Greetings Gold Country Families Newsletter Subscribers:
    
    Oh my, the Holidays are here again; so let the stresses and irritations of the season begin:

• Buying the correct returnable gifts and hording every receipt so the store knows you bought it there, even though it’s their own branded item.
• Standing in endless lines and always getting the inexperienced pimply-faced teenage checker who mindlessly needs the machine to tell him to say thank you and give the correct change.
• Looming possible unemployment, discontinued drunken company Holiday networking parties, and bonuses that are now as extinct as the Dodo bird.
• The in-laws, or worse the out-laws, visiting; or even more bad still, staying longer; or the ultimate bad, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation RV relative parking in your driveway.
• More huge family potluck meals; Boycott turkey and ham, where’s the beef?
• Paying property taxes in the most inconvenient time of year.
• Everything peppermint, and anything that smells Holiday-ish: potpourri, candles, air-fresheners, deodorants, etc.
• Tree picking, backward tying it on the car, better re-tying after falling off and causing a pile-up, decorating, and keeping it alive only to have dried needles reside in your carpet for months later to shish kabob bare feet.  If not an already dead live tree, then figuring out how to put the green plastic puzzle tree together again, because the instruction booklet got egg-nogged years ago and was tossed.
• Tangled old, one goes out they all go out, hot as hell lights and meter-spinning electric bills.  Then to further be depressed by the U-Tube Trans Siberian Orchestra extravagantly lighted house video some overly-paid electrical engineer with nothing better to do created. 
• Oh, but you got to love the constant ringing donation bucketers, off-key carolers, and the same old songs to be heard over, and over, and over again on the radio and in elevators, stores, and offices.  So, how many times can you tolerate Santa running over grandma this year?
• If the trucker wreaths tailgating in the rearview mirror aren’t overwhelming enough, visit the store isles, after isles, after isles of Christmas wrapping papers, bows, ornaments, Santa’s, elves, Nativity scenes, snowmen, bells, red and green do-dads, and pretty festive thingamajigs.
• Then envision how many trees were murdered each year for those three pounds of daily inserted newspaper advertisements cheap people wrap their gifts in, green people recycle, and oblivious people toss.
• And how could anyone possibly forget the forever dreaded repeatedly exchanged fruitcake door stop…gee, that reminds me, I’ll have to look over who’s been naughty and who’s been nice to me notes to see who gets the blasted thing this year?

Bah-Hum-Bug!  Yes, there, I’ve said it on behalf of all those people who have been overwhelmed with Jingle Bell Ho-Ho-Ho Holiday spirits since the day after Halloween.

Don't you just love twisted humor; take a good thing, blow it out of proportion, then turn it into something dreadful.  But in all seriousness, it’s expected that everyone sing and be happy like Who’s in Whosville during the Holidays.  However, like any green Grinch worth his ugly demeanor knows, there are two sides to every coin.  Statistics show that the Holidays are either the most joyous, or the most depressing times of year.  So, keep smiling and take a moment to share a smile, a giggle, or laugh with someone during the Holidays, God only knows we could use some extra cheer this year.

The coin is flipped and sails through the cold crisp air, which side will it land for you?  My coin landed on it’s edge and is still rolling, as time and my thinning wallet may have an impact on which side will eventually be face up. Regardless of how your coin lands (go ahead and cheat like I’m planning on doing, select the happy side), have a safe, wonderful, joyous, and heartwarming Holiday.  From all of us at Gold Country Families E-Magazine, Happy Holiday Travels.

Sat siri akal (Good Bye in Punjabi, India)

Patrick Witz
Writer/Editor/Publisher/Photographer
Gold Country Families E-Magazine
A FREE Internet Travel, Entertainment, & Leisure Magazine
editor@goldcountryfamilies.com
http://www.goldcountryfamilies.com

SPECIAL NOTE: Over the last few months, many e-mail service providers, AT&T, Comcast, MSN/Hotmail, and others, have been tightening up their SPAM filters.  These slight filter tweaks have caused hundreds of Gold Country Families subscriber requested newsletters to be "Bounced" and not forwarded.  This means the newsletter was accidentally listed as SPAM and deleted BEFORE being sent to you.  We have contacted many of these e-mail service providers and assured them Gold Country Family is a legitimate and requested service. Hopefully there will not be any more newsletter interruptions.  If you STOP receiving two update newsletters a month, please let us know and we will contact the appropriate service provider to correct it. Each current month and previous month newsletter is always available to read by clicking on the link in the Newsletter Sign-Up page.   To insure your personal service provider will not eliminating this newsletter in the future, please take a moment and add us to your SAFE SENDERS list.  Thank you.

• Detailed calendar of events and activities is available for viewing on the website separated by month and date order for easy navigation by clicking on the link above. Please let us know if you like this new format and the new mid-month updates, at: feedback@goldcountryfamilies.com.

PARENT & GRANDPARENT GET-A-WAYS SECTION:
http://www.goldcountryfamilies.com/parental-get-a-ways-page.html

• Listed below are portions of this month's featured article(s) recently added to Gold Country Families E-Magazine. Please stop in and peruse previous months articles on a diverse variety of parent and grandparent get-a-ways using the link above:
  
  Visiting Fictional Lake Woebegon
  By Christie Nelson
  
  
  
  October’s maple-scented, crisp wind wings down from the Boundary Waters and whisks us past Minnesota’s domed Capital building outlined against the true blue sky.
   
  We are Californians who are hurrying to see a live broadcast of an old time radio variety show hosted by the bard of fictional Lake Woebegon, Garrison Keillor.  He’s a baritone storyteller with a taste for sonnets, song and a mission to save shy Lutherans. I’ve listened to him for years on Sunday mornings in whatever kitchen I’ve called my own.
  
  We scoot along sidewalks into the little town square in front of the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul.   The goodwill of the crowd is contagious.  There’s a smile on my face that I can’t wipe off.
  
  I’m a San Francisco West Portal Lutheran child who squirmed in hard pews and heard the bleak damnation of Pastor Lindquist.  My husband, Ron, is a Washington State child who was raised on a Methodist sinner’s diet of no liquor, no card playing and no way no how no music.  We are ready to be saved.  Again.    
  
  Today we are in luck.  This is the kickoff of the 35th Season of A Prairie Home Companion followed by the Annual Street Dance and Five-Dollar Meatloaf Dinner.
  
  Red brick churches line the square; steeples pierce the sky...
  --- CONTINUED ---  For more of this article and others, please visit the Parental-get-a-Ways link above.
  
  

READER STORIES SECTION:
http://www.goldcountryfamilies.com/reader-stories-page.html

• Below are new short-short travel related reader stories that have recently been added to Gold Country Families E-Magazine's Reader Stories Section.  Please stop in and read not only this months but also previous months short-short stories of interesting, funny, exciting, touching, emotional, and sometimes wacky travel tales by using the link above:

Don’t worry, if you don’t want anyone to know it was a you, a relative, friend, wife, husband, sister, brother…your identity will remain anonymous by request.

WEATHER-FIRE-ROADS SECTION:
 http://www.goldcountryfamilies.com/weather-fire-roads-page.html

• This section's information on weather, fire updates, and road conditions is easily available via third party resource links. 

RESOURCE LINKS SECTION:
 http://www.goldcountryfamilies.com/resource-links-page.html

• We are always adding new resource links to this section throughout the month.  If you know of a particular travel or travel-related link that you feel would be beneficial to other readers, please forward the links to feedback@goldcountryfamilies.com.  The editorial staff will review the links and consideration them for inclusion as resources. 
  

RESTAURANT - THEATRE SECTION:
 http://www.goldcountryfamilies.com/restaurants-page.html

• Added Sacramento Community Center's California Musical Theatre 08/09 Season.
• We are slowly incorporating into the Restaurant section Theater Highlights.  If you have any restaurants or theaters that you feel should be included and shared in this section, please let us know at: restaurant-theater-highlight@goldcountryfamilies.com .
  

Accepting advertisements for both the website and the monthly newsletter.  If your company or organization is interested in advertising in Gold Country Families E-Magazine, or this Monthly Newsletter, please contact the Gold Country Families E-Magazine Advertising Department at:

Please make sure you follow-up on the initial subscription e-mail sent to you as validation of your acceptance to receive these newsletters, if you don’t follow through with the second step, you will not receive the newsletter.  Your name and e-mail address will NEVER, repeat, NEVER be forwarded, sold, or exchanged.  Copies of the last two newsletters can be found at the top of the newsletter sign-up page.

Please forward any comments, feedback, or concerns, regarding this Newsletter or Gold Country Families E-Magazine to feedback@goldcountryfamilies.com.  Thank you for your support and interest in Gold Country Families E-Magazine. 

Patrick Witz
Editor/Publisher
Gold Country Families E-Magazine
A FREE Internet Travel, Entertainment, & Leisure Magazine
editor@goldcountryfamilies.com
http://www.goldcountryfamilies.com

Copyright 2008.  All Rights Reserved.