Easin' Along - Part 104

Fun

The Elves Arrived…Followed by Music

Posted on December 22, 2017December 22, 2017 by Easin' Along

This week has been very busy and active, even for an old retired guy. Helen (adorable wife) and I have been madly wrapping gifts, decorating (again), preparing meals, and spiffing up the place…bigly. All this activity was spurred on by the anticipation of some very special visitors who finally arrived a few days ago. Our son and daughter-in-law are here along with our precious granddaughters but, prior to their arrival, the special guests I’m referring to miraculously appeared to add a significant amount of excitement to the season. I’m talking about the Elves on a Shelf and did they ever liven things up…bigly.

The girls (ages 7 and 5) and their parents arrived late after an enjoyable trip on the Polar Express train in North Carolina. The hour was late. The girls had slept little in the back seat during the ride here so, after a quick bath and a short bedtime story from their grandmother, they were nestled snugly into their bed as were their grandparents.

Early (and I mean early) the next morning, the walls literally shook as four tiny little feet came racing down the stairs and into the living room. Their parents had sent out whispers of a rumor that the Elves had left Charleston early the previous afternoon and, (providing that all were on their best behavior during the trip to Knoxville), would arrive in Knoxville overnight.

The search was on and, lo and behold, sitting high over their heads were Kat, Kitty, Kyle, Lily, Jacob, Jack, Jake, Princess, Lulu, and Rocker, the same Elves that had last been seen on a shelf in Charleston, SC. All were in good spirits and had made the trip over the mountain seemingly without incident. It was a wonderful reunion and a glorious event. The girls looked around in amazement, and their grandparents were overjoyed at being able to witness it all.

Throughout the rest of the day, there was a persistent rumor that the Elves would reposition themselves overnight and could be found in a different location the next morning. This rumor only added to the usual Christmas fervor and ultimately proved to be exhausting for the youngest of the two. She fell asleep before dinner in the arms of her big sister who helped with placing her in her bed—after giving assurance that she would have her up the next morning in time to begin the search anew. I have it from a good source that the repositioning did take place.

There is no greater joy than little children at Christmas time.

With family activity, and a busy week surrounding us, Easin’ Along will be a little shorter today. Instead, I have shortened this week’s post by a few hundred words to share with you a video of the annual Christmas Concert given by our church choir earlier this month. We have an incredible choir composed of talented voices from our congregation who are joined by very gifted students from the music program at the University of Tennessee. We also have the blessing of accompanying music from members the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra for this concert to add greatly to our pleasure. I always consider this concert as the beginning of the Christmas season.

The format of the video did not permit editing, so I have listed the pieces performed by the choir and the orchestra below. The numbers in parentheses represent the starting point for each piece and you can go directly to that piece by moving along the scroll bar at the bottom of the video until that number appears. Click the scroll bar at that point. As an example, one of my favorite pieces, Bugler’s Holiday, begins at 55:52. Enjoy!

Here are the selections from the concert:

(0:00) Introductions and announcements

(7:00) Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

(12:04) Infant Holy, Infant Lowly

(17:00) Oh Come All Ye Faithful

(21:06) Christmas Festival

(28:55) All My Heart This Night Rejoices

(35:24) Arise, Your Light Has Come

(41:39) How Great Our Joy!

(45:00) Hark the Herald Angels Sing

(48:00) Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

(55:52) Bugler’s Holiday

(59:23) The First Noel

(1:04:56) Joy to the World

(1:09:30) Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Helen and I wish every reader a blessed Christmas and send heartfelt wishes for a Happy New Year. We have a lot of plans for 2018 beginning with a trip in Betty, our RV in January when we’ll be Easin’ Along the retired road. Hope you’ll be along with us.

Fun

A Party for Rose

Posted on December 15, 2017December 13, 2017 by Easin' Along

About eight or so years ago, Helen (adorable wife) and I began a Christmas tradition of hosting a Meat Loaf dinner for a group of friends from our former neighborhood. I’ve shared the party with Easin’ Along readers twice before and apologize for the repetition, but we always have such a grand time that I felt it worth sharing once more. Remember, when you combine food and fun, it is retirement activity at its finest.

The date we picked for this year’s event just happened to be the birthday of our dear friend Rose. Rose’s birthday is always a lot of fun and she has endured some of the best birthday pranks ever played on a birthday girl. A few years back, a member of our group arranged for her to ride on a float in the local Christmas Parade. Rose was lured to a float-in-waiting where she was brought aboard and whisked down the parade route wearing the robe of a Snow Princess. On another occasion, Rose was tricked into going shopping with her friends and, when she arrived at a downtown department store, an enormous crowd that included the Mayor burst into a raucous Happy Birthday tune. His Honor proclaimed it “Rose’s Day” and gave her the equivalent of a key to the city. Fortunately, Rose has a fantastic sense of humor and always plays along…she’s a great sport.

This year, however, she made everyone in our crowd swear an oath of no tricks. A decision was made to have an “in-house” birthday party while keeping our Rose in the shade. Therefore, our annual Christmas meatloaf dinner had a birthday party theme.

On the afternoon of the dinner, Priscilla brought over banners and balloons to liven up the atmosphere. Helen had gone into her usual frenzy to ensure the house was ready for company. The tree was decorated and the Snow Village (complete with RV park) was on full display as was a beautiful bowl of fresh white flowers—Roses, of course, in honor of the birthday girl.

My job was to make the meatloaf. Not to brag, (ahem) but I make a pretty mean meatloaf. I start a day early with preparing the vegetables and finish it up on the afternoon of the dinner. I’m meticulous about this meal and try to time it so that it comes out of the oven just in time to serve hot on the table. The meatloaf was in the oven when the first guests arrived.

Everyone had been told to arrive a bit early. Party hats and noisemakers were distributed to one and all as we warmed up and prepared to be very rowdy when the honoree checked in. Rose was in her usual cheery mood when she came through the door whereupon the greeting committee stopped her dead in her tracks and placed a bright pink tiara on her head. Cheers rang out. We had achieved a complete surprise. Rose wasted no time joining in and, if she was a bit annoyed with us, it never showed. Like I said earlier, she’s a great sport.

Mealtime was filled with great laughter and a lot of storytelling from days past including tales from the thirty-nine trips to the beach our wives have enjoyed on annual gal pal excursions. The guys repeat often-told stories of our annual camping trips in the Cherokee National Forest that we never tire of hearing.

Near the end of the meal and after Rose was treated to a beautiful birthday cake decorated with roses of many colors, a member of the group arose to present the annual “Red Hat” award. This award goes to the person who had faced adversity during the year and had pulled through in glorious fashion. Bob, a hard-core Marine veteran received this year’s Red Hat. Bob modestly accepted the award and wore it with distinction.

We lingered long into the evening as no one seemed eager to leave. Helen and I considered it a compliment. I insisted on a group photograph to mark the occasion and proudly display it here. Happy birthday, Rose. Friendships are the spice of life and we’re blessed to have these special people in ours. It is our sincere wish that, for many years to come, we’re still Easin’ Along…together.

Fundamentals

Lights Up on Sizing Down

Posted on December 8, 2017December 7, 2017 by Easin' Along

**Lighting the neighborhood tree – SuperMoon in the background**

At the end of last week, many of our neighbors gathered for some socializing before the lighting of a huge fir tree that sits adjacent to the neighborhood clubhouse. A committee, led by Leah and Sarah among others had worked hard to organize the event. They encouraged everyone to attend and bring a favorite appetizer to enjoy with wassail and hot cocoa. It was a grand time.

Toward the end of the social hour, Leah introduced a young student from the University who would lead everyone in carols before lighting the great tree. At that point, we assembled outside, sang three or four carols before counting down…five, four, three, two, one whereupon David inserted a plug into a socket and voila, the lights appeared on cue to a burst of applause. Several minutes later, our student led the carolers through the neighborhood to sing to those unable to attend the event.

When the tree lights came on, I found myself thinking about the differences in our life now and the way it was a little over four years ago when we made the decision to downsize. In many ways, the differences are profound. As readers of this website are aware, I began Easin’ Along as way of highlighting an active retirement. My blog was never intended as an advice column for retirees—there of plenty of those out there and a few excellent ones are listed in the sidebar of this page. Nevertheless, if downsizing is a future consideration, I thought that, as our student leads us through the streets, I might lead readers through some of the changes that have made our decision so rewarding. Pictures of our tree lighting ceremony are interspersed throughout.

Our previous home was unquestionably our dream home. We had carved out a homesite in the middle of eleven acres of hardwood forest that overlooked the Tennessee River. The word picturesque doesn’t describe the setting. Our view stretched for over a mile both upriver and down. For most of the summer months, the sunset was directly in from of us. We had a dock for our boat and a barn for the big boy toys. Just as importantly, whenever I needed an attitude adjustment, I could lose myself while taking a walk in the woods where solitude reigned. Flowers and flowering shrubs grew everywhere, and neighbors were not seen. The decision to leave this paradise was not easily made.

As lovely as our home was, I must be honest and admit that it was also an expensive place to live. My work as a homebuilder had slowed considerably during the recession and Helen (adorable wife) and I wanted to avoid our home becoming a drain on our hard-earned resources as retirement loomed. Therefore, cost became factor number in the decision process.

Factor number two became clear when we looked around the house. You can find a lot of places to store stuff in a large home. In forty-plus years of marriage, we had not only accumulated our precious treasures, but we had also wound up with much of Helen’s mother’s precious treasures. We were literally living in a comfortable warehouse and our children wanted none of it. Something had to be done.

In discussing our future, we both agreed that if retirement was approaching, we wanted it to be an active one. As a military retiree, we had the option for low-cost lodging all over the world and the lure of extensive travel was strong. Being away from our home for more than a week at a time was difficult, especially with five animals in our household.

Finally, we had our health to consider. Moving was not going to be easy and would be growing more difficult as time went by. Our children were living in far-away places with no promise of returning to live permanently. Neither of us wanted to burden them with the process of cleaning out attics, basements, and closets of unwanted items. We had to get this done while we had the energy to do it.

There were other factors, but these were the major ones. Once the decision was made, and the wheels set in motion, we moved steadily forward although it required almost a year from the time we started until we finally moved into our new home…and we needed every minute.

Moving out of our home required three long days, four storage PODS, back-breaking labor, and hundreds of decisions. About the time we closed on our house, my mother had moved also, and we could live in her former home while we remodeled our new one. This stroke of good fortune also allowed us to prepare and stage our accumulated and unwanted stuff for a three-day garage sale. This was the most liberating event I have ever encountered. It was also astonishing because I couldn’t believe what people were willing to spend good money on. Oh, well, one man’s junk really is someone else’s treasure.

Five months after the sale and our remodeling completed, we moved into a new neighborhood joining eighty new neighbors. Helen waded right in and soon made many friends. Not as socially inclined, it took me a bit longer to get used to having others close by. I adjusted, however, and warmed up to our new surroundings quickly.

We’ve now been in our home for four years and the experience has been a very rewarding. We’ve made great friends and are convinced that our decision to downsize was made at the right time. With church, family, friends, and shopping close by, we love the convenience. Our expenses for mowing, maintenance, taxes, and insurance have been reduced significantly. We love having a pool that someone else cleans. We can leave our home on short notice and stay away for extended periods when we choose. The neighborhood association is active and has strong leadership. Helen helps decorate for holidays and I produce the neighborhood newsletter each month–activities we both enjoy very much. Yes, we’re very glad that we have that move behind us.