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| Nicholas L. Laning |
We all know that scent has the strongest link to memory above all the other senses. So it should be no surprise that my number one would be because of scent. Most people have grown up smelling Pinon wood in the distance, thought it wonderful, and never knew what it was. It is a uniquely aromatic wood upon burning, and they only sell it around the holiday season. You can buy Pinon wood during this holiday season at most of the nicer grocery stores such as HEB, Kroger, or Tom Thumb. They already have it out around Dallas.
2. Johnny Mathis Christmas with Percy Sledge's Orchestra, and Nat King Cole's Christmas CDs.
Nat King Cole gets more publicity, as he is far more famous, but Johnny Mathis' CD is the best ever. No CD holds more memories for me and my family. Nat King Cole has been huge as well. I learned Oh Tannenbaum in German because of this CD.
3. Homemade Candy
My mother used to make all kinds of home made, from scratch candy that was both delicious, and dangerous, as it would nearly rip the fillings right out of your teeth. That is, if it didn't just rip out your teeth. Just saying.
4. Cirrus clouds
I know, you're probably wondering what I am thinking, and also what a Cirrus cloud even is, right? Cirrus clouds are the thin, wispy clouds that swirl high the sharp, clear, and cold air of fall and winter. Along with the change in the suns directionality and intensity, this is what makes that winter sky feel like a winter sky. As far as what I am thinking, you have to understand that we Lanings are land people. My grandfather could give you every colloquial name for each piece of foliage that covered the arid ground of South Texas. My brother seems immune to this, and mocks my father and I every time we begin to extol the beauty of some mighty oak tree, or notice that the temperature is about to change by looking at the clouds.
5. Houses trimmed in blue lights
No, this isn't my favorite. I like normal lights, preferably with big bulbs. No, this one is because this is what my grandfather used to love to put on my grandparents house on Ward St. in Midland, Texas. He used those lights that had that kind of plastic star burst at the end that, if you handled them incorrectly, could give you a nice gash. It is in front of that house where the street froze over when I was four years old, and my father, my uncle Mike, and my Uncle Kyle, all pushed me up and down the street on a real sled.
6. Grandma and Grandpa's/Daddy Jake and Nanna's house
People are very different with there holidays. For me, as a child, there was one constant, and that was that each Christmas was spent at the grandparents. We didn't do Christmas at home until I was a teenager, and I hated the break. It wasn't Christmas if we weren't at a grandparent's house. This is tough this year. Both Daddy Jake and Nanna died this year, and their house has been sold. Tough to think I will never again throw the football to my brother through the tall, rustling sycamores that covered their yard.
7. Cold weather
Don't say duh! This is Texas. Half of the Christmas in my life were spent in cold weather clothing, eyes closed in concentration, hand outstretched toward the sun, trying to Jedi the temperature out of the eighties down to something proper for Christmas. Yes, it surely gets cold here, but it is so sporadic. I find it odd that we think of things the way we do, and associate so much cold weather to this time of year, when it really comes for us in January. I think it is because we get taught in Kindergarten that there are four seasons (lies I say! I feel hoodwinked! We all know there is only two... hot and cold.), and what each season brings. We get taught that winter is all about snow and cold weather, and it sticks.
8. Live High School Football
I have only been to one live football game in the last several years, and that was here in Brownwood, to show my friends from Ireland what a high school football game was like. Few things kindle the reminiscence of the Holidays than going to watch the New Braunfels Unicorns play football. Yes, I said Unicorns. Yes, that really is our mascot. No, I'm not touchy about it. YOU WANT TO FIGHT? LET'S GO! YOU! ME! RIGHT NOW!
9. Wassail Fest and the Lighting of the Plaza
My hometown is not perfect, or even close to it. Honestly though, it is pretty wonderful. Wurstfest has been known for years, and is great, but Wassail Fest has real charm. When we first went, in the early nineties, Wassail Fest was super small. Maybe a thousand people showed up, maybe. By the time I moved to Ireland in 2008, Wassail Fest was huge, and getting well... huger. Spicy, German Wassail, Scottish Bagpipes, and best of all, everybody comes, and it is one of those moments when you realize you are a part of a community, because you basically just chat with people the whole night. It's a wonderful thing.
10. Deer Hunting and Frost Bight
Our ranch is a part of a government program that extends our season both a month earlier and later. So, we start hunting when it is quite warm out. So, just to say deer hunting, for me, isn't right. No, it is that mix of hunting plus misery. That first hunt that I go out on, and come back unable to feel my fingers... that's the good stuff. You know that feeling? The one when your fingers are super cold, then you put them in front of hot air, and it burns like crazy? That's what I'm talking about.
Anyhow... You got to know me a little bit. I hope you enjoyed my list, and hopefully it kindled some of those reminiscent notions in you as well.
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