A little late, but......

This is the post I wrote the day after Christmas and failed to post before I went out of town after Christmas. My bad. Here it is:


On Monday, in the midst of deciding what to serve Tuesday, I got a call from Thomas Varno. He asked if i knew what we were serving. I said nothing definite. He said his dad would volunteer to make barbecue for us. I ain't crazy. I said that'd be great.
What a nice gesture. At a time when most of us are busy and running around for ourselves, he took time to think of us and prepare food for us. Appreciate that.

So.....since that was taken care of I took on another project. One of the things I associate with Christmas is brown lunch bags filled with fruit, candy and nuts. And the reason is, when I was a kid growing up, every year at the Sunday night Christmas service, Santa Claus would come out and pass out bags like that to all the children. I wasn't a big fan of the fruit, but I loved that bag. (That's right. SANTA CLAUS came to the church. Don't see that happening these days.)

I just figured I would go to Sam's and buy some fruit in bulk and make up bags. Then I got a call from Gaynelle (That's Renee Griffin to the rest of y'all. Don't ask.). She said Johnny gets produce from a place on Carolina Beach Road just up from Legion Stadium and I should check it out because if the guy who owns knew what I was buying it for he might cut me a break on the price. So I went there, and let me tell you, the guy has got it going on when it comes to fruit and vegetables!
He's got the good ones (bananas, pineapples, potatoes, etc.) the bad ones ( leafy greens, squashes, collards, etc.) and and all the ones in between.
I bought four boxes of fruit - bananas, oranges, apples and tangerines for about $60, and I'd rather give that to a local guy during Christmas than Sam's. (Nothing against Sam's. I love the place.)

We made about 80 bags from all that.

Back to the Barbecue.......
It was gooood. I think they thought I was joking when they lined up and I said we were having barbecue sandwiches.
Had a great bunch out helping for the Christmas Barbecue Meal. I always appreciate when people take time during the holidays to help us.

I'll be out next week. Going down to Bimini with Don Vigus and some 10th graders for a little fun in the sun.

I'll let you know how that goes. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Me and O.J. pt 2

So you're saying to yourself "Gary, you took the O.J. picture to the party. That's a cool gift. Did you bring a home a cool gift?

No.

No, I did not.
And before I tell you what I did bring home, let me tell you about some of the bullets I dodged.

An empty picture frame.
Peppermint body spray
A wicker and wire basket
A jellybean pooping reindeer

I was #27 to pick out of 30. I surveyed the room and went pot luck on one the few remaining presents.

What did I get?

A Winnie the Pooh Tote Bag.
I repeat:
A Winnie the Pooh Tote Bag.

Who brought that you ask?
My sister. My sister Linda brought a Winnie the Pooh Tote Bag to the party. And I got it.

That's like Romeo getting Mercutio killed or Brutus stabbing Caesar. You expect it, but not from family.

Oh well. If you see her, ask her what I delivered her Christmas presents in this year. What goes round, comes round

g

Last holiday List

3 Favorite Christmas Songs.....but first....some explanation.

My favorite Christmas song is Santa Claus is Coming to Town done by Bruce Springsteen, but I'm not going to list it.
Why?
Because it's not fair to everybody else. Springsteen wins all my favorite anything music stuff. He's the man. It's just understood he would be at the top of the list. It's like you have to retire him from consideration just so everyone else can have a shot.
It's the same reason when all time top 10 sports players are listed, they don't say "Jesus".
Jesus would've been the best football player ever but you just assume everybody knows that and don't put him on the list.

Now, to the list.......

1. White Christmas Makes Me Blue by Randy Travis. This song is so sad it will make a dog cry and your roof leak.
2. White Christmas by Clyde McPhatter. Great take on a classic, especially the falsetto in the middle.
3. Santa Claus is back in Town by Elvis or Dwight Yoakam, it doesn't matter.

Honorable Mention:
Merry Christmas, Darling by the Carpenters
Run,Run, Rudolph by Bryan Adams
Great Big Sled by The Killers

...and the winner in the "You need to see the Video to appreciate it in all its bizarre-ness" goes to
The Little Drummer Boy by Bing Crosby and David Bowie. YouTube it.

Merry Christmas!

g

In case you're wondering...

...I noticed the times that were being put on these blogs. The previous one has me posting it at 4:55 a.m. Seeing as how I just posted it 5 minutes ago at 7:55 a.m., it's obvious the times are 3 hours off.
Or maybe I'm in California and don't know it.
g

Another Christmas list already?

YES!

3 CHRISTMAS SONGS YOU WISH WOULD BE RETIRED AND NEVER PLAYED AGAIN.

Me?

1. Frosty the Snowman - never has and never will do anything for me

2. Santa Baby - especially now that Madonna has a version of it

3. I'll be home for Christmas - if Elvis had a version, maybe it would have a chance, but......

Tomorrow - 3 Favorite Christmas songs

CHRISTMAS LIST!

Do one for each category:

Favorite Christmas smell
Favorite Christmas food
Favorite Christmas movie or tv special

Mine?
Favorite Christmas smell? Cella's Chocolate covered Cherries. Seriously, it does it for me. You don't even have to open the box, just take off the cellophane and ....mmmmmm. I would marry a woman who smelled like that naturally! ( I would not, however, marry one who smelled like that because she ate so many that she sweat it out of her pores)

Favorite Christmas food? Those little ham and cheese sandwiches with the spread on the outside of the roll. So good!

Favorite Christmas movie or tv special? A Tie - A Christmas Story (duh!) and Rudolph.

Yours?


New list coming tomorrow!

...reasons you're glad you're not related to me.

The little bit I have to pass on this week is second hand info because I wasn't there. I was in the bed with some nasty sinus drainage. That's the second time this year. I usually don't get sick this time of year. Last time I mentioned it to Brien Campbell and she told me some worst case scenario about her having a sinus infection in the bone and dying if she couldn't get airlifted somewhere within an hour.

I didn't tell her I was sick this time.



Twig said the Bible Study that came this week did a good job. He said the people were very appreciative of the opportunity to do it.



Don't know yet what we'll do next week. Kind of wide open. If any of y'all have ideas, let me know.

I think I might be leaning towards Christmas cheeseburgers.



I've got a Christmas Party in Dunn this Saturday with my Mom's side of the family. It's always a good time and they're a lot of fun. One of the things everybody looks forward to at the party is "Dirty Christmas".

I'm sure a lot of y'all do this. Everyone brings a gift, everybody gets a number, the first number takes a gift, opens it and shows everybody, then #2 can pick a new present or steal the present just opened by # 1. If he steals it, #1 gets to pick again, open it and show it. Then # 3 can steal from #1 or #2, and you just keep going. It's fun.



The thing that gets me about this though, is the presents that are brought. Usually there's a price limit, so that's a constraint you're working under. But it's funny to look at the things that show up every year. In the past, you could always count the ol' 3-pack of canned nuts being in there at least once, if not several times. Candles, plates, cologne,.....that kind of stuff. The rule of thumb for the guys at our party is stay away from the bags. Get something wrapped. Seriously, I avoid the bags like the plague. But even then, you can still get burned. I had a three year run awhile back where I got a silver platter, a pitcher and bowl set, and a clock.

In the business, we call those keepers, because you open a present like that and you can bet you'll be going home with it because nobody is going to steal it.

The present that has been automatic the past few years has been the "Hot Chocolate Gift Pak".
You've seen it....big box ,a few mugs, a variety of hot chocolate flavors and some marshmallows. Guaranteed to be under the tree at the party. Somebody always brings it.

I try to have fun with it and bring fun stuff, or something off the wall and then hide money or lottery tickets on it somewhere. In the past I've brought Air-zookas, games that give you an electric shock, etc. Last year I took one of those huge, oversized remote controls. It was a hit.

What am I bringing this year? Glad you asked.



I went to the Bahamas a couple of years ago on a mission trip and saw O.J. Simpson at a restaurant. So I got Don to take a picture of me and him together. I had forgot it about until the other day. I got to thinking about this year's party. What would one of my relatives love to have for Christmas? Well, how about a picture of me and O.J.?
And why not make it 11" by 14" and frame it?
Brilliant!

I'll probably stuff a little cash or a few Powerball tickets in the back for them, if they ever get around to looking back there.

The threat of getting that for Christmas is just one more reason you can add to the already long list of.....


P.S. Pray for Brien and her family. She told me the other day her Fathe rhad been taken to Hospice. They don't know a lot right now about time, but she said it could be a while, which would make Christmas tough for them this year. He lives in Bath, NC.

..Is she still married to Tom Cruise?"

Hope everybody is well. Seems like everybody helping tonight was doing alright. I gotta go to Dunn tomorrow for my Uncle Leon's funeral. I remember him as a funny guy. He was my Mother's oldest brother and married a woman even funnier than he was, Aunt Nelly. No surprise that both of their kids are funny, too. He was always really nice and had a gentle way, even though he was a pretty big guy.

Tonight was one of those "Breakfast for supper" nights. We had
Biscuits with Sausage gravy
Cheese grits
Scrambled eggs
Home fries
Dessert
Sweet tea/ Water

Helping put it all together tonight was
J.Boggs Kit Michael Nick Cameron Dallas Tom Twig Jane John Ellen Nelly Jennifer Anna Brien Teresa Tom Varno Laura me

Quick Hits

Mary and Alan were out of town this week.

The weather tonight was great. It felt good to be outside.

Teresa Bland is one of the great people that willingly does the dishes on Tuesday nights and is a saint because of it. She let me know tonight that Cheese Grits night is worse than Fish Fry night when it comes to cleaning pots.

Next week is FISH FRY night. JUST KIDDING.

I love when we have mashed potatoes and when we have cheese grits, but I'm telling you......it's dangerous. They come out of the pots so hot and if you get splattered, you're hating life. You can't get them off of you fast enough. And they stick like napalm (at least they way we cook them they do).

Having said that, I burnt the crap out my fingers on a biscuit pan tonight.
I'm a moron.

Eric and Candace are off in the Caribbean getting married. Good for them.

Super Bowl Party is coming up fast. Looking forward to it.

We had enough sausage up in the kitchen tonight to make Paula Deen blush. It was ridiculous. We had to freeze about half of it. If we had served it all tonight we would've had them stroking out right and left. You would have been able to hear their arteries grinding to a halt.

Got a bible study coming in next week to take care of the 1st stop. Somebody Pruden knows wanted to do it, so I said sure. We'll put together something for the 2nd stop.



Saw the movie "AUSTRALIA" last week. It was good.It's a big romantic love story/adventure epic. It was also long-2 hours and 45 minutes. Go see it, but go with a date, a spouse, or member of the opposite sex. I went with Greg Garrett and Don Vigus.

I'll leave you with a quote from Don about 20 minutes into the movie...."Nicole Kidman......

......I'm gonna miss that ol' baldheaded, sociopathic, dirty cop.

Sure is late, but that's okay.

Tonight was great. You should've been there.

Morgan Campbell did her Graduation Project product tonight. She planned the menu, got the food, and ran the show tonight. She did an absolute bang-up job. It went great and that's because she (and her parents) put a lot of planning and hard work into it and God blessed their efforts.

She took a different route than Chris Armstrong and got people to donate donate the big portions of the meal tonight. She got chicken sandwiches from Waffle House (very tasty) for the 1st stop and pizzas from a couple of different places for the 2nd stop. She fixed mashed potatoes and green bean casserole for both stops. She also put together 100 gift bags to pass out, with items like shampoo, soap, socks and gloves. We had some bags left over and will use them later in the winter.

Had a lot of great folks with us tonight
John Ellen Michael J.Boggs Tom Bob Frank Twig Jane Morgan Brien Dwight Megan Bass Anna Anna Tolan Caroline Laura Richard Chris
Jim Morgan(2 weeks in a row! Yeah!) Thomas Varno Mary Alan Teresa Nick me

I love Megan Bass but it made me a little sad to see her tonight because it reminded me when she graduates this year, all of the kids I taught at Laney in the Bible classes will be gone. She had me as a freshman the last year I taught it. Her, Frank, Peverall, Fussell, West, Jelenovich...all of 'em just as goofy and as freshman-ny as they could be. Matter of fact, Bass is absolutely beautiful, but one day in class, she was telling us all these things about herself when she was born (cross eyed, extra thumb, etc....) and I swear, it sounded like she was going to be destined to a life in a freak show. We laughed the whole period about it. I think it started when someone noticed she had webbed toes.....But like I said, Beautiful now and even nicer than she is beautiful.

It was cold tonight but I never got around to putting on a jacket or anything. I haven't figured if I don't really get that cold or maybe I'm cold and I like it. I ain't worried about it....

Saw a few less people than usual tonight and that could've been for several different reasons.
It's the first of the month and some folks get checks and get hotel rooms for as long as they can.
It was cold and some people get down early and quit moving around in this weather.
And reasons we have no idea about.
But I believe that God watches over us and sends us the ones that come to eat, providing us with the opportunity and the privilege to serve and minister to them. And we thank him for that.

I was reminded of something the other day. I shouldn't pray and ask God to change the world. I should pray and ask God to change me and then go out and change the world.
Working on it.

If you need something to read, I've got a suggestion. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is a great read. So are his two other books: Tipping Point and Blink. Outliers is about success and why the ideas we have about it might not be accurate. He uses the Beatles, Bill Gates, The Canadian Junior Hockey League and the smartest man you've never heard of to absolutely shake your tree when it comes to what it is that makes people successful. I won't go into great detail, but trust me. This is a great read and you will be telling people about it and trying to get them to read it.

Once again...Morgan Campbell.Graduation Project. Great, Great job.

No Shield tonight.
No more Shield ever.
Sad times.
It sounds weird,but.......