Oh, ugh, Jess, I'm sorry. The tail end of pregnancy is a weary enough grind without winter grayness and Dylan piling on as well.

And ongoing vibes to smonster's sister, and may Pete vacate the premises with a minimum of fuss on Monday.

{{{{{Jessica}}}}} Dylan, be nice to mommy.

TCG and I have opened presents. His stepmother called and said if we didn't want to we didn't have to bake the cake for today that I was up until 12:30 baking last night. And I am much more interested in snuggling up with my new copy of Salem's Lot than I am in spending another day being social.

Nice list: Bipolar CD player decided to kick in and play Vince Guaraldi today after not working right for weeks. Um, on the naughty list(Although the initial terminology was more...Milchly) the naughty Christians at the attendant agency that closed on Christmas Eve without giving my mother her paycheck. They might actually *need* God's protection if it's not in Monday's mail. My mother takes her paychecks *very* seriously. "In West Baltimore, you could have your friends beat him with a 2 X4, if you were in the game." I offer cheerfully, because I am a good daughter like that. She seems cheered so I go on to say in that scenario he'd feel lucky to escape with his life and limp away chastened. Luckily, the attendant thing is a second job. But we don't get presents yet. CD player still stops working and says "Error" about a quarter in.

Merry Christmas, Bitches!

Merry whatevers, darlings!

Yay for the CD player and Pete the gallstone behaving themselves, even if it is only briefly.

Not Yay, for paychecks not being dealt out in a timely fashion.

sj, that reversal on the cake is definitely grounds for a cream pie fight, if life were a black-and-white comedy.

Jessica, I hope Dylan calms down soon.

smonster, I hope your sister's gallstone decides to stay quiet until the scheduled surgery and that said surgery goes swimmingly.

omnis, I get cold easily so I could totally imagine such a shirt being useful even in SoCal.

erika, I hope those deadbeats give your mom her paycheck soonest. It's never ok to skip people's paychecks but it's especially cruel during xmas.

Kinda anti-climactic Christmas for me but I've had those for many years now. I guess this one was a little tougher than usual because of all the fallout from my move and my grandmother's death has impacted the physical space here so much. But in the last day or two my family made a Herculean effort to move the clutter to less public rooms and decorate. The house looks very nice.

I'm listening to a DJ friend do a 5 hour broadcast with a couple of his DJ friends on KOOP Austin. They're playing some cool stuff.

I apologize for the mememe downer post on Christmas morning! I swear some days I should not be allowed to be around people. Even virtual ones.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! That's what I meant to say, anyway.

(And you know, I do think that "Merry Christmas" applies to everyone today - it's December 25th, and I hope everyone has a wonderful day today celebratory or otherwise! We can go back to Happy Holidays tomorrow.)

DH has taken Dylan to the playground (suck it, December weather) leaving me just enough time to get some hair dye in before lunch. Which reminds me, I should check on how bleached I am before I lose track of time and overdo it.

I don't think you should apologize, Jessica. One of the great failings of American culture, in my opinion, is the idea that folks are not supposed to talk about anything that isn't pleasant and positive. Horse puckey. True friendship means being willing to hear the kvetches as well as the kvells.

ION: It's supposed to rain tonight. I should get dressed and take a walk while I can.

Jess, glad that Dylan is out of the house for a bit.

Every year i'm once again amazed at how a nation theoretically founded on freedom of religion is overwhelmingly, almost oppressively Christian. Esp at this time of year. Not that i'm down on Christmas, as holidays go it's a lovely one! There's all the love and cheer and being nice to the less fortunate...but there's also GIFTS and SHOPPING and FOOD and people ringing loud, annoying bells in front of every grocery store in the country, and everyone being all verbal and sing-ey about it. Good luck trying to raise a child outside this particular societal norm. My well-intentioned Wiccan stepmother tried to raise my sister celebrating the solstice...that lasted all of 3 years.

I try really, really hard to not get my hackles up every time some total stranger wishes me a merry christmas as though of course EVERYone celebrates it. That sense of entitlement that comes with christianity is especially smug this time of year. I keep reminding myself that it makes them happy to say it, and i like helping to make people happy. The holiday is largely secular for many people, just a day when they can get vacation time and hang with family/friends and eat good food (wait, isn't that thanksgiving? nvrmnd). But that is my logical, rational brain. Not the one that feels like the borg is trying to take over everyone for the entire month of December. Strangely, the hackles are worse now that i'm NOT Stage Managing A Christmas Carol. Somehow when i was immersed in that show it was all just part of The Job. Now it almost feels like the baby Jesus is being shoved through my front door Kenny Loggins can do nothing to rescue us non-believers. I just wish the holiday weren't so....pushy, ya know?

I really don't want to bum anyone out, i really do love that so many people get jazzed about celebrating today (esp when they have young kids, as so many of my friends do). I groove on how happy my mom was that i called her yesterday so she could open her presents over the phone, and tried to ignore the guilt that she spent over $200 on a gift for me that i don't need and never would have considered purchaing for myself...just like every year. I tried asking her to not give me any gifts for years but that just made her miserable. Why yes, of course i haz issues! What a conscientious agnostic to do?

Jingle Jingle!!!