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You are here: Home / Music / Sunday Morning Holiday Stories Open Thread

Sunday Morning Holiday Stories Open Thread

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In a minor seasonal miracle, our cherished holiday tree ornaments turned up last night, unearthed on a high shelf in the backyard storage shed when the Spousal Unit went out to make room for the half-dozen potted rose bushes we’re hoping to overwinter. So our mission today(with any luck) will be to buy a not-too-big tree… and a new tree holder… and some lights that won’t set fire to the whole mess.

Also, the Spousal Unit wants to hit the Lowes down the street for yet another wire shelving unit. And if the mob there isn’t too intense, I forgot to get the grocery gift card for our Sunday Globe delivery person…

Extremely tongue-in-cheek author Tove Jansson wrote a story (“The Fir Tree”) about the year when her hibernating Moomin heroes are rousted out of their snug beds by an aggrieved neighbor who tells them it is terribly unfair they don’t pitch in and do their share about Christmas. From her unhelpful complaints, as she rushes off to finish her other tremendously burdensome errands, the Moomins assume that “Christmas” is some kind of terrible monster who must be appeased with gifts of decorated trees and rich celebratory foods. Always wondered why that story wasn’t better known here!

Use the comments here to share your last-minute shopping, terrible travel, disastrous family gathering sagas. Or just to reminisce, if you’re in that kind of mood.

***********

I always thought the subtext to this next song was about bearing up through what seems like interminable trouble and effort…

Reader Interactions

247Comments

  1. 1.

    Alain the site fixer

    Good morning to all, Happy Christmas Eve! My only major to-do is getting fresh bread from Whole Foods at 7:30 and then to pick up some European party crackers and some chocolat coins for someone’s stocking, and can then wrap the remaining presents. I hope to limit the number of crying fits today to a dozen, but perhaps that’s overly optimistic. Best to all!

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    More snow today. Temps are going to drop into single digits this week. Looks like winter is here… for a week or 2 anyway.

  5. 5.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Finally emerging from yesterday’s epic hangover. We made rather merry Friday – office party started at noon (open bar, top shelf spirits, Lebanese food catered by cousins of mine). The Countess eventually joined me, and we lit out around 4, already blistered. Stopped by a really nice boutique hotel with a bar known for craft cocktails, then proceeded to a great steakhouse and hit a personal record – check before tip was $420, and we stayed for 5 hours. I was running about 60% all day.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL: The single digits will be at night, so not as bad as all that. Any work I do this week will be in my shop which will be at least semi heated, so there is that too.

    @Alain the site fixer: Hang in there.

  7. 7.

    Jeffro

    Saw “Nothing To Lose But Our Chains” in downtown DC yesterday at the Woolly Mammoth theatre…head still spinning…if you can get there by Dec 31, go see it!

    Today is for wrapping up odds and ends, doing the extended-family gift swap/steal, and then church with my mom. The kids are already looking forward to STAR WARS + Chinese takeout on Christmas Day…me too ?

  8. 8.

    Mustang Bobby

    It will be peaceful and calm here at the Fortress of Solitude South. Yesterday a friend from the Quaker meeting came over to inspect the spare room as a possible place of residence; his landlord of 8 years is about to sell the house out from underneath him. He’s a nice guy, a teacher, and has a cat, so I would be opening my house to both of them sometime in January. I think we’ll get along fine, too; he’s a filmmaker when he not teaching so we have similar art forms in common.

    The only last minute shopping I’ve done is on Amazon to replace my microwave oven; the door latch broke midst-soup-heating yesterday, nearly trapping a can of Campbell’s Italian Wedding inside. I also need a new Blu Ray player. I went on-line and they should both be here after New Years. Not to worry about the cooking; I have this appliance in the kitchen called a “stove” circa 1972 that still works.

    Oh, and for myself I spent a pleasant ten minutes on the phone with Fanfare Books of Stratford, Ontario, ordering my 2018 Stratford wall calendar. It has photos of the town and lists all the Canadian holidays so I’ll know when Victoria Day is next year.

    Peace and goodwill to all.

  9. 9.

    HeleninEire

    Happy Christmas Eve everyone. Nothing for me to do here except piss around. Spending Christmas Day at the Weston Hotel. They throw a massive Christmas party for those who wish to indulge. Good thing, too. The only thing open here tomorrow are a few hotels and Jimmy Chang’s, the all you can eat Chinese restaurant.

    And when I say everything is closed, I am not joking. Even the buses, trains and light rail shut down for the day. I’ve gotta walk to and from the Weston (only 15 minutes, though).

  11. 11.

    RandomMonster

    Wife and I will go to the harbor to buy crabs for ritualistic sacrifice this evening. While we’re out we’ll take RandomDog for a walk on a beach.

  13. 13.

    kdaug

    Same boat, Alain. Need bread & butter for a tomorrow thing. It’s the traditional turkey, so I was thinking some garlic naan with a rosemary ghee, but I had a really good pecan and raisen loaf last weekend. The stupid thing about Christmas dinners is that nothings open on Christmas.

  14. 14.

    Raven

    Loading up for the drive to Virginia. I made a big batch of gumbo for Christmas Day, it didn’t freeze overnight but it should be good iced down in the cooler. Y’all have a cool Yule and a frantic first!

  16. 16.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @eclare:

    My recollections are a bit hazy – they seem to include a lot of rounds of Old Forester Prohibition 1920, oysters, prosecco, steaks and sides, dessert, tawny port, grappa…

    There was a piano player, then a fun assed band. We hydrated with Pellegrino while dancing. Mercifully, we had a $250 gift card to help.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The refugees who brought hope to a Scottish island

    A star has settled over a Scottish island this Christmas and once more people from the east are bearing gifts. Just before Christmas 2015, Bute, an archipelago off the west coast of Scotland in the Firth of Clyde, opened its doors uncertainly to a battered group of 24 Syrian families fleeing the daily threat of death and persecution. Many among Bute’s 6,500 people were eager to welcome those who had endured horror. In some places the reception was chillier.

    This reaction was fuelled by a degree of suspicion and resentment and given further oxygen by some media coverage which sought to sew fear and foment division. The editor of the local newspaper, The Buteman, was so appalled by the tone of some of his readers’ comments that he felt he had to face them head-on in a hard-hitting editorial.

    “Mostly, these are just not-very-thinly veiled ways of people saying ‘I don’t want them in my backyard’. Well, I do,” wrote Craig Borland back then. “I want Bute to be a place where people who come here with little more than the clothes they are standing in can feel safe and at home.”

    Borland has since departed the editor’s chair, but he will be delighted to know that his Christmas wish of 2015 has been granted: these Syrian families are indeed safe and they feel at home. This gruff and unsentimental little community now holds them close to its heart. The Syrian arrivals, in turn, feel that they belong here and are eager to repay the kindness they have encountered.
    ……………
    Mounzer al-Darsani was a barber for 15 years in Damascus before fleeing with his family to Bute. He was a well-known character in the city, and his shop, the Orient Salon, was always busy. Earlier this year the Orient Salon rose from the ashes of Damascus and was born again under the same name on Bute.

    It seems his Rothesay business is now thriving as much as his Damascus one did. It was his dream to be open for business again in Bute, but he knew he first had to conquer the English language.

    “Immediately after I came here I studied English for five hours every night in my own home, and after six months I felt I was beginning to pick it up,” he says. “The locals have been very helpful. They sensed I was keen to learn and were very patient and helped me out when I got words or sentences wrong.

    “I love it here. My family have been made to feel very welcome. This is a safe place and that is important. I also volunteer at the Rothesay festival and at the food bank because it’s my way of saying thank you to the people of Bute for having us here and for coming to our aid and showing mercy in our darkest times.”

    Three years ago, Bute organised a public meeting to solicit views on how this formerly grand, but now struggling, place might be revived. According to the 2011 census its population had declined by 10% in the previous decade. Its formerly magnificent esplanade once thrummed with the feet and voices of several thousand Glaswegians – a summer bonanza which helped to sustain it for the rest of the year.

    Now almost every other shop space along the front is an empty one. But as well as the Orient Salon, a Syrian bakery and patisserie will soon open. The Syrian people fleeing terror have possibly brought with them the miracle of life for Bute.

    A small regeneration is taking place on the island. Four new babies have been born to the Syrian families and another is on the way. In their own way they are bringing optimism to a west of Scotland community that had almost forgotten what it meant.

  20. 20.

    satby

    @Alain the site fixer: Good morning Alain. Christmas eve was my late mother’s birthday, and the day my family used to hold our Christmas celebrations. We don’t do anything this day now but remember my mom. So I understand.

  21. 21.

    proudgradofcatladyacademy

    Hi and Joyous festivities to all. Currently staying at my sister’s house in town. I have been listening to her neighbors fight since 2 am. At 4 am I moved to living room couch and could still hear them. Now at 5 42 am they are still fighting and I am trying to figure out how to make Kuerig coffee taste better than hot brown water. Totally rethinking if I truly need to leave my spinster aunt abode for this crap. Worried about my cat. My neighbor volunteered to take care of her but he hasn’t answered my texts so I don’t I took the shuttle bus down but maybe I might try to find a ride up earlier than Tuesday.. I hate holidays.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @eclare: It’s coming out of the north NWS:

    Snow likely, mainly before noon. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 31. Light and variable wind becoming northwest 8 to 13 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New snow accumulation of around an inch possible.

    The snow is hardly worth mentioning except for the fact that I complained about the 1″ of snow that was little more than a tease yestermorn which I expected to melt and turn everything into a muddy mess. As it turned out it was rather pretty when done and only partially melted turning only the places I was working in into a muddy mess. Now I’m kinda hoping for a repeat only colder.

    We’ll see.

  26. 26.

    Elizabelle

    @Alain the site fixer: Thinking of you this Christmas. Your mom would want you to be happy, but definitely to miss her too.

    Awaiting flight to sunny Barcelona, and then it is going to be a scramble to lay in some light groceries. I am going to be happy just walking around.

    Happy Christmas Eve to all jackals, near and far. May next year be a far better one for all of us.

  27. 27.

    CarolDuhart2

    Finally, after being nagged, I’m using my Amazon Prime Video benefit. I’ve already watched Holiday Inn (1942) and Rudolph’s Shiny New Year. I plan to binge-watch all of those Holiday Specials I usually miss.

  28. 28.

    Debbie(aussie)

    To all at Balloon Juice, a very Merry Christmas, however or whyever you celebrate (or not). You are a marvellous bunch of jackals and I care a great deal about most of you.
    Please think of us here in Queensland, we are expecting a very hot Christmas, 36C in my neck of the woods. Whole family (my side) spending Chrissy morning and lunch here, except for my London residing brother. Have my daughter and her hubby here on their way to Canberra (from Townsville). He is in the army and has been posted to Duntroon military college to assist in the training of new officer recruits. Leah was unemployed for about a week, starting end of January at a Red Cross plasma collection centre. I am extraordinarily lucky; both my parents are still alive, the possibility of grandchild and grand- niece/nephew next year or two. Pity I can’t seem to feel the joy.

  29. 29.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: beautiful story, thanks for sharing. Winter storm advisory here, expecting 3-5 inches of snow and then a temperature drop to the teens. I installed the heated pet shelter in the shed with some cat food for the ferals hanging around, so I hope the cats find it and can stay safely warm. Something is eating the food and last time we had snow there were kitty tracks going into the shed.

    I’m nervous about #2 son driving to Chicago late tonight through the belt where the snow turns to freezing rain, he’s 32 but he’s my baby and he’ll be alone if anything happens. Of course, he’ll be fine. I only have to get dog food today, so trips out will be short. Otherwise a quiet day, tomorrow I’ll drive into Chicago to have brunch with the kids.

  30. 30.

    proudgradofcatladyacademy

    @CarolDuhart2:

    Were you horrified by the casual blackface? I watched it on Friday while baking cookies and kept reminding myself… different era..different era. Also, Mr. Astaire could sure dance!

  31. 31.

    Aimai

    We were supposed to go to NY for a week of theater starting the 26th to celebrate my parents’ 64th wedding anniversary but my 86 year old mother fell a couple of dsys ago and broke her arm and really can’t go. I don’t want to go now myself. Just want to stay close to home snd to my parents and not rush frim thing to thing all over NY. A better dilemma to have than not have. but a dilemma nonetheless.

  33. 33.

    Jeffro

    Looks like Stephen Pearlstein is throwing in with the dirty hippies…The GOP Tax Bill And The Class War It’s Unleashed In America

    …[American business leaders and CEOs], you have no one to blame but yourselves. You could have won almost all of what you once said you needed and wanted from tax reform without this sort of political backlash. But after Republicans ran the table in the 2016 election, you got piggy. Instead of insisting on a fair, fiscally responsible and well-crafted tax bill passed with input and support of some Democrats, you dropped any pretext to bipartisanship, to acting as stewards of the economy, and just started looting the U.S. Treasury of everything you could grab.

    Don’t think for a minute that the public didn’t notice. And don’t kid yourself into thinking this is just a passing issue. Every Democrat in every state and congressional district will now use every speech, every TV ad and every tweet to rile up populist anger at your plutocratic vision of American capitalism. You just did the impossible – you unified the Democratic Party!

    You’ve also just created prize-winning opportunities for every business reporter and news editor in America. Now, every time any major company increases its dividend, or announces a stock buyback, or ships a single job overseas, it is going to be a front-page story about what a con job the Republican tax bill really was

    Ah, now the thought of THAT warms my holiday heart!

  34. 34.

    La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes)

    @Alain the site fixer: Merry Christmas! The jackals are here for you!

    May I request the re-posting of The Legend of Shitmas 2016 at some point? That post provided some much needed laughs when many of us were in the depths of our grief after the election and other tragedies of 2016.

  36. 36.

    CarolDuhart2

    @proudgradofcatladyacademy: Not horrified. It just reminded me of how drastically things had changed since then. Demeaning stereotypes, for sure, and probably over the top for even then.

    I guess my outrage is reserved for stuff done after 1945, or when things loosened up enough that people could do better.

  38. 38.

    proudgradofcatladyacademy

    @satby:

    Retail at Christmas. Now that’s a horror movie. December 27th should be a national holiday but only for retail workers!

  39. 39.

    Jeffro

    @eclare: Later in the piece, Pearlstein talks about Dems passing legislation that not only claws back every last bit of loot, but tacks on additional clauses that should have been part of any ‘reform’ package (to say nothing of getting some actual fairness back in this country’s economic system):

    (best parts highlighted in bold)

    The Tax Fairness and Economic Justice Act of 2019

    Section 1: Imposes a “Freeloader Tax” on all individuals who fail to purchase health insurance, set annually by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to recoup, retrospectively, every dollar that hospitals and other providers have offered in free care to those without public or private insurance.

    Section 2: Increases the top corporate income tax rate on U.S. income to 26 percent. To limit the effect of loopholes, adds a minimum 12 percent tax rate on U.S. income. To limit use of foreign tax havens, adds a minimum 12 percent rate on foreign income, net of foreign taxes paid. Bans transfer of intellectual property rights to foreign subsidiaries.

    Section 3: Eliminates business tax deduction for interest payments.

    Section 4: Increases the top individual income tax rate to 40 percent, which would automatically increase 1 percentage point for every 1 percentage point increase in the share of national income going to the households in the top 1 percent.

    Section 5: Caps at $50,000 all personal income tax deductions other than medical expenses, losses from natural disasters and donations to nonprofit organizations whose primary activity is to help the poor and the disabled.

    Section 6: Repeals the deduction on income from business “pass-throughs” not subject to the corporate profits tax. Also adds a provision dramatically reducing the number of pass-throughs by subjecting any business with more than $5 million in revenue to the corporate income tax.

    Section 7: Requires estates to pay the capital tax on any unrealized gains before any proceeds are distributed to heirs. Also adds a provision subjecting bequests to individuals of more than $1 million to the income tax at capital gains rates.

    Section 8: Collapses the current seven income tax brackets into three, as long promised but never delivered by Republican politicians. Also makes permanent the higher standard deduction and child credit, while making the child credit fully refundable to families with little or no income tax liability.

    Section 9: Directs the departments of Agriculture and Interior to calculate the full economic value of any subsidies provided to any farmer, rancher or energy company directly or as part of a sweetheart contract or royalty agreement, and subjects such subsidies to the personal and corporate income tax.

    Section 10: Imposes a tax on sale of all stocks, bonds, derivatives and other securities and financial instruments of 0.5 percent. Also repeals the carried interest provision enjoyed by managers of private equity and investment funds.

    Section 11: Ends favorable tax treatment of like-kind exchanges of real property, widely used by real estate developers. Also prevents owners of real estate from depreciating assets that are, in fact, appreciating in value.

    Section 12: Prohibits corporations from deducting the cost of performance bonuses and stock and stock options for top executives unless an equal amount of money has been set aside in a profit-sharing plan for front-line employees.

    Section 13: Imposes a carbon tax on companies involved in the sale of oil, gas and coal, pegged to the social cost of carbon as determined by the National Academies, with proceeds to be used for rebates to low-income consumers, tax subsidies for production and use of clean fuels, and for mitigation efforts to protect against the negative effects of global warming.

    Section 14: Quadruples the enforcement budget of the Internal Revenue Service and establishes bounty rewards for anyone who reports tax fraud of more than $1 million who is successfully prosecuted.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Xmas eve is make a poteca day for me but there is a glitch this year. I broke the ring finger on my right hand Tuesday which makes kneading the dough rather impossible for me and that is one of the crucial parts of making poteca as one can only know the dough is right by the feel of it. So my wife is going to learn what the dough is supposed to feel like today and I hope my just checking it from time to time with my left hand is sufficient. The 2nd crucial part is the pulling of the dough which is a 2 handed job. She has helped me with that before so I don’t expect any problems with that. Sucks to be her.

  41. 41.

    Leem

    @OzarkHillbilly: a heartwarming story, but I chuckled at the thought of learning English on the western Scottish isles. My wife’s parents were off the boat Glaswegians, and their beautiful accents and Gaelic phrases took me years to fully decipher. Of course I was the one with an (American) accent.

  43. 43.

    HeleninEire

    @OzarkHillbilly: Didn’t you have a “kneading the dough” issue last year too? I’m thinking it was your leg and you couldn’t stand to get the right pressure on it. Yes?

  44. 44.

    eclare

    @Jeffro: CPA, tax accountant here, couldn’t agree more. But with the current president, don’t see that happening. I will be ecstatic if we get the House.

  46. 46.

    Betsy

    So glad the ornaments were found. It’s horrible to lose cherished things.

    I’m excited today to learn that I will finally close on a house in a historic tiny port town that I’ve been hoping to move to for a long time. Going to try a little mini-retirement on for size.

    It’s time. Body is warning me. Job sucks.

  47. 47.

    Nelle

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m northwest (not hear Kansas) of you and we had a sweet little snowfall in the early hours. Unfortunately, it was accompanied by the Black Dog of the holidays. I’m inside bound by the Cough of Horrors so I’ll have to use inner resources to not succomb to going down. Nothing planned for the next few days. May just try escapism into mysteries.

  48. 48.

    Immanentize

    After going this way and that, the Immp and I decided on a little shopping for our cat,Toast, maybe a stop at Costcos for bottles of Coke from Mexico (cane sugar), and then an early dinner out at Legal Seafood.. Tomorrow we have been invited many places so maybe we will just house-hop. Or stay home!

    Big present for the Immp.is a.logitech driving wheel, pedal and shifter. He likes these truck simulators where you long haul between European cities. Go figure….

    Alaine –.hang in there for the next week especially. But don’t count the tears, just think of them as added love in all your dealings.

  49. 49.

    Elmo

    Good heavens, all this “doing” and “going” you people are up to! My wife and I are following our sacred holiday tradition of staying home with the dogs and eating. We may bestir ourselves to text people.

  53. 53.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @HeleninEire: HA! I had forgotten about that! I had a broken ankle (that was 2 yrs ago)(I think). Kneading the dough wasn’t a problem for me, it was the pulling of the dough as one has to make your way around the table pulling the dough in all directions. By the time I am finished tearing my body up, my wife will be an expert!

  54. 54.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: I was worried before I clicked the link that someone was just having fun, but the study will have great benefit to hatching if they can enact ordinances to protect them. Plus cuteness in tiny, tiny swimsuits!

  56. 56.

    Betsy

    @Jeffro: except that we can’t pass any legislation even if we do have an avalanche wave, because of R presidential veto, and there’s only a 57% chance of taking back the House with a blue wave (should be 97%, but gerrymandering)

  58. 58.

    HeleninEire

    @Betsy: Good luck.
    Retirement isn’t for everyone, but 4 or 5 times in my life I’ve taken a year or two off. Heaven. I tell friends that I am taking my retirement in pieces rather than all of it at the end of my life.

  59. 59.

    OzarkHillbilly

    What I’m really thinking: the reluctant Christmas Day guest

    So it’s that day again. I guess I will accept your invitation to spend Christmas with you, my lovely daughter, and your family, but, like last year, I will try to convince you that I am very happy by myself at home. I repeat that I won’t be lonely and 25 December is just like any other day to me – apart from the luxury of the fact that the world seems to pause for a moment. I know you feel guilty if I am not there, so I come along reluctantly.

    I wish you realised that I find it a little painful seeing the indulgence of the children, the number of gifts that I know will end up discarded after a few months, while my simple presents are discreetly put aside. Somehow I never get it right.

    I sit there for what seems like hours, sipping my mulled wine as all around get merry. Frankly I would rather eat, but the Christmas meal is served at some weird time between lunch and dinner, by when I have nibbled so many nuts to stave off hunger pangs that my pile of roast potatoes goes unappreciated.

    At my age, I feel I have done Christmas. Nothing will surpass the excitement on Christmas morning of one’s own little ones tumbling into the bedroom with their stuffed pillowcases, the sweat over the stove, the craziness of it all. But I would rather keep those memories tucked away safely than have to create new ones.

    I am happy you all enjoy the traditions, and maybe each year make new ones. So how about this year that tradition is leaving Mum at home, where as a treat she can take a ready meal out of the freezer, sit in front of the TV and revel in the fact that today of all days, the phone won’t ring?

    Amen, sister.

  60. 60.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Hey, has anybody ever responded to the phrase “the trash needs to go out” with a response of “the cans are next to the garage”? Or “the litter boxes need changing” with “good-you better get on that.”

    Asking for a friend…

  66. 66.

    WereBear

    Greetings to all. My Festivus Party was severely challenged by icy roads. The first wail of the sirens outside had me texting everyone not to come.

    We had two guests who live on other floors of the same place, but hey, safety first! And my Glögg had reached a new personal best…

    Oh well. Plenty of leftovers.

    For all saddened by losses, my sympathies. Happy memories…

  71. 71.

    WereBear

    @Immanentize: LOL!

    Festivus actually got picked because of many people’s schedules, but then events conspired against me in another way. I was so looking forward to it… but when the Feats of Strength involve arriving, can’t do it.

  72. 72.

    satby

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: all the time. In my house, he who notices a need fulfills it, because no one was the designated servant. Unless there was a reasonable physical constraint, if you noticed the trash needed to go out, you were expected to take it out yourself.
    And I notice a bit of sexism from the female partners of those of you saying that response got you in trouble (apologies to the late Mrs. Imm). I also insisted that you can’t have it both ways.

  73. 73.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly: Now that’s a beautiful story. I’m not sure why refugees are so easily demonized. I have yet to hear of a Syrian refugee committing any acts of terrorism anywhere. I completely understand that western countries can’t take in every refugee/immigrant who wants to escape his/her country of origin but there is no reason to be hostile to folks who just want to live better lives.

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I completely understand that western countries can’t take in every refugee/immigrant

    But that is all the more reason to invest in peace and prosperity for all.

  76. 76.

    WereBear

    @Patricia Kayden: I’m not sure why refugees are so easily demonized.

    Too many respond to aging with demands to return to their childhood; as they remember it, not how it necessarily was. When life was easy and simple because they were children.

  77. 77.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: I don’t buy it for a minute, and all my sympathies are with the “lovely daughter”! Anyone who would whinge like that about spending Christmas Day with her family would almost certainly lay a huge guilt trip on her adult children had they taken her “oh, just let me stay home and eat frozen Salisbury steak in front of telly” request seriously. :)

  78. 78.

    MomSense

    Everything is coated in ice. The trees look like they are made of glass. Going out may be a problem.

  80. 80.

    JMG

    Today I go to Cambridge to pick up the coffee table that is Alice’s present and make crab cakes for Christmas Eve dinner. But first must deal with the fact that a late night rainstorm and subsequent freeze has turned driveway into solid ice and cars into ice sculptures.

  81. 81.

    Immanentize

    @satby: No apologies necessary. I was a wiseass and I accepted the results. Especially as the litter was my particular domain…

    Our situation was not so egalitarian as yours. We had a different sort of distributed equalness. I did all the cooking and grocery shopping. J. did our laundry, garbage was generally my chore, but as you said, anyone who saw it did it. It’s funny, but just adding laundry to a busy schedule has caused me moments of bewilderment. I freely admit there was a clean underwear crisis about a month ago. But I think I’ve got a workable rhythm now….

  83. 83.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @WereBear:

    Hence the 50s and early 60s fetish for boomers. Before obligations and real life was a blissful, carefree existence with no sharp edges – primarily because the parents suffered those instead. Too many boomers (about two thirds of whom are from red areas and have very red predilections), however, have not recognized this in their nostalgia.

    For me, my ideal years were 77-80 – I wanted for nothing, my job met my need for what little spending money I had, I did what I wanted and laughed about every imposition of parental discipline and I simply ran the streets every day and night. I recognize, however, that all was not great for everybody, and know that my nostalgic twinge was really based on recollections of age and that stage in my maturation.

  84. 84.

    Betty Cracker

    My husband is making his famous lasagna and garlic knots tonight. We aren’t having many people over because everyone is sick, including me (there’s a nasty cold going around). My mother-in-law is coming over to spend the night, and we’ll probably get tipsy on a pitcher (or two!) of homemade sangria and binge-watch “The Crown” (she’s a fan of the series but does not have Netflix, so she only watches it here).

    I’ve got everything done EXCEPT I forgot to get treats for the dogs’ stocking, so I’ll have to hit CVS at some point today. Can’t disappoint the most faithful and deserving members of the family! Tomorrow I’ll do my prime rib and potatoes gratin.

  85. 85.

    debbie

    @CarolDuhart2:

    I’m more than a little happy to see they’re rerunning It’s a Wonderful Life tonight. I need to be reminded that not everyone in the world is an asshole.

  87. 87.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Immanentize:

    Great thing about men’s underwear is they can be thrown in any load unless your preferences are non traditional.

  93. 93.

    satby

    @Immanentize: well, other than my sons and occasional foster or exchange kids, there was no adult in the house for me to split chores with. So circumstances required a more egalitarian distribution, especially after my job required travel. But even before my divorce that was generally the arrangement. We rotated cooking, dishes, and laundry, and worked together on yard stuff.

  97. 97.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Program note:

    A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge, will be broadcast live at 10:00 a.m. EST on most NPR stations. It’s always one of my favourite things to do on Christmas Eve morning — beautiful, traditional music, familiar readings, and almost every year a newly-commissioned anthem. Soothing, moving, uplifting, and highly recommended
    if you’re near a radio.

    Link to this year’s program:
    http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/events/chapel-services/nine-lessons-2017-booklet

  98. 98.

    oldgold

    Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin received an early Christmas gift from “the American people,” which was delivered at his Los Angeles home Saturday evening.

    The gift-wrapped package, which was discovered at 7:30 p.m. local time (10:30 p.m. EST) in a driveway near Mnuchin’s Bel Air home, was addressed to the treasury secretary.

    It triggered a bomb scare, and had police officials scrambling to respond to the situation. Members of the bomb squad arrived at the scene to inspect the package which was reportedly signed as being from “the American people.”

    However, the scare turned into a farce when it was discovered that the package contained horse manure.

  99. 99.

    Betsy

    @HeleninEire: Oh Helen, I love that approach! I guess that’s what I’m trying to do — first thing is to take about 6 months and see all the people I haven’t seen in ten years, or at least several of them — and meet the kids I’ve not met.

    I would like (and need) to continue working, just it has to be on acceptable terms. I’ve got limitations that don’t work with standard employment, and I thank God that circumstances finally allow me to force any job or gig to conform to my body’s limits instead of the other way around.

    Those circumstances include the ACA.

    Thanks for the kind wishes.

    ETA: *please please someone ask me about the house*

  100. 100.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: My step daughter and her husband spend every Christmas with her in-laws in Bloomington IL. My youngest son is in NOLA. My oldest son and his new wife have 6 (!!!) separate families they are supposed to spend time with. I love my sons and daughter but leave me out of it. Their lives are simpler by not having to feel the need to satisfy some imagined yearning I don’t even have, and mine is more peaceful.

    Plus, I well remember those first few Xmases spending hours on the road going back and forth to both families trying to hang onto all of both family’s Xmas traditions. Until heading home one sleep deprived icy snowy Xmas eve I had a car spin out right in front of me. I didn’t dare touch my brakes or make any sudden swerves and yet somehow or other I managed to dodge his bumper car gyrations as he bounced from guardrail to guardrail. And I said, “Never again.” Pissed off a # of people in both families but fuck ’em, I get to be selfish too.

    And so do they.

  102. 102.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    A bit further northeast from Ozark Hillbilly but redder still, yesterday morning was bald eagle weather: cold, still and crystal clear. The Ozark river (we’re about a mile from the mouth where it dumps into the Missouri) is way down so about half it’s width. We have an eagles nest on the other side of the river down by the mouth. Awoke yesterday to an adult eagle flying by our window (we’re on a bluff about 100 feet up).

    Then went out for a walk. Didn’t see any eagles but a pileated woodpecker swooped onto the tree we were standing by. Seeing it is far rarer for us then seeing bald eagles. It was quiet, just us and the birds.

    Light snow and cold again this morning. It’ll be a cozy day at home (no B&B guests).

    Pause.

    For the last ten minutes we’ve watched 3(!) pileated woodpeckers outside our bedroom window. Three! They’ve been pecking and attached to this one tree. Two of em look smaller so I’m guessing they’re youngins.

    Wow. We see one adult once in a blue moon, now three and they stayed in the same spot all this time. I don’t believe in xmas miracles, being the staunch, godless, secular humanist that I am but I’ll take this as an early present.

  107. 107.

    debbie

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I love it too and am looking forward to hearing it. Got the coffee all ready to go…

    They also do a local version here, but it just isn’t the same.

  108. 108.

    Tenar Arha

    @Aimai: I hope she gets well soon. It’s certainly beautiful this time of year, but this way you guys can spend time together & maybe re-book your trip for next spring/fall.

  109. 109.

    germy

    So Santa is early this year?

    Police on Saturday investigated a suspicious package addressed to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, CBS Los Angeles reports. The package was found on Bel Air Road, near Mnuchin’s home, in Los Angeles.

    The package was gift-wrapped and filled with manure, police say, CBS Los Angeles’ Cristy Fajardo reports.

  113. 113.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    I meant Osage. I’m losing my mind.

    You should have stopped at the Dauphine. That’s us. Actually we live 3 houses uphill on the same side of the street.

  114. 114.

    tobie

    I’ve started potting every bulb and tutor I have in the kitchen that started to sprout. The ginger root has turned into a plant and it is a real delight with leaves that smell of ginger and citrus at the same time. Does anyone have any experience growing garlic? Will a garlic plant fill my house with that signature scent?

  115. 115.

    Dog Mom

    Today – baking various quick breads for giving out, a strata for tomorrow’s breakfast or elevenses. Getting mulled wine and baked custard ingredients together to prepare for tomorrow. Dinner with friends later, packing to see family tomorrow. I am trying to keep my mind off an interview that came up out of the blue Friday, but I won’t find out anything official till sometime when the decision makers can do what they need to do.

  116. 116.

    NotMax

    Been semi-binging on the Swiss ten-part series 10.

    Admit to seriously considering giving up on it during the earliest episodes. Compact to the point of approaching minimalist, slow-burning is an understatement. However it did hit its (or perhaps my) stride.

  118. 118.

    Betty Cracker

    @Josie & @OzarkHillbilly: Just to clarify, I perfectly understand the desire to stay home for Christmas; I am immovable on that day myself! I detected a tone in the piece, though — the remarks about the unappreciative grandchildren and hour dinner is served, etc. Reminded me of a cantankerous someone I knew who made similar complaints of the “the food is terrible and the portions are so small!” variety.

  119. 119.

    Jager

    Found out this morning, one of my Dutch cousin’s bakery was voted the “Best of of Rotterdam’ I’ve been told his Oliebols are so good you’ll eat your fingers.

  120. 120.

    Bemused Senior

    In NYC with daughter, sil, and the twins (2 yr olds) visiting other daughter and husband’s and sil’s families. Would rather be home, but it is wonderful seeing the grand twins discovering Christmas trees and Christmas lights. I will be cooking some kind of Christmas dinner tomorrow in the borrowed apt. (Brother in laws’ families left for HI for their annual vacation. I am the shiksa of family.) Babies will see a little snow tomorrow, so it is said. Then back to SF on Thursday.

  123. 123.

    Teddys Person

    That tweet made me laugh. When my one nephew was around 6 or 7 (he’s 16 now) we were all at my parents for Christmas. He wanted to put on a play for everyone. So, I wrote a little play about the reindeer trying to unionize (spoiler alert: they were successful at the end). Happy Holidays everyone.

  127. 127.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: Me too! I’ve already seen all of season two — I thought it was as good or better than season one — but I don’t mind watching it again with MIL.

  129. 129.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @A Ghost to Not:

    If the river stays low for most of the next month, we’ll be treated to bald eagles down on the mud flats. About 5 years ago I spent an hour observing and photographing a dozen of them literally frolicking in the cold water. All this 100 feet from my back door.

    Now if all my neighbors would vanish…

  130. 130.

    NotMax

    Not a Twitter person by any stretch of the vastest imagination. That said, came across this one from the Philadelphia police earlier in the month, within a short report. Has got to be a contender for best of the holiday season.

    If you’re in the area of 4th and Market, beware of traffic delays. A cow is loose. Again. No, we can’t believe we’re tweeting this either. Source

  132. 132.

    Schlemazel

    I have 2 very memorable Christmas stories on opposite ends of the happiness and joy spectrum.
    The bad
    I was working at a small radio station in Northern MN. The station owner was an abusive crook,almost all of my paychecks bounced the first time through the bank. From late November through December they bounced the second time & there was a long stretch with no money. Because it was a small town everyone knew my situation & nobody would take a check from me. I was working 10 hours across 11 hour days 6 days a week. As Christmas approached I had no food other than flour, sugar & salt. I mix some up & left it out hoping to catch some yeast. When I got home from work Christmas night I was able to make some sourdough bread. That was my Christmas feast. While I ate I was watching the nightly news & there was a story of a welfare family whose son had some immune disorder. The family needed $100 a month for a special diet for him but the welfare department had decided that was not covered under the food program so the kid was going to suffer a slow, painful death. That was not a merry xmas

  133. 133.

    debbie

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    (Everyone must be trying to download the program.)

    That Middle English will take me back to college! I follow “Chaucer Doth Tweet” on Twitter so hopefully I won’t get lost.

  134. 134.

    Schlemazel

    One of the best Christmas’ I had as an adult was in a horrid blizzard. The local news was interviewing people stranded & came across a mom & two young kids who were going to spend Christmas at the Greyhound depot. We didn’t live that far away so we drove down there, it was not a fun drive. We convinced them to come home & have dinner with our family and spend the night.
    The family had been out of work for months and broke. The husband had hitched a ride from out West to Chicago & found a job. He had gotten enough money for an apartment & bus fare, they were on their way to reunite in time for Christmas. WIthout prompting my kids shared their presents (though to be honest not their most coveted ones). There was plenty of food and a good time was had by all. That was a merry xmas

  136. 136.

    geg6

    I am not in a Christmas mood this year. It’s all just too depressing. I really hate the holidays any more. I put the tree up because John insisted but it only has lights because I refuse to pull out all the decorations only to have to put them back two weeks later. Too much work with almost no ROI.

    Because I’m bored and grumpy over the holidays, I decided to torture myself. I have very little interest in Game of Thrones and the fantasy and violence it portrays. But I do feel I have missed a big cultural icon because of my disdain for it. So I noticed, while perusing the upcoming tv listings, that HBO 2 is showing the entire series this week. So set it it to record and I plan to binge it over this last week off. I may make it through or I may erase it all in disgust. We’ll see.

  137. 137.

    A Ghost to Not

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Nice to see the bald eagles. I drive past a (protected) eagles nest on my commute, so I see them semi-regularly. I had one fly several feet directly over me in my driveway, so close I could feel his downbeat. Awesome.

  139. 139.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker:

    the remarks about the unappreciative grandchildren and hour dinner is served,

    Actually those 2 observations rang very true to me, but then I’m getting a little cantankerous too. :-) When she said,

    I wish you realised that I find it a little painful seeing the indulgence of the children, the number of gifts that I know will end up discarded after a few months, while my simple presents are discreetly put aside. Somehow I never get it right.

    I know my granddaughter gets WAAAAAAYYYYYY too much stuff for Xmas from her other grandparents, from her mother, from her father and now his wife too. I have noticed that there is a little bit of one-ups-man-ship going on too. We give her some money and leave it at that. Money is always “Right.”

    As to,

    I sit there for what seems like hours, sipping my mulled wine as all around get merry. Frankly I would rather eat, but the Christmas meal is served at some weird time between lunch and dinner, by when I have nibbled so many nuts to stave off hunger pangs that my pile of roast potatoes goes unappreciated.

    When our daughter does Thanksgiving I suffer this exact fate. The appetizers are so many and varied and can make a meal all by themselves….and they usually do, several times over.

  142. 142.

    realbtl

    Many years ago my late wife and I decided that Xmas was too complicated with blended family, many pulls in different directions shit. We started having Xmas the weekend before in order to de-complicate things. So my Xmas day for many years involves taking down the tree and removing all traces of the holiday.

  144. 144.

    debbie

    @geg6:

    I reluctantly started watching GOT earlier this year and ended up liking it quite a lot. You might be surprised. Also, I close my eyes whenever there’s violent stuff in all movies. The level of violence in GOT wasn’t much different; an awful lot of tits though.

  146. 146.

    Schlemazel

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    My son’s in-laws have been on an escalating insane gifting launchpad for 3-4 years now. Every birthday/Christmas/excuse they seem to spend more than the last. This year they bought the kids each a laptop, a pair of those very expensive headphones and lard only knows what else. There is no way we intend to compete, that way ends in madness.

  147. 147.

    NotMax

    Although not fully out of The Incredible Mr. Limp-it mode, we’re in a respite between passing rains and I must, must get a full property mowing done today before it gets any more out of hand out there.

    Gonna physically pay for it tomorrow, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

  149. 149.

    Smiling Mortician

    My Christmas miracles this year: getting discharged after only two nights in the hospital following surgery to remove the lower lobe of my left lung, and making the long drive home with virtually zero traffic on the I-5. Every member of the hospital staff was excellent, but still. I needed to be home, and now I am.

  152. 152.

    glory b

    @Betty Cracker: I’m skeptical too.

    My very loved sister in law’s father died Friday. He was sinking slowly, had in home hospice care ( her mother and father live with her and my brother) and the nurse told them last weekend he didn’t have much longer,so it wasn’t a surprise, and actually something of a relief.

    However, she lost her 27 year old son (who was married with a daughter, to a heart arrhythmia in March of this year, so I am pained for her. Also, when an African American family loses a younger male, the presumption seems to always be that it was violent.

  156. 156.

    JPL

    @germy: Trump was making his I went poopy face on Friday. That is where the investigation should begin.

    poopy face is a not a trademark of Betty Cracker but she gets credit for mentioning it.

  157. 157.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @A Ghost to Not: @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Every winter we get a bald eagle down on Indian creek. A couple years ago after crossing the creek I was driving on Hwy A and saw a large bird in the road. I slowed down and it took off just before I was on it, flying along the road in the oncoming traffic lane. I pulled up along side of it and found myself eyeball to eyeball with a young eagle. We did that for a couple hundred feet or so until he went up a power line cut. Too cool.

  158. 158.

    Mathguy

    White Christmas in Omaha.

    About 15 years ago, my clueless mother-in-law was searching for a gift for her son and had a brilliant idea: hair thickening shampoo, since she thought he was losing his hair. Said BiL went nuts. “I’m not losing my hair!” said the man with the thinning patch on his pate. One of the great moments in our Christmas tradition. The shampoo has been regifted a few times.

  161. 161.

    Betsy

    @SiubhanDuinne: @satby: @HeleninEire:
    Oh thank you for asking :)
    It’s a Greek Revival wood frame cottage with a center stair hall and four slightly elegant, high-ceiled rooms on the first floor (2 on each side) and four attic bedrooms on the second floor. And an old kitchen ell in back.

    There are bay windows in the front rooms where I’ll put tables with jigsaw puzzles and cards for visiting nieces and little cousins.

    The large bedroom on the ground floor has a windowed sitting area ideal for knitting and reading … I don’t knit. Yet.

    The front porch is 32 feet across.

    A barn garage in back will hold paddle boards, kayak and collection of old steel bikes. I hope to offer a bedroom or two for visiting birders and other ecotourists.

    There’s a fig tree in the back yard, and it’s a two-block walk to the downtown and the waterfront.

    The region is not without its challenges — unemployment, rural poverty, teafolk. One excellent bakery and a cozy, shabby coffee house with generous- hearted proprietesses are liberal spots in a rather red rural area. However, port towns, even small ones, tend to be eclectic, even in the South …

    The house sounds very grrrrand as I’ve described it but is a true cottage in scale, just with really good bones. Hope to get a least one of the 5 (or is it 6?) fireplaces working by next Christmas.

    Holding my breath until the whole thing goes through …

  162. 162.

    otmar

    The quiet moment before the storm: the rest of the family is off to church, and I’ll make the final preparations alone at home. Here in Austria, the presents are given and opened on Christmas Eve, and not next morning.

  165. 165.

    Yarrow

    @Smiling Mortician: Glad to see you back and glad everything went well. Wishing you a restful holiday.

    Baked all the cookies yesterday. Bread today but first I have to go to the supermarket. I don’t think I’ve ever done that on Christmas Eve but here we are.

  168. 168.

    Betty Cracker

    @geg6: We broke down and started watching GoT a while ago. On season 3 or 4 now, I think. I’d like it better if the whole show were about Daenerys Targaryen.

  169. 169.

    Brendancalling

    I’m in Philly for the holidays.

    The older I get, the more I detest this celebration of materialism and consumerism. I’m super-down n Christians this year, and really not feeling the mandatory acknowledgement of their Sky God birthday.

  171. 171.

    Suzanne

    I am relishing these days when it is cold in the house. Even more reason to lie in bed. However, there is much to do! Feh.

    Spawn the Elder and I braved the big posh mall yesterday. Dude. I don’t know what we were thinking.

    I got a nice bonus at work, so I bought the rest of the chairs for my new dining room set. Look at that…..almost eight years after moving into this house, and we will finally have a dining room table that fits the room. We had been eating off of the table I bought when I moved into my first apartment, along with a bunch of rando chairs. I finally bought a table big enough for eight in October, but didn’t have enough for all of the chairs. Now I have all the chairs! I’M AN ADULT WITH NICE FURNITURE AAAAAHHHHH.

    And I’m about to buy a dresser. HOLY SHIT.

  172. 172.

    Betty Cracker

    @glory b: How awful for her! Losing a child is the absolute worst thing that can happen to a person. And if people make assumptions about the circumstances, that can only add to the pain.

  173. 173.

    Yarrow

    @Suzanne: Good to see you here. Been wondering where you were. An actual dining room table? Woooo! Enjoy your Christmas. How’s spawn doing? Hope things are looking up.

  178. 178.

    Another Scott

    @Brendancalling: Festivus was yesterday, I think.

    But I will co-sign. As a kid, I often got sick around Christmas. And remember going to a family Christmas party at my dad’s huge employer and standing in one of about 6 lines to see 6 different “Santa[s]”. “Mom, how come there are 6 Santa Clauses here?!?!??”

    Plus, I never got the mini-bike that I wanted.

    ;-)

    The whole “shopping for stuff” (too often for people we don’t like, too often at inflated prices, and too often for things that they don’t really want and stuff that won’t last more than a month) is a huge curse on us and the youngsters (and hence on the planet). We really should come up with something better to do to celebrate the Saturnalia.

    Hang in there!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  179. 179.

    OzarkHillbilly

    My favorite Xmas was spent in the small mountain village of Aquismon deep in the Sierra Gorda in Mexico. We didn’t know it but they have a great big party with music and plenty of beer, mescal, and tequila. And food. The indigenous come from miles around hiking/riding/driving all day to get there. When the music first started there was one lonely Mexican cringe dog sitting in the middle of the dance floor watching. I didn’t think it was safe to ask any of the ladies to dance (probably would have been OK but I have a talent for picking the wrong person in such situations) so to get things going I grabbed one of my buddies (who was uncomfortable with male/male physical contact) and took him for a spin around the floor (I’m a horrible dancer) and everybody had a good laugh at our expense, especially when I dipped him.

    We did a lot of drinking and eating after that and I mostly just people watched until a brawl broke out that at one point seemed to involve everyone in attendance except us gringos. We finally stumbled back to the house we were sleeping in (a story of it’s own) about 3 AM. An hour later the roosters started crowing and by 6 I gave up and got up and made coffee.

  181. 181.

    Smiling Mortician

    @Alain the site fixer: Alain, I found myself thinking of you and your mom when I came out from under the anaesthesia on Thursday. I will never forget the kindness you showed me when I was dealing with my diagnosis and chemo, while you were working through your mom’s cancer. You helped me — a lot.

    All of you helped me, and I want to thank every one of you, both individually and at the pack level. It’s good that the only hugs I can offer y’all at the moment are virtual, because physical hugs are beyond my pain threshold at the moment. But I’m using all of my psychic muscles to hug everyone. Hope you can feel it.

  183. 183.

    Betsy

    @Suzanne: That’s really cool. Waiting years for a proper dining room makes it truly a moment to savor. Enjoy your feasts, large and small!

  185. 185.

    Another Scott

    @Another Scott: With all that said, I’m sending my best wishes to all the folks here and your families. Too many of us have been painfully reminded of the fragility of health and life. Treasure the good times. Fingers crossed for an excellent 2018.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  186. 186.

    Spanky

    @Betsy: Sweet! I’m going to guess “Beaufort”, because that’s 2 guesses in one.

    The Mrs. is backloading all the final prep for the holiday until late afternoon & late night, sandwiching a long dinner with friends. So I can do final wrapping now and hopefully we’ll get the tree decorated before we go. At least it’s up and the lights are all on. Maybe I’ll be able to get at least one batch of cookies out, too.

  189. 189.

    glory b

    @Betty Cracker: Yes, my brother has two kids from his previous marriage, but they all lived together since the kids were in elementary school. He was her only child.

    He was hospitalized for a previous attack, but I think it wasn’t thought to be that serious, he left the hospital with instructions to drink coffee regularly.

    The morning he died he told his wife he was stopping at the urgent care because he felt a little funny. His coworkers (who loved him and openly sobbed at his funeral) called her to ask why he didn’t come in. He had died before he left their house.

  190. 190.

    Brendancalling

    In terms of tradition, my dad has always been an atheist. Coupled with the fact that he’s Jewish, Christmas was always an ordeal for him. After my mom died, he felt obligated to get a tree. But he didn’t like it.

    Someone suggested a Festivus pole, but my dad felt that was a little snarky. But he liked the idea itself, so he bought a ten- or twelve-foot PVC pole, painted it green, and wrapped it in festive lights. Voila: my dad’s Holiday Pole, which is in its second year and beloved by everyone.

  191. 191.

    Suzanne

    @Yarrow: Thanks! I have just been absolutely insanely busy for the last six weeks with deadlines and family obligations, etc. But now: TWO WEEKS OF VACAY! And I’m not going anywhere. Just doddering around my house in my slippers. YES.

    Spawn the Elder seems to be on the upswing. Prozac seems to be working for her. She voluntarily went to the mall on the Saturday before Christmas, which is a big thing—she gets anxious with loudness and chaos—so I was impressed.

    My in-laws are coming the day after New Year’s for a week. Pray for me, y’all. I’m bracing myself for endless discussions of the weather in places where I am not, and endless show-off-y yap.

  192. 192.

    japa21

    Well, looking out the window at a beautiful soft snowfall. Looks like we will have a white Christmas in the NW Chicago suburbs after all. It’s been a while, or at least seems that way. Mrs Japa and I are preparing a Tuscan soup for Christmas Eve dinner at our son’s house. The two of us, he and his wife, their two sons (first Christmas for one of them) and her sister and two nieces will be there. The theme this year is Italian. Snow will have stopped by the time we drive so all is good.

  193. 193.

    Aleta

    @OzarkHillbilly: I had one of those Christmasses, invited to a small house in a village I’d been living in for a few months, in the mts above Oaxaca city. Traditional food and singing, through the afternoon and evening. Well into the night, the ‘export king’ came through the door, carrying over his shoulder a plant the size of a small bushy xmas tree with a fragrance that filled the room. Later I was told that some in the area were growing for him, well back in the mts, though I never saw/realized it even though I would go high up on some of the mt. paths.

  194. 194.

    Betty Cracker

    I envy those of y’all who have snow. We had to turn the A/C a while ago because, with all the cooking, it was getting too hot in the house. The high today is 78 F.

    @glory b: All of my sympathy. What a terrible blow.

  196. 196.

    chris

    Merry Christmas and Happy holidays to all!

    I’m off on this cool sunny day to drop of a few little gifts. Tomorrow I’ll drive up to the city for dinner with my sibs and their SOs. Looking forward to laughter and duck with all the trimmings. And then it will be over for another year, thank dog.

  197. 197.

    GregB

    Merry and Happy to everyone here.

    Also too, someone posted a recipe for crock pot Brussels sprouts.

    Any chance of re-posting link?

  198. 198.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @debbie:

    I’ve never studied Middle English, although I memorized great lashings of The Canterbury Tales back in the day, but I can generally follow the meaning of a ME text pretty easily.

  200. 200.

    debbie

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I had an English professor in college who insisted on reading Chaucer to us “in the original,” including the accent he deduced was then in use. His flourishes were very dramatic, but it really didn’t help much.

  202. 202.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Working day for us as my wife is a church musician, and working in a church that does a LOT of Christmas Eve services (we’re just thankful there is nothing scheduled for Christmas Day, which they’ve done in the past).

    Tomorrow I thought we were going to be hermits, but it turns out one of the kids is coming over with hubby. We’re going to see the Star Wars movie.

  204. 204.

    Brachiator

    My pre Christmas jaunt.

    Took a walk and had a late lunch at a small local restaurant. A nice looking young woman came in, walked over to me, moved the chair next to me where I had parked some Christmas gifts, and seemed to try to open the wall. I just looked at her and said nothing Then she walked unsteadily to the bathroom.

    When she came out, she wobbled over to a couple who were eating and sat down on a chair next to them, pulling out a smartphone. The owner of the restaurant came over to her and asked her to leave, but she just sat, stupefied. Finally, she got up and stumbled out of the restaurant.

    All in all, I was glad she didn’t throw up on me when she first came over.

    Later, I took a bus for a short hop to a store to pick up a few more items. Even though it’s Southern California, it gets a little cool. I noticed that the front seats were filled with homeless people. The driver was being kind, just letting them ride the length of the route, warm and comfy. Because many other folk had the day off, the bus was otherwise pretty empty.

    There was something peaceful in the sight of homeless people, relaxing, some sleeping, bundled near each other. A little thing, but the driver’s consideration was a nice counter to this age of Trump, where selfishness and resentment are too often encouraged.

  205. 205.

    Bill Arnold

    This comes under the Christmas toys-for-paranoids category.
    Via google news, interesting new open source project for the deeply paranoid, led by Edward Snowden, taking advantage of the fact that even cheap Android phones are rich open sensor platforms. (Note the article linked below includes useful links.) Fun stuff, and something else to consider even for those who are already using other sensors (e.g. webcams and … etc) or full-up alarm systems. And of course it will be abused in interpersonal relationships and by criminals.
    Edward Snowden made an app to protect your laptop

    Haven, announced today, is an app that does just that. Installed on a cheap burner Android device, Haven sends notifications to your personal, main phone in the event that your laptop has been tampered with. If you leave your laptop at home or at an office or in a hotel room, you can place your Haven phone on top of the laptop, and when Haven detects motion, light, or movement — essentially, anything that might be someone messing with your stuff — it logs what happened. It takes photos, records sound, even takes down changes in light or acceleration, and then sends notifications to your main phone. None of this logging is stored in the cloud, and the notifications you receive on your main phone are end-to-end encrypted over Signal.

    Basically, this is low-budget Sousveillance

    Surveillance, from the French for “watching over,” refers to the monitoring of people by some higher authority — the police, for instance. Now there’s sousveillance, or “watching from below.”

    Note there is a category of camera called a “Trail Cam”; some of them include a cell phone.

  208. 208.

    Heidi Mom

    @Nelle: I’ve found that John Sandford and Tony Hillerman — or should I say Lucas Davenport, Virgil Flowers, Joe Leaphorn, and Jim Chee — are great company during the down times. Best wishes to you!

  209. 209.

    Amir Khalid

    The Girl and I are making progress. I am slowly but steadily acquiring the motor skills to make chord changes, and my ear for music is slowly developing too. Just now I sat down and worked out from scratch how to play I Walk The Line from start to finish. A Tele turns out to be the perfect guitar for the song.

    I want to share a thought from the late Lionel Boudville, who was my sixth-grade Bahasa Malaysia teacher and a devout Catholic: “Christmas is for everyone.”

  211. 211.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    I hope everyone has just the Christmas Eve and Day they want. My mother-in-law broke her leg/ball joint earlier this month while on a trip with us to Colonial Williamsburg. We were despondent for a week, feeling guilty, but the fog of painkillers has worn off; she is walking up and down the halls in a walker, getting up off the bed by herself. It finally feels like a time to celebrate. Off to finish packing so we can go be with her (she lives in a retirement community about 1/2 hour away with a rehab center. All her friends are there, and we can stay/cook in her apartment). We’ll have ham biscuits, salad and fruit tart tonight, the probably horrible rehab Xmas dinner tomorrow, and brown bread with smoked salmon to finish off the day. Thank you all for being such an interesting bunch of jackals. Peace and good will to all.

  212. 212.

    Brachiator

    @HeleninEire:

    The only thing open here tomorrow are a few hotels and Jimmy Chang’s, the all you can eat Chinese restaurant.

    Chinese restaurants open on Christmas may be a universal thing.

    One of my holiday traditions used to be catching a movie with friends on Christmas evening, with Christmas dinner at a Chinese restaurant.

    While out and about I noticed that a Starbucks will be open on Christmas day, and open until 2 am on New Year’s Eve. They are expecting to do good business.

  214. 214.

    Heidi Mom

    @japa21: I agree! Lucas is a great variation on the classic hard-boiled detective theme, and Virgil is a refreshing departure from that theme. The ending of Deep Freeze portends interesting changes for Virgil in future! And while I was initially skeptical of Lucas’s abandonment of MN for the federal marshal’s service, I loved Golden Prey, too. The new sidekicks make it work.

  216. 216.

    debbie

    @Schlemazel:

    This sentence has made me dizzy:

    “Others have made a little more progress than we have made, granted, but, at the same time, certainly we, as a brand and as an organization, we have a great track record of doing the right thing and I think that you will see significant change over the years as we continue to evolve our content.”

    Three roundabouts in a single sentence!

  217. 217.

    No Drought No More

    My guess is that your husband is a master artist of sorts, and this discovery that fills your heart with Christmas joy and magical cheer is even more magical for him, for having fooled you into believing it was just a lucky find…

  218. 218.

    normal liberal

    Safely at the end of thread, I’ll note that my mother died last weekend. Christmas without her is so strange; I thought I was prepared, but I was mistaken. Doing up the house was a big deal every year, and she used to tell the grandchildren “Grandma is a Christmas nut.” The tree is up, mantel decorated, wreath out front, faux candles in the windows, but it all seems a little unreal.
    Next year will be better.
    I hope all the jackals hereabouts have a wonderful Christmas and a New Year with much reduced shitgibbon.

  219. 219.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @glory b: Oh, do I feel for your SiL and your family. Please accept sincerest condolences from our family. We lost my older nephew & godson a year ago suddenly last August, to previously unsuspected natural causes. He left no children behind – would have been married that autumn. We set a place for him at every family gathering, like the one that marked what would have been his 30th birthday last week, which was less somber than it might have been. (The tears didn’t start until people were leaving.)

  221. 221.

    japa21

    @Heidi Mom: One of the interesting things about the series has been the humanity of Davenport on display. And I am looking forward to seeing how the relationships with the new partners works out. Even the old ones still make appearances.

  222. 222.

    Sister Golden Bear

    At the airport, off to do my daughterly duties once again. No word from the cousins, so it looks like it’ll be just me and Mom this year.

    Being the spinster daughter, I’ve spend every Christmas with Mom for as long as I can remember. (Not just Christmas, it’s always a multi-day visit.) Just wish I could have a Christmas of my own for once.

    Bah Humbug; no that’s too strong!
    ‘Cause it is my favorite holiday.
    But all this year’s been a busy blur
    Don’t think I have the energy
    To add to my already mad rush
    Just ’cause it’s ’tis the season…

    So deck those halls, trim those trees
    Raise up cups of Christmas cheer.
    I just need to catch my breath;
    Christmas by myself this year

    Merry Christmas; Merry Christmas
    But I think I’ll miss this one this year

  223. 223.

    normal liberal

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    For once, Bloomington is getting a white Christmas-extremely decorative. Best enjoyed at home, since the keys to the plow storage seem to be misplaced.

  224. 224.

    J R in WV

    @oldgold:

    Regarding Mnuchin’s special package:

    However, the scare turned into a farce when it was discovered that the package contained horse manure.

    It is horse manure when it is destined to be put into garden soil. When it is used as a political symbol, it is Horse CRAP! when being polite. And Horse Shit when being rustic!

  229. 229.

    Yutsano

    @Schlemazel: A lot of them are filmed in Vancouver with the respective stable of actors up there. Disclaimer: I know a few of them. And the lack of diversity is a copout.

    Re: Christmas: I found a wonderful YouTube channel that did two wonderful videos about the Christmas truce of World War I. It’s astounding not only for the event itself but the observations. And the tragedies that ensued after.

  230. 230.

    WaterGirl

    @normal liberal: I am on the train to Chicago, trying to catch up on this thread. I am so very sorry to hear about the loss of your mom. For all the biggest things in life, good and bad, I always feel that they seem surreal.

    It sounds like you might have lived with your mom, or she might have lived with you? That would make it all the more surreal. How can that person you have loved for so long just be gone? Hard to grasp.

    Sending you good wishes. And now I’m sure the fellow next to me on the train is wondering why I have tears running down my cheeks.

  233. 233.

    Glidwrith

    @J R in WV: Hey, JR: you mentioned in another thread a great decongestant for ears. Would you disclose said med? Mr. Glidwrith has some issues….thanks!

  235. 235.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    Finally shook off a Christmas cold; they’re the BEST. Wrapped gifts for the little ones;headed out in the morning to be with them for the day. For those who suffered losses this year, my condolences and an observation: it won’t necessarily be easier next year, you’ll simply get better at it. Couldn’t be home with Mom but other family is there.

    I wish the best for each and every one of you. May the Prophets guide us all along a better, happier path in 2018.

  236. 236.

    normal liberal

    @WaterGirl:
    WaterGirl – thanks so much. You’re right, since I moved back to Illinois about 15 years ago, I’ve lived with my mom in the Normal house I grew up in. (Little central Illinois joke there.) She would have had to move into assisted living otherwise, and she hated the whole idea.
    We were very lucky in that even as her physical condition worsened, her very impressive brain was still completely functional. She was herself until the end, a real blessing for my siblings and me.
    And an added Christmas miracle, a snowplow finally went past. Not my mom’s work, since she never learned to drive. Have fun in the city. It’s so beautiful there under snow.

  237. 237.

    normal liberal

    @satby:
    Satby, thanks so much. You’re right, time helps but doesn’t cure.
    On a not-sad note, I plan on soap therapy when the holidays are over, so I’ll be seeing you via etsy soon. Your argan oil shampoo is quite intriguing.

  239. 239.

    satby

    @normal liberal: you probably remember my mom passed last year, but today was her birthday, so it’ll always be bittersweet to he children and grandchildren. It gets better though. I hope later you can find peace in remembrances.

  240. 240.

    satby

    @glory b: glory b, somehow I missed you comment above. Deepest condolences to you and your family too. The passing of an older relative is sad enough but understandable, of a young person is tragic. So sorry.

  242. 242.

    J R in WV

    @Smiling Mortician:

    So glad to hear that. Wife was hospitalized for pneumonia/septic shock, on a vent for 21 days, collapsed lung, took nearly a month for them to realize her lower left lung lobe was necrotic, which happened when the thoracic surgeon went in to glue the “tear” they thought was causing the collapsed lung.

    She was in hospital another 3 or 4 weeks, and I got a crash course refresher in sucking chest wounds the night before she was released. Good home care, but those RNs hadn’t seen a chest tube to maintain since they last worked in a hospital. Yes, they sent her home with a chest tube, so she wouldn’t be exposed to hospital infections. Dogs, cats, not that clean house, no problem. I showed the nurses how to work with the chest tube, which was removed on her first follow up with chest surgeon 2 weeks later.

    Doing well now, planning our first National Geographic cruise in March.

    You take care of yourself and plan a treat for when you get your wind back.

    And, again, Happy Pagan Yule Festival, everybody!

  244. 244.

    J R in WV

    @Glidwrith:

    Re ear congestion w/o sign of infection.

    Dr recommended OTC Xyzal one a day pills for allergies AND a prescription Nasal spray Ipratropium Bromide solution 0.06% which is also prescribed in a different concentration for COPD. It apparently helps expand passages both in your head and.or in your lungs.

    My copay on the spray is $5, in inhaler for CPOD which they dispensed at first in error the copay was $100, which was refunded after a couple of phone calls. it seems to have no side effects and help the crackle in my ears.

    Best of luck!!

  245. 245.

    J R in WV

    @normal liberal:

    Sorry for your loss. When my mom died back in 1997, she was at the end of a long fight with COPD caused by Pall Malls, so it was by no means a surprise, more of a release for her and all of us. But it was still a shock, which comes back from time to time.

    Now, though, it’s always a good memory of her saying or doing something that I appreciate more every time I think of her.

    Take care! Keep in touch.

  246. 246.

    J R in WV

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):

    We all have so much stuff

    Indeed!! We gave scanned old photos of neighbors passed away years ago to our neighbors who remember them. I got local hand-dipped chocolate truffels for MRs J and me, we had two each with coffee for 11enses – I figured why not break them out now?

    No big bunch of gifts. Over the past couple of months I ordered some new underware and long sleeved tees for the season. I’ve got jeans to wear on the farm and into town. We mostly buy books for ourselves, who knows better what to buy to read than the reader?

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