Merry Christmas!

No,  I haven't quite lost my mind.  Although that could well be a topic for a completely other post.
I suppose if I ever really got to that point,  I'd be slipping into the incoherent bliss of confusion.
I'll stop now, since this could very well turn into an argument with myself.

That would be a sign.

Actually it's the "Feast of the Epiphany" here in Wienerland,  but for our Ukrainian friends,  it's Christmas Eve.

So...Merry Christmas!!


Confused yet?

Wait!
There's more!

When we were in Puerto Rico,  we discovered that it was "Three Kings Day".

Right.

 That was the day on which all the kids got their presents.   Not on Christmas.   Christmas was all about the birth of Christ.  Going to church.  That kind of thing.
Whether you're big into that or not,  at least the name of the day makes sense in the sense of the word.
You know what I mean.

No,  "Three Kings Day"  was when three of the local yokels (almost always kids) would dress up as three kings and all the kids would put a box of grass under their beds at night for the camels.

I'm not making this up. I'm not that creative,  nor have I succumbed to mental condition I mentioned just a few lines ago.

And no,  I don't mean those camels.
That would just be wrong on so many levels.



It wasn't until some time in February that all the Christmas trees were taken down and burnt,  with the ashes saved for Lent.
Yes,  some Puerto Ricans had Christmas trees.   Shipped each year from Maine.
And here you thought Wienerland was "Absurdistan"!


The bottom line is,  here in Wienerland,  it's a holiday.
Not like a holiday we had back in December when only the grocery stores were closed but all the retail shops were open (there's all that Christmas shopping after all) but a holiday when everything is locked up tight.

There might be the odd gas station open,  but I'll never know.  Nor do I care.
I bought extra groceries yesterday,  so we're good.
I only wish our freezer was just a tad bigger,  since keeping bread from one day to the next is nearly impossible.  I'm not buying a stand alone freezer just because of the odd holiday when all the stores are closed.
Billa had these Dr. Oetker pizzas on for €1,79 if you bought two,  and I had to pass that one up since I knew we didn't have room in the freezer.   It's these little things that bring us right back to that whole "crazy" theme.


And there we have it.  "Alpha and Omega"   From crazy right back to crazy.

 Except that I did want to mention that I'm using one of my Christmas presents,   since this will quite possibly be the only time I can get this in without some elaborate segue that would just be too difficult to come up with.
I have been known to grumble ever so slightly about being in the dark for way too many hours of the day?   (And that's the biggest understatement of the year so far).
So now I don't have to worry about juggling a flash light while tending to the grill.   I didn't even know they made hats with lights.  The tricky bit will be keeping it free from BBQ sauce,  since shoving it in the washing machine will be out of the question.
 

look closely at the brim.

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