Merry Christmas, Mom!

. . . and Dad, too, of course, and the rest of you, but Mom was the one who told me that if I didn’t do a post on the gift she sent me, she’d take ‘em back.

And I’m not letting these go:

Thank you!!!

You know that now that I know you can get these at Jungle Jim’s,* I’ll be expecting regular Care Packages, right?

It was a good day for everyone.  Some of the highlights:

Pure Awesomesocks from Santa, who also went a little crazy at the accessory store—if it’s meant to attach to hair, it was in the kids’ stockings.

Watson made the kids hats that go with our family’s favorite movie** and one of our favorite in-jokes–with no written pattern:

      

She also gave me my new favorite tee-shirt:

Because I’m a big ol’ nerd—this can’t be news—who firmly believes that what The Whedon takes away, The Whedon can bloody well give back.

Since the Christmas turkey roast was put in the crockpot at 10 this morning with four heads of garlic, I spent the afternoon playing computer games with Jane, reading a few of the books given to me by friends and family,  and, as a personal challenge, decorating cookies.  These cookies:

The trick with  is to make the icing just the right consistency—but by the time I mastered the technique, I’d run out.  It was tough, but I found the experience humerus . . .

I hope you all had a great Christmas—or a rather nice Tuesday—and that your evening is filled with the equivalent of the Doctor Who Christmas Special and just this side of too many strange and tasty cookies.

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*If you’re anywhere near Cincinnati, go visit Jungle Jim’s—it’s an experience, right down to the bathrooms. And if you forget the name before you can, just google “Weird Grocery stores in Cincinnati,” and it’ll pop right up.  There might also be a video.

**Collectively, I mean.  Our individual tastes differ.  A lot.

O Christmas Tree

For your

Holiday and/or Everything’s Closed And I’m Bored

Enjoyment

A Wesson Christmas Tree Puzzle:

Find the following things:

—a Snowman made out of a paving brick that weighs more than Sunny.

—A half-shredded, tissue-wrapped, school-made gift left to the mercy of the cat

—half a bolt of pink-and-silver fake fur tied with a sequinned ribbon, from my friend Grace to the kids

—The wooden nut basket with two trees on it that we tore the house apart looking for until it showed up in the photograph and someone elbowed someone else, pointed,  and said, “Oh, for $%#&’s sake.”

—a gingerbread man ornament with feline teeth marks on one leg

—A small egg-nog stain on a hand-hooked Christmas rug from my MIL’s side of the family (don’t tell her, please)

—The TV remote, because we can’t find it and we know it’s in there somewhere.

—Three copies of The Worst Best Christmas Pageant Ever

—The replacement tree-topper for the heirloom crystal one that shattered the moment it was gently lifted from its tissue nest and encountered the harsh climatological conditions of our living room

—The cat because we can’t find him, either, but odds are he’s doing something unspeakable behind the tree, possibly to the remote

Merry Happy Christmas

Belated Hanukkah

and/or Tuesday

to You

from the Wessons!

How to Celebrate Labor Day

Sleep until 8:30.

Pry the kids away from the tv so they can finish the homework they’ve been avoiding for two days and do a little quick editing of Pigeon between admiring wobbly rows of 3′s and 5′s and offering ironic assistance in the correct spelling of ‘dictionary’.

Do an emergency run for dog food and diet Pepsi—this is survival, people.

Make cupcakes and earn one brownie point for for making one’s own self-rising flour—thus making up for the points lost in not reading the recipe all the way through in the first place.

Spend the rest of the day having fun, because it’s crazy sunny today:

Literally.

Have a great Labor Day—or a very good Monday!

Merry Happy and Happy Merry, Everyone!

However, whatever, whomever you celebrate (or not) this time of year,

I wish you a Happy Merry or  a Merry Happy time doing so.

See you Monday!

Random Thursday: Peanuts, Sugarplums, and White Wine in the Sun

Feeling kind of musical today, decided to go with it . . .

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I know “Linus & Lucy” isn’t really a holiday song, but I tend to think of it as one—blame the Peanuts TV specials.

Our favorite local radio station seems to agree; they’ve played almost every day since Thanksgiving and my kids and I always converge on the radio and dance to it.

This is an excellent version by The Piano Guys, who brought us Cello Wars.

I so want to be the lovely lady in the green pantsuit someday.  She’s a hoot and a half.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooo

I love The Nutcracker and I love unusual musical instruments.

Put them together and make the results hauntingly beautiful, and I’m all over it.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooo

I’ve recently discovered Tim Minchin and became an instant fan. He’s one of the most amazing pianists I’ve ever heard and I usually end up crying with laughter at his songs and irreverent, barefoot wit.

A few of his songs are a tad more sincere, though just as clever, and this is one of them. It’s my new favorite Christmas song, and I don’t say that lightly.

Someday, when I’m that lady in green, I hope my family will have holidays like this, too.

And yours, too.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooo

And finally, because I firmly believe that the world needs more Muppets:*

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* And that if you put these three specific ones together—with perhaps a soupçon of Fozzie—you get something that looks a lot like a map of my psyche.  Which muppets are you?