Entry Two Hundred Forty-Seven.
Friday, 2023.02.24, 5:26 PM central time.
Christmas traditions checklist, 2022.
Current Mood:  A bit exhausted but looking forward to the future.
Current Scent:  Micro Love by Jusbox, from a sample.

Hello and happy kind-of-new year, everyone.

I had most of this written at the beginning of the year, but I ended up not posting it and feeling quite bad about it.  So, before proceeding with further posts, here's a list of a WHOLE bunch of my Christmas traditions - in case anyone's curious - and whether or not they happened in 2022.

These should be performed between December 1st and Christmas, unless otherwise noted.

I did a good job with most of them last year... but not so good with others.  Argh.

CATEGORY I:  UTICA SQUARE.

• Have breakfast at the Royal Fork at Utica Square, usually on or around my birthday.  Check.
  (Anchor:  2009 or 2010.)
  .
• Go into Restoration Hardware at Utica Square and (these days) lament the fact that they no longer carry the adorable small gifts/stocking stuffers.  Check.
  (Anchor:  2009 or 2010.)
  .
• Walk around Utica Square and make sure to find every one of the "Nutcracker"-themed animatronic displays.  Think about the innapropriate jokes I would make with Brett about these displays.  Check - but at least a couple of those displays were missing this year.  I hope this doesn't mean that they're all going away.
  (Anchor: 2009 or 2010.)
  .
• Visit Saks Fifth Avenue at Utica Square to smell some of their really pricy fragrances.  Check.
  (Anchor:  2021.)
  .
• Visit the Snow Goose at Utica Square and check out their wonderfully weird shit.
  (Anchor:  2009 or 2010.)
  .
• Visit Williams-Sonoma at Utica Square and marvel at the kickass kitchen stuff.  Check.
  (Anchor:  2022.  Making that a new one.)
  .
• Have lunch at PF Chang's at Utica Square.  Check.
  (Anchor:  2022.  Making that another new one.)
  

CATEGORY I:  OTHER PLACES.

• Visit the Eastgate Metroplex, preferably within the week leading up to Christmas, get a beverage (usually a dirty chai) at Beyond Cafe, and walk around what used to be Eastland Mall.  Remember locations including but not limited to Mervyn's, Jeans West, Kay-Bee Toys, the movie theater, the arcade, and (newer) the Atrium Grill.  Check.
  (Anchor:  2007.)
  .
• Visit the former sites of Target and Toys-R-Us across from the Eastgate Metroplex.  Check.
  (Anchor:  2007.)
  .
• Visit the dying Promenade Mall if possible and soak in some memories.  Check.
  (Anchor:  Unknown, but long ago.)
  .
• Visit Premier Popcorn and get some of their extraordinarily good white cheddar popcorn.  Check.
  (Anchor:  2019.)
  
• Visit Bill & Ruth's at 51st & Sheridan in memory of my 17th Birthday Dinner.
  (Anchor:  2022.  A new one, but the corresponding memory/reason was from 1988.)
  .
• Visit Woodland Hills Mall for a mixture of memories (note sites of both Kay-Bee Toys, Home Software, Intellectrix, and the Nautilus arcade) and amusement at the massive variety of items for sale.  Check.
  (Anchor:  Seemingly forever, but first visit 1981.)
  .
• Visit Spunky Creek within the last few days before Christmas to look at the lights.  LATE.  (Winter storm caused us to move this to the night of the 25th.)
  (Anchor:  1998, although I had been through Spunky Creek with my parents in the 1980s and possibly 1970s.)
  .
• Visit the Blue Whale Swim.  LATE.  (Winter storm caused us to move this to the night of the 25th.)
  (Anchor:  1998.)
  .
• Eat at the Denny's connected to the Flying J Truck Stop after Spunky Creek.  FAIL.  (Location was not open on the 25th, so we settled for a south Memorial Waffle House.)
  (Anchor:  2021.)
  .
• Visit the specific cul-de-sac on the west side of 35th & Yale.  LATE.  (I just didn't get around to it until the 28th.)
  (Anchor:  2022, another new one, but it's reason goes back to a light-seeing trip with my parents and the Esaus all the way back in 1985.)
  

CATEGORY III:  VIDEO.

• Watch Better Off Dead, usually on Christmas Eve, in memory of Thomas Hayes as well as (to a far lesser extent) Popingo Video.  FAIL.  I make it a yearly tradition... but this time, I failed.  Mr. Hayes, just know that I thought of you a lot over the course of the holiday season.
  (Anchor:  1986.)
  .
• Watch The Polar Express.  Check.
  (Anchor:  2015 or 2016?)
  .
• Watch Christmas Vacation.  Check.
  (Anchor:  2010?  I've loved the film since I first saw it in the early 1990s.)
  .
• Watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia:  A Very Sunny Christmas.  Check.
  (Anchor:  2010 or 2011?)
  .
• Watch Silent Night, Deadly Night.  Check.
  (Anchor:  2022.  A new one.)
  .
• Watch Bad Santa.  FAIL.  Oops.
  (Anchor:  2010, perhaps?  I've loved the film since its release in 2003.)
  

CATEGORY IV:  MISCELLANEOUS.

• Make and consume lots of coffee with topping made of flavored creamer whipped up with the Aerolatte from Restoration Hardware or a similar product.  This memory connects to the now-departed Keurig from back in the day, as well as the annual journeys to Utica Square, plus additional memories of watching "True Blood" and "Mad Men" while my older son X was only a toddler.  The memories also chain to thoughts of my father dying, a rather intense pantry moth invasion, and an odd yet wonderful game called And Yet It Moves - all from 2010.
  (Anchor:  2009 or 2010.)
  .
• Put the Christmas card from my late Grandpa Kelley (who died within a month or so of my birth), addressed to "Master Little Bill Kelley," up in the Christmas Tree.  FAIL.  I didn't even put the tree up in 2022; chalk it up to depression.
  (Anchor:  1971, with big gaps in the meantime.)
  

More soon, hopefully.

- Badger

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