Twas Night Before Christmas by Elizabeth English

Twas Night Before Christmas

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Table of Contents 1. 'It's not beginning to look a lot like Christmas,' yet, but it IS time to start planning. 2. First Christmas away from home. Paris. 1967.

Twas Night Before Christmas

'It's not beginning to look a lot like Christmas,' yet, but it IS time to start planning. by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. I knew what the response would be when I played the classic "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" yesterday for all the horrified folks in the Live Business Center, but it was even better than I hoped for ... universal moans, groans, and expostulations that all meant, "Dr. Lant, you can't be serious!" Nobody thanked me for my concern about making this year's holiday season the smoothest ever because it would be the best planned ever. I mean, you want to avoid the chaos and confusion that distinguished your efforts last year, right? And you definitely want to avoid the acute Last-Minute- I-Tis that seems to occur every single year, right? Well, I'm here in my role as Santa's Little Helper to make this dream come true. "Are you sure you're not jumping the gun just a little?" Unless you're a bona fide Christmas freak (and they do exist) you think of this most important holiday of the year not with happy expectations but rather with dread and apprehension, remembering what can go wrong because of all the things that have gone wrong in years past; some of them certifiable doozies like the time you "forgot" to get that "little something" for your much loved mother-in-law. That kind of faux pas can never occur if you follow the instructions I'm about to give you. And that alone makes your attention now worth it. 1) Plan, don't just think about planning. Planning means just that. Sit down at your computer, open a new file and brainstorm all the categories you must have and master to ensure the best possible result. If your plan is complete and thorough and if you master it, you are going to have a superior event. Guaranteed. Otherwise it'll be catch as catch can. That can be memorable, of course, but in all the wrong ways. 2) Review what happened last year. Christmas is about traditions, but one tradition you want to exclude is muddle. What really worked last year? What did people like... what did YOU like... and what left a mess, even bad feelings? The earlier you walk through what happened, why it happened and (where applicable) why it better not happen again, the better. 3) Select a tune that gets you in the Christmas mood, even when you most assuredly are not. I like Der Bingle's version of "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" written by Meredith Wilson in 1951. It works on even the most hardened Grinch. I know. I'm one. 4) Brainstorm all the people you want to gratify with a gift. Be expansive. The idea when brainstorming is to jot down possibilities. Evaluation and exclusion are not part of this initial process. Thinking broadly and without limits is. 5) Now prioritize. Who MUST get something (think mother-in-law) because the consequences of not giving are too horrible to consider... and who would it be nice to give something, but not necessary? Prioritizing is crucial... unless you have more money than God, although it's rumored that even His pockets are not so deep as usual after our punk year. Avoid the "January Hangover". Many overly jolly holiday givers wake up in January owing a bundle that's sure to make all the merry gentlemen dismay. Planning is crucial here. 6) Budget. First, estimate how much money you want to spend. Then look at last year's bills. http://www.LizsWorldprofit.com

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Twas Night Before Christmas Scrutinize them closely. Was the amount you spent before easy to pay... or did it leave you broke, under a pile of debt? There are two keys here: First, determine your budget, then resolve this year not just to live within that budget, but to cover most if not all of your expenses with cash on hand, not credit. What! You're thinking that's positively un-American. You're right... paying up front for Christmas expenses IS un-American, and that's a very good thing. This means determining how much you can afford to spend as determined by how much you can put away prior to December 15, then saving and spending accordingly. This will save you a lot of grief and lamentation in January. Shop early. Right now as I'm writing Christmas is still about 100 days away. No rush to shop, right? That depends on whether you want distinctive gifts... or whether any old gift will do. For all that I'm a Grinch of unmatched performance, I make it a point to give gifts of thoughtful consideration only. No mere "gift" will do. For me, this means scouting the catalogs of the world's major auction houses, places like Sotheby's, Christie's, Dorotheum, etc. I never have any trouble finding things of beauty and rarity, even if sticker shock comes along with it, especially fine jewelry. Every auction house in the world has special bijoux sales before Christmas with eye- popping bling. You'd be surprised at the bargains available for the diamonds which are always a girl's best friend. Important note: if you take advantage of this recommendation, remember that things you purchase at such auctions may and very likely will need restoration and professional TLC before being given, not to mention adequate time for packing and shipping. Make generous delivery estimates accordingly. Plan for the "little people." My life works because of all the so-called "little people" who assist, help, organize and, I admit, coddle me. It takes many such people providing a plethora of such services to make my life work. All must be remembered at Christmas, but how to do it without breaking the bank? With me, Trader Joe's is the answer; specifically their unmatched for the price liquor department. It takes just one trip purchasing just two cases of fine wine and sherry to solve the problem. Then all I have to do is write ("For Aime") on my business card and tape it on the bottle. Voila, I have a gift that never fails to please, especially if they didn't expect to be remembered. And thus my status as a "good fellow" is secured for another year and so is their good service on which I so rely. Check your lights and ornaments well before you need them. One of the season's habitual frustrations is ensuring you have all the lights and ornaments you need before you have to have them. Finding out you don't have them is a major hassle in December; just a minor glitch in September. Thus review what you've got early. Then shop online to order what you need; you can do this any day of the year by searching on the item you want. That's the sensible, inexpensive, cool, calm and collected way to do it. Wither goest thou? Are you traveling this year? Air fares are up which means planning is even more necessary. Here's where the online discount travel services come in. The earlier you consult and use them, the better the deals. Just remember, once you've booked these specials, there is always a penalty for change or cancellation. Now sit back and enjoy the holidays. I have seen 64 Christmases so far, this year my 65th and it has long seemed to me that too many http://www.LizsWorldprofit.com

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Twas Night Before Christmas people are too harassed to enjoy them. If you follow the directions in this article carefully and thoroughly, you will savor and enjoy them, perhaps for the first time in years. And that may be the biggest gift of all.

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Twas Night Before Christmas

First Christmas away from home. Paris. 1967. by Dr. Jeffrey Lant. Author's program note. Today is the day I sign up to receive Social Security. It will be a day when low level bureaucrats will prod me, asking questions they already know the answers to, all designed to prove (or not) that I am the Jeffrey Ladd Lant born 66 years ago in Illinois, into a time and situation which now only exist in my imagination. I wonder whether the clerk will smile or even look at me when the inevitable queries are asked? I'm not counting on it, for they see a generation advancing to old age, while I consider only myself. I want human contact but will have to do with "sign here" and get the money. And so, under the circumstances you will understand that I need something quite different; a kind of cosmic pick-me-up composed of equal portions of youth, energy, hope and optimism, all things in shorter supply today, here and now, than then. I need Paris. Since you probably do, too, let me share some with you.... the better to remember and pass a kindred moment when not a single word is required or expected. "I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles". For me, only one song would do for the musical accompaniment to this article; Cole Porter's seductive tune "I Love Paris". It debued in 1953, in the film "Can- Can" and like so many of Porter's haunting melodies it immediately touched the soul of the world; in this case setting us to recall the bittersweet memories of a youth that can only be tapped infrequently, so powerful is even the smallest part. I like Ella Fitzgerald's rendition about "this timeless town". It cuts to the heart... and does with you what it will... just like love itself. You'll find this bijoux in any search engine. Go now and play it... again... and again... and again. If it's cold and misty outside and the memories come thick and fast, you are ready for what follows. Paris, destiny. In 1967, I was the luckiest 20-year-old in the world. Though the Great Republic was at war, gravely divided by whether we should have more of it or less, I was going to Poland for my Christmas holidays. Now as all the world knows, the way to Warsaw most assuredly goes through Paris, at least in my atlas. Thus I found myself for the first time in the City of Light at the best possible time in life to be there, that is to say whatever time you are there; in my case December,1967 just a few days before Christmas. My trip, hurriedly arranged which is to say (in the way of young men) not arranged at all, came about because of a notice hung on the campus bulletin board at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where I was spending, and happily too, my junior year abroad. It promised high times and hijinx in Zakopane, the site of the Eastern Bloc's 1967 Winter Olympics. The trip was sponsored by the Young Pioneers, Communism's equivalent of the "Best and the Brightest." The cost could be scrapped together and was just affordable at just about a hundred quid. Of course we wouldn't tell parents where it was we were going, much less under whose auspices. Bright young men seek to shield the 'rents from any inkling that they might have had, were having, or would have a "good time." That was always the best possible course, especially where Communists... and Paris, mind... were involved. Paris first. http://www.LizsWorldprofit.com

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Twas Night Before Christmas Our trip to Poland was to have begun in London where we were to meet the tour guide and organizer. He had been a Tory candidate for Parliament in the last General Election; time now hung heavy while he waited impatiently for his next chance at greatness. Like most young, ambitious, aspiring Conservatives he didn't believe in much of anything; principles, you see, get in the way of success. It was always better not to have too many or to believe them too seriously. As a result our guide, youthful, good looking and unscrupulous was excellent company and game for anything. It's a pity I've forgotten his name... he's undoubtedly a retired cabinet minister now, full of sage advice and pompous aphorisms... the Right Honourable the (first) Baron Twitsbee-on-Thames. Such a man, of course, approved our traveling to Paris first, meeting up with the group later, pleasurably fatigued as men of the world would most assuredly be at that point. He undoubtedly wished us luck... and winked, salaciously. And so I went to Paris -- and to a passionate embrace which has never ended. Every true Parisian believes there is Paris... and then there is everything else. There is no known antidote to this belief. Once in Paris, walking the Champs Elysee, you are glad it is so. No antidote desired; none imaginable. And that's as it should be. So I came to see that Paris was not merely a place... but an idea, a dream, a journey, a vision and where, in grander style and sureness of touch, there was a better me waiting for the ordinary me to arrive. Le beau coup. I remember everything about those days... no detail too small or inconsequential. Paris is like that, transforming even the slightest of matters into Events, primed with Significance. Paris is, after all, the greatest mise-en-scene on Earth, a place where you find yourself, see yourself as larger than life, mesmerizing, captivating, the very person you have always wanted to be... and now are, to the gratification of self and the satisfying envy of the folks back home. No other city on Earth, no other place at all holds such power, such magic, and so you, like Josephine Baker sing this: "J'ai deux amours. Mon pais et Paris"; you are suddenly, unmistakably, to your complete bliss a boulevardier au fait with everything in this place which now forever holds a piece of your heart and means to keep it forever with fierce possession. And so it started in a boulangerie within moments of arrival. I ordered a baguette... and thanked the proprietor for... her beau coup. "O, monsieur," she said, just for a moment no longer of a "certain age" but young again, with gracious curves well worth the seeing. She patted her haunch, she giggled, she pointed "O monsieur, c'est le beau coup". I had made her happy. It was a portent of other happy encounters to come. "Is this what I think it's for?" Later that day, I stood with Mark Morris at the ticket counter of the Opera, Baron Haussmann's great creation begun in1861, a venue fit for God Himself to make music. We barely had enough for two tickets high up in the rafters and needed to count it twice over to be sure of even that.. but there was something about us, two acolytes butchering la belle langue determined to worship everything we saw, that touched the heart of the woman ticket seller. "Voila'," she said, an empress dispensing largesse. And so we came to possess a box at the Opera for the evening's performance, compliments of a Parisienne determined to turn by a graceful touch the quotidian into a lifetime's happy memory. Everything was new, notable, marvelous.. including how two young men of decidedly limited means, dressed just a shade better than tatterdemalions had their box unlocked for them, then locked http://www.LizsWorldprofit.com

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Twas Night Before Christmas again with them inside. And of how they soon discovered a ceramic pot on the floor festooned with the grandiloquent "N"s of the master who ordered such monumental awe and splendor. Yes, it was used... and so the customs of Paris turned the most natural function into art and protocol. Last night, first visit. Venite adoremus. Notre Seigneur et Sauveur. No young person wants to slow down the pace of time. Speed, not savor, is always their order of the day. But then comes Paris and the dawning fear one has too little time, hardly any time at all to enjoy each thing, every thing. And so youth comes to know a secret of age: that the best lived life is patient, paced, distinguished by care not merely celerity. Thus one grows and matures, another of Paris' insights and benedictions. And so in my final hours of what I vowed must be the first of many visits, I made my way near midnight to one of man's great achievements, Notre Dame. I went as a curiosity seeker, for I was, after all, the son of Puritans who would decry my very presence at such a Romish place. But God was present that night, and I knew why men of vision had dreamed this place and worked so hard to achieve it. Here was a place where one might look for and even find sanctity, belief, peace, and be touched by the greatest light that shown that night in the City of Light. And it was good. I sang the words of the great hymn -- "Venite adoremus" -- with conviction... Notre Seigneur et Sauveur. And then it was over. I was, in the middle of this Christmas night, en route by rail to Poland via Belgium enraptured by the greatest reason for loving Paris, the reason found in the last line of Cole Porter's great tune....

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Twas Night Before Christmas

Resource About the Author Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today. Republished with author's permission by Elizabeth English http://LizsWorldprofit.com.

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