy food but don’t overindulge.

Happy Winter Solstice

Facebook Winter Wishes

If you still worship Saturn then I hope you have a happy winter solstice. Many people are complaining that Christmas hijacked Saturnalia. Well, they are partially right. Christmas used to be celebrated in the springtime but many were feeling left out by not participating in the drunken debauchery fest known as Saturnalia.

The church decided to move Christmas to December as a rival celebration. This would give Christians something else to do rather than eating and drinking until they vomited and other such merrymaking.  Just to be clear, Christmas is not pagan in origin but some winter celebrations are full-blown pagan. If anything paganism has crept back into Christmas.

Adventures in buying a microwave light bulb

Lowe’s tried to lure me into their store with a free $10 gift card, it worked. My microwave light burst during seven power surges in the neighborhood last week and those suckers cost $8 so I set forth on my adventure.

I asked someone (mistake) there if there was an LED equivalent so that the light would outlive the microwave. The clerk gave me one even though I asked him about it saying “appliance”. Cut to the chase, it didn’t work, but that’s not the fun part of the adventure.

When I went to check out, the cashier had no idea how to use the gift card. It wouldn’t scan and when she tried manual entry the field didn’t allow for all the numbers on the card. Programming tip: nvarchar(max) on all the fields forever! Not really. So I paid full price and went to the customer service desk.

They refunded the bulb after about 5 minutes of fighting with the gift card but then the computer froze locking them out of the system. So we had to move to another cash register. Once it went through the light bulb had now been returned twice for the same transaction. That comes into play when I return to Lowes later when I try to return the bulb that doesn’t work. So I get store credit. So I spent about 20 minutes of time and about 3 gallons of gas to purchase a light bulb. The $10 gift card was pointless. Next time, I’ll just use Amazon.

How to avoid traffic light intersections

While we understand that everyone values their time, it’s important to emphasize that every driver should adhere to traffic rules and not assume special privileges. In our town, there are several shopping centers with suboptimal designs leading to traffic bottlenecks. Fortunately, there are restaurant parking lots and gas stations strategically located near these busy intersections. This allows drivers to make a quick stop for a snack at Hardee’s or grab a refreshing Mountain Dew Purple Thunder from Circle K. However, it’s crucial to plan ahead and avoid last-minute decisions to navigate through busy intersections safely.

What is best way to cook steak?

Weber Grill at the Weber Grill, Chicago

I’ve been eating steak since before I had teeth. Anyway, that’s what my hope is. My thought is my parents would put a freshly grilled steak in the blender and feed it to me in baby food form. However, in my adult form, I’ve adopted the reverse sear method of cooking a steak. It’s very easy and gives you consistently delicious results. Because of this method, my spouse will remind me to never order a steak if we go out to eat.

1. Purchase a 1″ thick steak. Ribeye or New York Strip are my favorite cuts. I’ve been using ButcherBox for a few years. It’s expensive but the quality and convenience are worth it.
2. Get yourself a quarter sheet rack pan (allows airflow)
3. Cover the entire steak in coarse kosher salt. This is a wet aging process to pull some of the moisture out of the steak.
4. Place steak on pan and rack and refrigerate for 8 to 10 hours. (flip it about 4 hours in)
5. Preheat the pellet grill to 200 degrees. I’ve been using the super smoke setting on my Traegert Grill for about 15-20 mins on a cold steak. The smoke flavor is unreal
6. Smoker until the internal temperature reaches 115-120 degrees. This is at the blue rare stage. Pull it sooner if you want a rare steak.
7. Rest for 10 minutes, you too, you’ve been working hard
8. Lather on a layer of avocado oil and add more seasoning if you like, I suggest just Coarse Salt and Pepper. You need something to help build a crust.
9. Heat a cast iron skillet as hot as you can, but don’t touch it with your index finger. To know it’s ready, drop a few beads of water in the skillet, if they disappear immediately, then it’s ready.
10. Sear on both sides for about 45 seconds to 1 minute. While adding a few spoonfuls of ghee to give it some extra juice.
11. Rest for 10 more minutes.
12. Eat your steak, it should be nice and medium rare with a nice crust on the outside.

What to get the person who has everything?

Gift-giving is hard unless it’s your spiritual gift. You know someone well and you know what they want or need.

Random Gifts

Grab something from front isles from Walmart and be done.

Thoughtful Gifts

Get the know the person and see a need they have for a gift. This is probably the best gift given.

Last minute gifts

Stop by your local Walgreens and CVS on the way to the Christmas party and find a “As Seen on TV” item.