Caught a little Christmas spirit

Getting into the Christmas spirit this year has come a little slow at the Terry household.

That’s right; mid-week when I was writing this column, we still hadn’t put up the Christmas tree. Well, actually, it’s been up all year out in the garage. It wound up on top of the treadmill on the driver’s side of the garage. Every night since our construction project I get out of the car and into the Christmas tree.

I promise I’m going to carry the tree into the living room and put some decorations on it before you read this. I may re-gift the treadmill somewhere and have a few more inches to get out of the car inside the garage.

On the bright side, while reorganizing the refrigerator tonight, I found last Christmas’ cheese spread from Figis. It looks and smells pretty good and aged cheese is expensive so we already have a good start on a holiday party. Just need to explore the fridge a little further for some egg nog and the cabinet for some crackers.

In my job at the chamber it’s a little tough to avoid a smidgen of Christmas spirit with seasonal events coming down the pike right after Thanksgiving.

I always feel a little like Chevy Chase in "Christmas Vacation" by the time I get the courthouse light show going. You can’t ever get it all working at the same time.

We managed to put off the parade for a week and then ended up with great weather and a doozy of a parade. More lights and lots of creativity this year, it might have been the best one ever in Portales.

It was so beautiful and moving I found myself starting to get into the spirit of the season. Then the last entry — a fire truck with Santa Claus riding in the bucket caused a severe flashback that took me out of the mood.

Once upon a time, I had dressed in that red suit and ridden on a similar fire truck in another community. Santa had been booked to arrive at the park gazebo where Christmas carols, a yule log and hot chocolate were on the schedule with Santa arriving on the big red truck to talk with the kids.

Santa was helped into the bucket a few blocks from the park and got ready to wave and make with the Ho, Ho, Hos. Then, as we turned the corner along the park, the driver got over by the edge of the park where the trees overhung the street.

Santa glanced up just in time to see a big tree limb coming his way and hit the deck on the ladder. Didn’t even lose my hat but for a minute I thought 200 kids would be traumatized for Christmas.

Just thanking my stars that last week it was Don Criss on that fire truck and not me.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: [email protected]