Saturday, December 01, 2007

Comeback edition of Friday Five


WILL SMAMA says: Alright, so I'm dropping by for a brief return stint as contributer. Please, hold down the applause (also please don't forget NOT to cut and paste this part)....

Parishioners pushing for carols before you digested your turkey?

Organist refusing to play Advent hymns because he/she already has them planned for Lessons & Carols?

Find yourself reading Luke and thinking of a variety of ways to tell Linus where to stick it? (Lights please.)

Then this quick and easy Friday Five is for you! And for those of you with a more positive attitude, have no fear. I am sure more sacred and reverent Friday Fives will follow.

Please tell us your least favorite/most annoying seasonal....
1) dessert/cookie/family food It is a toss up between the fruit cake and the Stollen. My dad liked both and baked both for Christmas, and you ate them or died. I think it was the forced eating, I actually didn't like.
2) beverage (seasonal beer, eggnog w/ way too much egg and not enough nog, etc...) All those sweet sweet Fruit punches. Non alcoholic here.
3) tradition (church, family, other) I think that it was the one when I was growing up with my grandma, and I think I have shared this one before. It was on Christmas Eve, we went to Grandma's house and sang Christmas Carols and such and had a bowl of Oyster stew. To me as a kid, it was just yuck.
4) decoration I have pretty much disliked how people fill up their yards with tacky decorations just to have something out there with no rhyme or reason.
5) gift (received or given) Any dirty Santa bad silly gift. I seem to be the one that gets stuck with the most tackiest gifts.
BONUS: SONG/CD that makes you want to tell the elves where to stick it. O my, we are being snarky aren't we, I get really tired of the music being played over and over and over everywhere and anywhere, especially the MUZAK stuff.

I know, I know.... pretty grumpy for November but why not get it out of our systems now so we are free to enjoy the rest of the festivities.

Well I can say is thanks, now that I have that out of my system, let the good times roll.

5 comments:

Sally said...

What a great grumpy list Abi- I hate yards full of stuff too... and oyster stew, really????

Well played ;-)

Unknown said...

I'm so sorry you were forced to eat yucky things! It was the times, wasn't it?

Anonymous said...

Loved your Friday Five!! Is it okay to play here?
1) food: I too grew up with fruitcake - making it on the day after Thanksgiving was one of our few true holiday traditions. We only made it, we didn't have to eat it. I disliked it as a kid, but later found that mom's recipe was actually pretty good (and all my friends claimed to love it and even ate it rather than regifting it) when I started to continue the tradition in my own family. However, between Thanksgivings at my in-laws and soccer tournaments as the kids got older, this tradition went by the wayside (I think no one liked fruitcake THAT much!). Oyster stew on Christmas Eve was also a tradition, surprisingly one embraced by my former husband. I still sometimes make it, encouraged by one of my (non-oyster-stew-eating) children, who must feel the need to continue something traditional. Like the fruitcake, I found it tasted better the older I got.
2) beverage: never had more than an occasional eggnog - with or without the nog, but some spiced ciders are waaay too sweet.
3) tradition: unfortunately, one I never would have chosen - trying to plan family time around my former husband's demands on our kids' time at the holidays. He still (after nearly 8 years [& he was the one who left]) refuses to talk to me and plan anything ahead of time, preferring to tell the kids, often at the last minute, that he expects them there at a certain time. The kids and I used to love the holidays, but are coming to dread them. The best ones are when I can go to one of their houses, though then someone else's feelings are hurt.
4) Decoration: not a big fan of plastic Santas, though I have come to appreciate the lighted "twig" reindeer, but I do now love houses with lots of lights (helped along by when my grandson spent a year with my youngest and me while his parents were both in Iraq -there is no such thing as too many lights to be tasteful when you're one and a half, or even a big three! He was totally enchanted when we saw some fully lighted houses right after Thanksgiving this year!)
5) Gift: hmmm - the weirdest was a book with lots of references to bodily functions at a secret Santa exchange through work (of course I didn't draw the wine or chocolates!!)
Bonus: Song/CD - not a big fan of Santa songs or muzaked carols, but in general I LOVE Christmas carols, especially recordings that actually sing all the verses!!
Thanks for helping to get my "crankies" out and getting my December off to a more enthusiastic start!

Cathy said...

I'm with you on the Christmas decorations!

zorra said...

...Oyster stew?! It must have been a special meal to your grandma when she was a child. I can't think of any other explanation for that.