Ahhh...Christmas Memories?

I'm not trying to big-time anybody here, really.

Sam's Wholesale was involved. Bottom line: We ate steak for dinner last night. I know. I know. We're not really those people but it was a good deal on a lot of beef. Sams'll do that every now and again.

But that's only part of what I wanted to talk about.

This all started at the mall.

See, we wanted to spend a little family time. Like everybody else, we're busy and we've got teenagers who want to hang with friends, and we've got stuff to do, too (last minute Christmas shopping...we're down to stocking-stuffer type stuff so we're doing pretty well). So, we worked an agreeable plan which involved an afternoon movie.

Now, I expected the mall to be extremely busy and figured I'd have to park a long way from the theatre. So, no biggie when that reality played out. I dropped off the fam close and went to park...my wife has taught me that I should at least make a few passes at the closer spots because you never know if somebody's pulling out. In my past life I was Mr. Park-In-The-First-Spot-You-See-&-Hoof-It-Guy, but no more. I didn't luck out.

What I couldn't get over was how rude folks got looking for parking spaces. Manalive, one guy sees a lady putting packages in her trunk so he stops and puts his blinker on. It's going to be a minute. Folks behind him honk. One guy goes around him (almost hitting the car the first guy was waiting on, who is in the process of backing out), honks and gives him the finger. Listen, I don't mind a hopeful drive for a close space, but is walking 900 yards worth getting bent out of shape over?

Anyway, the movie was a fun family picture that does for history buffs what Indiana Jones did for archaeologists. Just a fun movie that you suspend reality for, but then make fun of the absurdities anyway. "Right. Like you could kidnap the President of the United States right under the noses of the Secret Service agents."

Family dinner time. A cold front is coming through Dallas so it was chilly and windy before the sun went down...but here I am in my backyard in late December, going all Hank Hill with my propane gas grill and turning over the beef we got a good deal on...but wearing a small coat.

We built a fire as it did get cold late. It wasn't a fire of necessity, though. More a fire of want-one.

We watched the movie "Elf"--a family favorite (although out of order this year as we usually kick off the Christmas movie season with "Christmas Vacation")--together, too.

But, what I thought about was these kinds of Christmas memories...

...malls.
...grilling bulk-size meat in December.
...warm weather, somewhat.
...an actual discussion of whether or not you could get into Buckingham Palace and fiddle with the Queen's desk to discover the next clue.
...an actual discussion of how to effectively poke a fire with the poker.
...thinking there's an actual order that Christmas movies on DVD should be watched, and wondering if you should bring that up.

And then I figured those would be just another thing on the list my children will tell their therapists about in about 2018 or so.