Christmas Has Left the Building

10/29/11

On the date above, the last of Aunt D's Christmas stuff was hauled from her nearly empty house. Well, the last of it that I was willing to haul. The van was full, the drive was five hours, and I wasn't going to come back for a collection of pine cones, a few 3' artificial trees, and things that had faded or gotten bent, but that she couldn't bring herself to throw out.

Aunt D, everyone will think of you every Christmas because you were the one who really did Christmas. Those of us who grew up knowing that the prettiest box would be the one from Aunt D can't think of Christmas without thinking of you. . . even if I take five bins of stuff to Goodwill.

That big red bin with the green lid in front is full of wrapping paper. And it's the good stuff. The bin on top of it is fancy ribbons and the one on top of that is foldable boxes. There's also another bin of ribbon in there somewhere and a big cardboard box in the house that's full of fancy Christmas boxes and tins. It will take years to use it all.

There are also a few other cardboard boxes in the house that didn't make it into the picture. Christmas may have left the building, but it's finding homes in many places.

Guilt to Goodwill 2011

11/11/11

This will start with a list of things going to Goodwill today. Some of them will have had pictures taken of them first, but the first things on the list definitely haven’t.

Also, I took an orange Rubbermaid bin and a smattering of Fall Decorations in to work. The bin will be used for the food drive collection for Thanksgiving. The decorations will be used around the office. Cheryl too custody of most of them.


For Goodwill:
1 big foldable box for Christmas Ornaments
a bag with 3 to 5 tinsel garlands
a decorative pack of holiday notepads with a wall hanger
a red and green Rubbermaid bin
a small new testament
a pack of 3 colored men’s handkerchiefs
a bible promises book
a 5x7 frame (with a picture of Aunt D that’s almost too faded to see – and besides that’s a pose that I have multiple copies of. She and Grandma both took a liking to a few pictures of themselves, and of my Dad in Grandma’s case, and got many, many copies made.)
a 9x10 frame – empty
2 store bought knitted Christmas stockings
2 3-packs of flat silver plated Christmas ornaments
1 green painted pine cone with glitter
2 unbreakable Christmas ornaments
8 small decorative packages
2 stocking hangers, light
2 hair clips – fake silver and turquoise
3 foam garlands
1 Christmas watch
1 clock radio
1 French phrase book
1 French-English dictionary
1 NA bird guide
1 book Collected Verse of Edgar A. Guest

OK – It looks like I have to keep that one. Maybe. There’s an inscription in it. (Punctuation as written.) To Our: Sister and Aunt With Love L – D 2-8-’63. There are three pictures tucked in the front and several things tucked throughout. One picture is a late style polaroid of Grandma L and her sister M. L’s Birthday 1979 is writing on it. So this probably was given back to Aunt Dolores when Great Aunt M died.

A newspaper clipping of one of Guest’s poems was tucked in about halfway through the book, together with his obituary as the Plain People’s Poet. Apparently he wrote a daily poem for the Detroit Free Press and was syndicated.

Other tuck-ins are two pictures from July 1942 of Grandma and her 3 children and Grandma and Neal Ledford, about whom I know nothing; a tag from Montgomery Ward, an order form for Christmas cards with photos in them from Pacific Photo 1945 Lomita Blvd, Lomita Calif (before zip codes); and a plastic book mark.

The book mark is odd. It’s a bit too thick for a bookmark. It looks like a flat red arrow. Down the shaft is printed: This is where I fell asleep. On the arrowhead is written: The Hart Marker Patent Pending. And on the fletching is: Place Flap Over Page. Oh, the fletching has a folded flap on the back of it. Just below the fletching is: Slide Down to Line. Then there’s a movable clear plastic circle with two blue arrows on each side that can slide up and down the arrow shaft. I guess it’s meant to mark the exact line that you finished reading. I’ve never seen one, so I’m guessing the pending patent wasn’t a big money maker.

I think everything is going to be tossed except the pictures. I’m not thrilled with the poetry, either, so the book will got to Goodwill. These comments will be its only lasting trace. And they will last only as long as anyone is interested in reading them. But that counts to assauge my guilt. Well done, guilt list.

2 plastic and wooden bird decorations (not holiday)
1 wooden memo pad holder, with a wooden goose shape
1 glass and mirror carousel horse music box
3 red tartan napkins
1 matching red tartan table runner
1 red tartan tree skirt with applique teddy bears
1 book Shakespeare major plays
1 book He Leadeth Me
1 book of Dolls
1 book Nevada Ghost Towns
1 book Norman Rockwell: A Sixty Year Retrospective
1 paper World Atlas for Students MCMLXII – 1962, I think. The map showing religions of the world includes Mohammedans. I think that one will be recycled
1 National Geographic book: Discovering Britain & Ireland (comment later)
1 book – used copy of Frank McCourt’s ‘Tis: A Memoir

There have been business cards from the Redding utility company all through the books and papers. Odd that they had so many of them and were still not signed up for elderly rates. Either they didn’t know about it or Aunt D decided not to touch the word senior citizen with a ten foot discount.

2 heavier stocking holders
a deck of cards – used from Sahara Hotel Las Vegas
a Christmas hurricane lantern for candles
4 large decorative velveteen Christmas stockinge
1 paper Halloween tablecloth 54x102
pack of 6 Halloween paper bags for luminaires
1 Christmas pin
1 pack New Year’s Eve horns
1 pack New Year’s Eve hats
4 Christmas light nets for bushes
bag of about 30 Christmas light clips for rain gutters
4 plastic poinsettia glasses
sleigh basket for flowers
3 poinsettia candle wreaths
3 holly candle wreaths
2 penguin place mats
small ceramic message board
6 red cloth place mats
misc paper doilies
Christmas cat wooden napkin ring
Santa couch pillow
Christmas table runner
Santa neck pillow
2 holiday trivets
5 plasticized holiday table cloths
4 bead wreath napkin rings
4x6 bound lined notebook
unopened pack 4 white luxury cotton napkins
3 lg centerpieces
4 small centerpieces
2 baskets for centerpieces
misc pinecones and plastic or cloth vegetation for centerpieces
50x60 throw
1 green steerite bin
white reindeer centerpiece
3’ Santa floor decoration
snowman family mantle decoration

Hawaii hula Santa 6” (I took a shine to this and have kept it so far. It made me think of my middle son and the fact that he and the dear daughter in law honeymooned in Hawaii. When I mentioned it to him, he was pretty sure that they had given it to Aunt D. With the extra family connection, I'm probably going to keep it. It's cute.)

wire reindeer decoration
(tossed a couple of old FTD arrangements – they looked sad without the flowers and had faded and gotten bent)
gold Christmas tree candle 8”
ceramic single-piece nativity – 12” tall x 6” wide x 5” deep
stuffed Santa floor decoration - 1 ft
18” plastic wreath/plate candle holder for table
12” plastic wreath/plate candle holder for table
2 x 6” plates for candles, one with a wreath
1 decorative hurricane for candle 8”
2 X 4” decorative snowpeople
decorated bundle of long cinnamon sticks
set of 3 embroidered silk doilies
18” stuffed Santa
18” silver standing Santa for floor
16” maroon velvet Santa for floor
8” dark red Santa freestanding
6” white and gold Santa freestanding
6” green brocade Santa freestanding
driftwood hanging Santa head
10” old plastic & flocked Hong Kong made Santa – standing, with base
54 x 102 silver & white table cover
6 packs decorative napkins
silver-plated pie server
28 non-glass Christmas ornaments
6 Christmas refrigerator magnets
4” standing decoration Santa on Soccer ball, ceramic
2” tall 4 hinged wooden pieces, santas and reindeer
6 tiny bell & ornament charms for bracelet, colored
holiday night light
3” long plastic toy car
hunting horn & bells for hanging on doorknob
plastic mistletoe ball w elf – 4” dia
12” tall ceramic & cloth gnome Santa, blue

The Guilt Continued

Still posting from the cusp of 2010.

That clears a bit of the flotsam on my desk. It’s December 31, 2009 and now is a good time for clearing, even incomplete clearing. I’ve ended up with a fair bit of Grandma L’s stuff, as I mentioned last post. I inherited it from Aunt D when she died last December 18 (2008). I don’t think I’ll ever think of Christmas without thinking of Aunt D.

Aunt D had no children of her own and was always involved with her nieces and nephews. She always gave really good presents. Not only were the presents good, they were wrapped with fancy wrapping. No one else in the family used such fancy wrappings. We suspected that she paid to have them wrapped at Sears or maybe even a fancier store. There were metallic papers and intricate bows. There were plastic poinsettias and fat ribbons.

No two boxes were alike, unless it was done deliberately. Sometimes if she got, say, me and my two sisters a similar gift, the boxes might be wrapped identically. This was different from everyone else’s presents. Everyone else had a few rolls of flat paper wrapping and curling ribbon. So there was little variety in the wrapping, mostly.

There was one mitigating factor to that, though, and that was Aunt D. We always saved the paper, ribbons, and decorations from her boxes. They could be cut down to wrap smaller boxes in other years. So our plain wrappings were boosted by her hand-me-downs. Oh, and we saved the boxes, too.

Later, much, much later, I learned that she was a shopaholic and that her spending had been a burden on my Uncle L, her brother, and my Grandma L nearly all her adult life. My Dad, her other brother, had pulled away, giving her nothing but advice and criticism when she overspent.

Oh, look. Grandma L had for some reason tucked a newspaper clipping of the death of Phillipe Cousteau, Jacque Cousteau’s son, into the Christmas Story book. She’s hand dated it Fri. June 29-’79. My youngest son, Eric, would be born November of ’79. I have no idea why she thought I, or my sons, would need the clipping. It’s going into the recycling.

Grandma L used to send me and the boys CARE packages – boxes with ‘useful’ things in them. There were find-a-word books, which the boys enjoyed, and which could be bought for a quarter at the drug store. There were packets from Kentucky Fried Chicken, with a knife, spork, napkin, and wet-wipe in each one. I forget what else the boxes were stuffed with. Usually nothing to terribly useful. But she would collect the items and mail them and the kids did enjoy getting them.

I’m listening to Principles of economics, translated, by the Standup Economist on YouTube, to cheer myself up. My YouTube favorites are sort of like getting a box from Grandma L. Not too terribly useful, but very cheering.

The Guilt Begins

I don't know about you, but I've got a lot of stuff that can be put into two categories: stuff I haven't done and stuff that I'm keeping around because I'd feel guilty about throwing it out or giving it away. I'll talk more about the first category later. For the second category, I've discovered that if I commemorate the item, I feel less guilty about getting it out of my house and giving myself a little more room. Thus, this list.

I started the list Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 10:22:11 PM PST. I can tell because I can got into Properties and get the document's creation date. I would never have remembered on my own, and I'm kind of surprised to see that it was created New Year's Eve. It was not done FOR New Year's Eve, but it's appropriate that it was done ON New Year's Eve. Reading it over, I was a bit chattier than I remember. I think I'll break it up and edit it. For now, I'll concentrate on the one thing I got rid of.

<<< I'm listening to the American Idol Loser Song on YouTube and feeling guilt. Why am I feeling guilt? I'm considering getting rid of a book that my Grandma L (deceased) gave me, called Once Upon a Christmas: Stories by James Dillet Freeman. She carefully taped a plastic book cover around it and inscribed it: "To My great grandsons! With much love. Grandma L." Meaning that it was given to me to give to my sons, long ago when they were small.

My sons have no interest in the book. They never did. And my youngest son is thirty now. It was published, not by a regular publisher, but by the Unity School of Christianity, in Missouri. Mr. Freeman burbled on for twelve pages of preface before the stories strted. He revisited his childhood, declared Christmas to be a fifth season of the year, talked about the Unity School and his involvement with its publishing, went over an old poem of his, talked a little about football. . . and that was all in the first three pages of the intro. I never could bring myself to read further.

I could also never get through more than half a page of any of the stories: a little pig at the nativity, an angel with a broken wing, that sort of thing. The writing was just too precious and self-indulgent to enjoy. I've carried it in boxes through possibly five moves. I've shoved it into Christmas storage boxes. Today I decided that no one is ever going to read it, ever, and I have chucked its bright red self into the trash. If it didn't have the inscription, I might have given it to Goodwill. >>>

I've ended up with a fair bit of Grandma L's stuff. Most of it is still in boxes. I'll talk more about that later.