At 8:30 p.m. tonight the Christmas spirit hit me. I popped some corn, made some hot buttered rum, and we ate some of the food gifts that came in the mail. The fishing club that sends fishermen to my place in Colorado sent a Harry and David fruit and snacks assortment with nuts, candy corn, cookies, and fruit. That was our dinner. I made some cooked eggnog, but ruined it, so Mr. Troutbend is going to the store tomorrow morning to buy eggnog, pancake syrup, and dry catfood for Buddy the Merry Christmas Cat. Deep in our hearts we wanted store eggnog anyway.

I'm fairly certain the grocery stores will be open at least tomorrow morning, if not all day long. When we lived in Colorado it wasn't always a sure thing, except in the ski resort areas where there were a lot of tourists. And it seemed like in recent years the shopping malls started opening up on Christmas to get some more sales. People get kind of bored sitting at home looking at their family members. They go to movies, and go bowling, so why not shopping. Sears would love to have yet another 'black Friday' sale. According to their TV ads, they have been having 'Black Friday every Saturday.' I never did hear a good explanation of that one, but decided it meant there were some loss-leaders with outrageously low (according to Sears) prices every weekend.



We don't have plans for Christmas Day because we haven't thought that far ahead. We received an Omaha Steaks package for Christmas that had steaks and burgers. We'll just see if their burgers are worth all that money and being shipped across the country.

We could go to the casino buffet early for brunch and it might not be too crowded. They are having their usual seafood buffet for dinner with crablegs and it should be mobbed because people have nothing else to do with their families but go to the buffet. One of the women who works there told me that she has 8 children and this is the first year they are all out of the house, and all of the grandchildren but one are out of state, and she's so excited about having a holiday with just her and her husband. She didn't say if she's working tomorrow.

I tried to find a local radio station playing Christmas music tonight, no success. All I could get were rap stations and Spanish-speakers and hard rock. Black Sabbath and the Rolling Stones just didn't do it for me so I played my Christmas CDs. Again. The casino has a tape of alleged Christmas songs performed by various current singers. There is maybe one traditional song out of 50 and it's all goofed up to express the particular singer's personality. The other 49 are just horrible, 'Santa Baby' being the least obnoxious. The theme of them seems to be 'what's under the tree for me, there had better be something good. You son of a bitch.' Okay, I added that last bit, but they do sound a little cranky. We have had plenty of time to listen to them because Mr. Tbend has discovered keno slots and is having a good time playing it for hours on end. There is about to be a change around here with regard to that.