Merry Christmas to all.....

I hope everybody has a great Christmas and any other Holiday you might be celebrating at the current time. It's probably going to be fun to see Christmas through the eyes of my daughter for the first time.......like this

This time of year always brings back the memories of family...alive or not. I currently live in my Grandfathers old house with the wife and daughter. My grandfather passed away in '98 sometime right before Christmas (I believe it was the 19th). He's the one that taught us (my brother, sister, and I) to play card games (7 card stud, 5 card draw, obscure games like 45's etc.) when I was a little tyke. This of course spurred a life-long interest in card games, sports, and gambling (not in a bad way..he used to bring me to the horse track in Salem, NH a couple of towns away from here). He also used to take me to his social clubs of which I think he belonged to 3 or 4. He used to say "stay here and watch TV with your soda and snacks while I talk to the guys"...little did I know at the time he was playing cards...I figured it out later on in life. It was nice and safe at those clubs back in the mid seventies. I later went back to one of those clubs (Knights of Columbus) and won a charity tournament last year. It was fun to see the old place 30 something years later and take down a tourney full of old-timers and newly addicted hot-shots (some guy of course adopted the unabomber thing and some other guy wanted to be Josh Arieh after his 3rd place WSOP finish). I found countless packs of cards in this house as well as a great old poker/card table and other gambling stuff.

I know that I'm rambling on here but this is what I remember during the holidays...family, fun parties with the family and friends, and playing cards with a lot of competitive relatives. This house is small but there was always room for 30 people...and most of the kids were downstairs playing card games and shooting pool in the basement. My grandfather would always sneak away from the adults and find plenty of time to entertain all of us kids. I don't know how he managed to entertain both the adults and all the kids at what seems like the same time but he did. Actually I went to his grave in the same town and put a RedSox hat on his gravestone last year after they won the world series. Baseball was the only sport for him and he would have loved to see them win the series. Anyway...

Cheers to all on this Christmas holiday and don't forget distant relatives and people who are less fortunate. Send someone a card with a contact number just in case..if they don't call back then no harm-no foul. Donate something to a local soup-kitchen or charity...You'll feel better giving a gift like that than any other. There are plenty of good causes to donate to here in the United States and local charities in general...

With that said I am very thankful for everything in my life (except my job..I'll have to work on that) like my family, friends, future events with my family and friends, the blogger community (even though I haven't been to a WPBT event and may not be able to ever) and memories of recent and distant past.

Merry Christmas to all...and to all a good night!!