Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! I will not be a grinch and go throttle the young children who woke me up at 7:30 as they burst into the B&B living room to open presents. They are children. It's Christmas. The fact that I had insomnia and didn't fall asleep until after 2 is irrelevant. I will not be a grinch. Really. It's a Christmas miracle.

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My parents had very sensible rules for Christmas mornings: No child was allowed downstairs until Mom had woken up, and no child was allowed to wake Mom. These rules were not so much enforced by Dad, so much as by our own terror of pissing him off. The old man was a very scary person.

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Our usual rule with CJ is that when he wakes up Christmas morning, he is to go upstairs to either K-Bug or Grandma, depending on who is awake and wait until the jingle bells are shaken at the bottom of the stairs signifying that Santa has left the building.

Both K-Bug and Grandma are downstairs watching tv right now. Not sure what he is going to do when neither is in her respective room.

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Merry Christmas, Bitches!

So, did ANYONE get a white Christmas this year? The weather reports I saw yesterday seemed to indicate rain where there was anything.

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It's raining in DC.

Blargh.

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Merry Christmas, Bitches!

Thanks, Jess. I think I saw where you already had your Hanukkah dinner last night? Are you doing anything today? Happy Hanukkah (and belated Solstice/Yule if you celebrate it)!

So, did ANYONE get a white Christmas this year? The weather reports I saw yesterday seemed to indicate rain where there was anything.

It's raining in DC.

Blargh.

We just have leftover snow from the approx. foot we got, over a week ago. It's been in the 40s and 50s off and on for the last couple of days, so there are some bare patches, though.

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas, Buffistas. However you spend today, I hope it's a good one.

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I think I saw where you already had your Hanukkah dinner last night?

Yep. Well, brunch really. Hannukah doesn't officially start until sundown tonight, but my parents are in Boston for Christmas (with Dad's Catholic/UU relatives) this year, so they stopped in Brooklyn on their way up and brought leftover latkes from their party last weekend.

Today, DH and I are going to see The Producers and The Family Stone ('cause they're playing in the same theatre), and then Chinese food for dinner. A very traditional Jewish Christmas.

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Merry christmas, Bitches!

I didn't mean to post and run off last night, but it took longer than I thought it would to find the presents I needed. they were books, and they got in amongst the general non-present books that I had at my folks' and, well, that's still kind of a lot of books to look for. But I found them and they were both well-received, so yay! My mom went above and beyond to sew up a purple fleece cape to replace the one lost to the hurricane (also made by her) while we were in NYC, so I am recaped. And because she thought it needed a brooch pinned to it, she asked my aunt who is sorting my grandmother's jewelry for something sparkly and purple. Aunt found a set and said I have to take the whole thing- brooch, bracelet, necklace and clip-on earrings. It's gorgeous, and in the original box, and may have been my great-grandmother's, we aren't sure. I'm going to have to research "Eisenberg Ice" and find out when it was made.

So, anyway, the slightly premature present exchange was lots of fun.

Now for coffee and orange juice and a trip to what I hope will be an open grocery store because we have no food at all. No, I lie, we have chocolate pecan pie, marshamallow creme (not real, made of rice or something, but not deadly to me, so I'm very excited about it), peanut butter, and apricot preserves. So almost no food. I need to get some potatoes so I can make latkes, at the least. Or we w ill be eating the traditional Chinese food, if we can find an open restaurant...

When I was a kid, we were allowed to open stockings but not presents before the parents arose, and noise was strictly forbidden. I have no idea how it was enforced, I remember it as just being How Things Are.

No snow, fog.

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So, did ANYONE get a white Christmas this year?

Notsomuch. There is still a little snow on the ground, but it's the pathetic brown crunchy snow you get at the end of the season. Rain and freezing have been the norm here.

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Yep. Well, brunch really. Hannukah doesn't officially start until sundown tonight, but my parents are in Boston for Christmas (with Dad's Catholic/UU relatives) this year, so they stopped in Brooklyn on their way up and brought leftover latkes from their party last weekend.

You should have come with them and cooked for us so I could meet you.

I'm doing the Hanukkah wishing early, because I doubt I'll be around by sunset. I'm propping myself up, now.

Today, DH and I are going to see The Producers and The Family Stone ('cause they're playing in the same theatre), and then Chinese food for dinner. A very traditional Jewish Christmas.

Oh, excellent! Have a great time. I miss Chinese Food. I have to find a nearby place that doesn't use MSG. I can't tolerate it, anymore.

Oh, I just want to nap, but I have to get dinner ready. I am so glad I baked the lasagna, yesterday. The ham is easy-peasy though, and I've already prepped the potatoes, and mum's doing the turkey breast.

We ended up skipping church, today. We're just too knackered. I haven't seen Ben since Scott hooked up the PS2 in the basement. Chris is walking around the house singing, "Little Saint Nick" ala the Beach Boys. Julia's been breaking all our fingers, or rather, her toys have been. A lot of the toys are now wired into the packaging, such that each toy takes an average of ~15 minutes (if you're lucky) to get it out. Mattel's Barbie stuff has got to be the worse. I'm ready to write Mattel and tell them I'll gladly pay an extra $5 per toy, to cover their losses, if they'll stop securing each toy like it's a national treasure.

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