Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Have the merriest Boxing Day


Today is December 26th, and in Canada and the United Kingdom, this is known as Boxing Day. While you might think this has something to do with drunken brawling -- and perhaps for some it does, everybody celebrates the season in their own way -- it is to do with the time-honored (and largely ignored these days) practice of giving gifts or gratuities to those who have served you during the year. That is, you put the gifts in a 'box' along with some fancy foodstuffs, and so forth.
I say it is largely ignored nowadays for a number of reasons. We don't get mail delivered to our door, but to a box at the end of the block and, anyway, screw the mailman, he makes more than I did on a good year. He should be giving me a box. And, our garbagemen have good union jobs, too. I like to give charity to those who actually need whatever beneficence I can bestow.
Anyway, the 26th has dawned brightly and the Glacier (shown) is looking all winter wonderlandish, and as long as the snow is up there rather than down here, I am content.

Otherwise, how was your Christmas? Mine was OK. Actually I was feeling like crap since the cold I was dealing with last week turned into a nicely full-blown sinus infection. So, I started on antibiotics this morning and hopefully that will slap me back into shape. But, sinuses notwithstanding, it was all quite nice. It was also quiet and unchallenging, but with good food (what little I could actually taste), nice music and general laziness.

We got each other things we actually wanted and could use. Griffin, meanwhile, has developed a Christmas tree fetish and is now choosing to lie under it full-time.
A Christmas Carol was viewed, and A Child's Christmas in Wales was listened to, and I also read an article in Vanity Fair in which Angie Dickinson wouldn't come clean about whether she actually had an affair with JFK. But, since everybody else of note did, why not her?
Anyway, that's about all for now and I am only delighted that I have no impulse to go out to the Boxing Day sales -- I forgot to mention that is what Boxing Day is truly about in contemporary Canada. BD is the equivalent of the American Black Friday after Thanksgiving. For me, anything I really want I can't afford, and anything I can afford, I don't really want.
So, Happy 26th. Anticlimaxes can be better than climaxes if you work it right.


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10 Comments:

Blogger Tai said...

Glad it was lovely for you!

I'm in the same boat, "...anything I really want I can't afford, and anything I can afford, I don't really want."

Ah well, there's always next year.

6:07 PM  
Blogger kimber said...

I hope you manage to kick the sinus infection quickly, and enjoyed a sunny, quiet and peaceful Boxing Day.

8:43 PM  
Blogger Liz Dwyer said...

Hope you are feeling better soon, Ian. I am ashamed to admit that I've never looked up the meaning of Boxing Day before so thanks for the enlightenment. I considered getting the mail carrier a gift but some days he just doesn't deliver any mail, as in he doesn't even come to our building. So, I decided to pass. Although maybe if I gave him a gift he'd bring the mail.

10:15 PM  
Blogger Casdok said...

Hope you are begining to feel better. Good to hear your christmas went ok!
Happy Boxing day!!

11:42 PM  
Blogger laughingwolf said...

went well, saw all 3 kids for dinner, talked w/dad and bro-in-law, plus others

boxing day was made legal holiday, again, in nova scotia, so today all will be nuts, esp. with winter storm warning for all day and into the night

6:36 AM  
Blogger Wendy C. said...

Merry Boxing Day to you Ian!

9:30 AM  
Blogger Janice Thomson said...

Boxing Day is not a time to spend in stores but a time to relax and enjoy the season. Hope you feel better soon Ian - sinus infections can make one miserable.
Love the picture of kitty under the tree...

12:25 PM  
Blogger meggie said...

Boxing Day it is, here in Oz & also NZ. I always stay well away from the sales! I can't stand crowds these days.
Friends went, for the linen bargains, & they declared it well worth the horror, of pushing & shoving & parking nightmare. They are younger than us!!
I like the nice relaxed vibe of Boxing day, so easy with leftovers to eat, so we dont worry about meals, & can just put our feet up, & read or chat.

Sorry to hear about your sinus thing- our daughter has it too, & she is very miserable.

2:49 PM  
Blogger CS said...

I always like to take Boxing Day off. I used it to do house stuff, though - cutting baseboard and painting. But we did make ice cream, which was fun.

6:22 PM  
Blogger heartinsanfrancisco said...

Well, that was a cheery post, Ian.

I hope that you and your antibiotics will live happily ever after, and that you feel better soon.

10:05 PM  

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