Just Around the Corner!

This coming week begins the marathon of holidays, first Thanksgiving, then Christmas Eve, by some accounts it's own separate holiday, followed by Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, again a holiday celebration of it's own, New Year's Day, a recovery holiday and finally January 6th, in the Christian world, the Feast of the Epiphany or Little Christmas.  Better known as the Twelfth Day of Christmas, it is also the day all ornaments are exiled to a world of darkness, their plastic storage bins returned to dusty attics, dank, damp basements and over-crowded garages. Many carefully wrapped, ribbons, bows, fluffed and stuffed with tissue paper, family heirlooms cradled in bubble wrap, all delicately placed in their proper niche to avoid breaking.  Then there are the lights, what to do with those G-damn lights.  No matter how hard you try, you wind, you wrap, you use twist ties, but the next year, still a tangled mess. Same goes for those strands of beads, much like necklaces thrown into the jewelry box, they NEVER come out the way they were put in. The other evening we watched Toy Story 3, the moment human eyes disappear, the toys come to life, for lack of a better explanation, I believe the same is true for the holiday ornaments!  God knows they have almost eleven months to make a shit-mess of themselves!

A Fred's News Holiday celebration was ever so special.  Our first years at Fred's the decorations were silver, blue, purple and everything frosty.  Wreaths and garlands, snow frosted windows, truly a winter wonderland.  Then as January 6th approached the cleanup began......NEVER and I do mean NEVER will I ever use spray snow again.  Advertised as "easy to remove", that was pure Bull#*@, as was the claim,"cleans your windows as it it removed"!  Whoever rated the product must of been on Crack Cocaine!  As years passed the holiday decorations sort of evolved.  Always put up at the close of business on Thanksgiving, the place was a holiday wonderland on BLACK FRIDAY.  As soon as our youngest son, Mark was old enough and able to reach every nook and cranny of the place, he was "Chief Elf Decorator" in charge.  What a wonderful job he did.  For a few years, he had" Elves in Training", Jamie and Jordan Jones as his assistants.  As everyone matured, the Joneses moving back to Louisiana, Mark continued to be the Holiday decorator at Fred's News, always producing stunning results.  As he left for college, I worried about many things, holiday decorations were not one of my worries, but as the time approached and Mark returned home for Thanksgiving, Black Friday was always a Fred's News Winter Wonderland!