Thursday(-ish) Thoughts

How in the heck did the evening get so far away from me? Oh, right. Christmas prep before my folks get into town tomorrow afternoon for the weekend. There were cookies to be made, packages to wrap, and things to dust. Dinner ended up being sometime around 8, and I turned on my computer for the first time this evening at about 11:45. So I'm still claiming this as a Thursday evening post.

And, with that in mind, here are five golden questions for you to ponder which have been bugging me, lately (if you have answers, please let me know, because I really do wonder about these things):

1) Why are busses so tall? Is there a reason they have to be that way? It's not like people riding on city busses are trying to sightsee, so what's the reason they all are tall enough to block the rest of us from seeing around them in traffic?

2) Why are the colors of Christmas red and green, while Hanukkah is silver and blue?

3) Whatever happened to the Christmas tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve? I mean... That's why "A Christmas Carol" came into being. And without that, "The Woman in Black" would have to have a completely different opening speech (a few of you will know exactly what I'm talking about, while the rest of you are probably thinking I should have stopped after the Christmas Carol comment).

4) Why did the Christmas tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve ever start? And have you ever heard of Krumpusnacht? Seriously - Google that and check out the pictures of "Krumpus" who used to take care of all the bad little boys and girls while St. Nicholas was taking care of all the good little boys and girls. I'll take a lump of coal in my stocking any day instead of having to worry that that dude is going to show up some dark winter's night.

5) Why is it that weather and the barometric pressure can play such havoc with the preparation of some foods? I'm assuming it has to do with the temperatures at which things boil, but if the no-bake cookies that I have on the table don't set up by morning all because there may or may not be some weather moving in, I'm going to be pissed.

And, with that, I seem to have hit the point in the evening when my eyes start to burn and itch for no apparent reason, so I'm heading for bed. Assuming, of course, that I can find some visions of sugarplums to chase Krumpus out of my head.