So long, Christmas Season. The homily last weekend was "let's make it last". Would that we could. What makes the Christmas season special is that it only comes once a year. Some of us, many of us, heck, all of us at one time or another can say, "thank goodness" that it's only once a year. This wasn't one of those for us. As with any season, it had it's ups, downs, and sames. I like it that way.
The one chore left is stowing the boxes of ornaments and lights back in the crawl space behind our upstairs hall closets. Get the garden kneeler for these old knees!
This is still January, so it's football season. The moment yesterday was the Jets at Steelers. With family in Pittsburgh and children in NJ (where the real Jets fans live), it was going to be a draw at best. Patty's cousin Bob's wife Toni is noted for her scream "Jerome, Jerome", whenever the Bus crosses the Line. We have this thing going: should the Steelers game make it into the NYC area, and there is a Bettis scoring moment, like his touchdown pass (!!) in the regular season game against the Jets. We hop on the phone (it's on speed dial) and tell Toni to hold down the screamin'. "We can hear you all the way over here". It's gotten so regular, that as we approached the playoffs, Bob and Toni were hosting their family in front of the Big Screen. The phone rings at the appropriate moment, and they know who is calling. At first, the family members thought Bob and Toni were psychics. The line is, "Can't you tell by the ring who is calling". Hey, most cell phones now offer the feature.
It's yet to be written what the result of this season is. But now that the Jets are emptying their lockers, son-in-law Mark offers that today's Colts-Pats game is for all the marbles. You remember marbles. Back when they were worth playing for.
Next year we may consider the artificial tree. They're starting to look real.
