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!!!

Never being a believer , Christmas has always been about two things -- fun and extra light at the darkest time of the year and giving. This year we gave a lot more than usual to some of the local charities - and it feel s good this year. And Part of giving -- is accepting the gifts from other people - because they like to give.

ION, there was lots of stuff under the tree. Now it is around the chairs. Most importantly the cat is stoned on catnip

ooooh, i need to get the cats stoned as soon as i get home. Mal's been super anxious lately since i cut out his snuggle time (can't handle cat on chest in addition to coughing and sickness)

We just went out for dim sum, and now we're going to watch some DVDs, because there really isn't anything in theatres that any of us are interested in seeing. So now we're arguing about what to watch. I'm advocating for Lilo and Stitch, but I think we're settling on Love Actually.

Merry Whatevermas, Bitches! ( I just love that we can have a holiday greeting followed by Bitches and it's perfectly acceptable.)

We've had a lovely morning, very mellow and calm-- I got some lovely unexpected haul, including three cookbooks and a GORGEOUS Dale of Norway sweater from Lewis. (I can wear sweaters again! Yay!)

My mother also gave me the World's Ugliest Shirt (TM). It's this color that's somewhere between olive green and chartreuse (which, those of you who've met me, know my skin tone has some definite yellow in it) and it's got some purple beading. Yes, you read that right. On top of that, it's in this thin, kind of clingy polyester material. No, I have no idea what she was thinking. Especially as she proudly said, "I know how you love that color."

Uh huh.

Anyhow, that was the only real dud.

Breakfast was made-- orange pannetone French toast with little chicken sausages. NOM.

Now we all crash until it's time for dinner.