Strix, you'll light candles the nights of the 21-23. The blessings can be found at [link] -- you only need the first two on that page (the third one is said on the first day only).

It's totally appropriate for M to do the lighting and blessings at his age; also, it's totally appropriate at any age to print them out and read them rather than having them memorized; we have whole holidays organized around everyone reading at the dinner table! Anyway, you can follow along or join in as much as you like, but don't feel like it's on you to have to know all the stuff.

Fried food is traditional (AWW YEAH), chocolate is always welcome (gelt is fun but regular chocolate is always better chocolate), and gifts can be pretty low key -- spread out what you're giving him over the three days, but it's pretty normal to get just a little thing and not a whole big Christmassy production.

Thank you, beloveds. I'm feeling much more optimistic. The vet spent more time talking about recovery time frames than about having to make hard decisions. In the neighborhood of six weeks for Harvey to be back to his old self - of course, there are no guarantees.

That is good to hear Andi. Sending lots of ~ma toward Harvey and family.

Yes sj is right. Stupid people are stupid. I'm a big Santa fan, and yet I know lots of people that have plenty of magic in their lives that were never down with the Santa. Ridiculous.

I'm avoiding going outside and weeding and finishing decorating. It is hot outside. I did manage to put on a tank top and shorts and headband. Okay, it isn't likely to get cooler as the sun moves to the front of the house. Talked myself into it I guess. Charge....!

I am super not into the whole Santa mythos for many, many reasons and I had to run away from that crazy lady on your post, Hil. She is ridiculous and kinda gross and terrible.

I am now googling chicks (birds, not women). Not for fun, but because I am at my parents', and somebody left in another floor of the building a box with a baby bird in it (with some food and water). It's been there for almost two hours now. I'm gonna give it another hour in case there was some miscommunication between giver and adopter, but after it I'm calling the wild animal authority. Just trying to identify that chick, first.

(I don't even want to think of the possibility of someone abandoning a chick like this).

Update 1: so there are two chicks in that box. One of them was already dead when I checked. The hell with whoever abandoned them. I also think they are chickens. The wild animal place will only be able to send someone tomorrow morning, and my parents can't take care of the remaining chick. Trying to convince the neighbors to take care of it for the night. And seriously, fuck whoever abandoned these chicks.

Update 2: No authority/society could come tonight. I tried to get the number of the apartment where the chicks were left, but got nowhere. I don't hear tweets anymore, so I guess the other one is also dead, or that the owners came. Not gonna check it now cause it's bedtime soon and I do not want to dream of dead chicks all night. I feel horrible for them, but I really couldn't take the living one to my parents' house.

I'm sorry about the chicks, Shir.

More ~ma to Harvey, and his humans, Windsparrow.

Stupid humans are stupid, Hil. And askye. Except for amych and Strix and Laura and and--you're all here!

You know what? I think I'm going to stop right there, because my inner grinch is rapidly becoming larger and greener and reeeeeally wanting to *smash!*

Thanks, Amych! Now I have to find the menorah and candles. They're in The Closet of Boxes of Stuff.

I hope the chicken is okay.

I'm so ready for the holidays. I'm getting pulled in a million directions at work and we are so short staffed. To make matters worse for the whole week the fire system is messed up. It makes a really loud high pitched bebeep that never stops. The alarm company has tried to fix it 4 times so far.

And people want stuff we don't have and are hitching about waiting .it's the Saturday before Christmas waiting is expected. Some people want to order things but I refuse to promise by the 24th even if that's what the system says.

When I was a kid, I thought the eight nights thing was a pretty good deal. And, the whole comedy-in-exclusion thing...if your kids do feel left out, they have a good shot at being funny about it.(You and Nilly could probably figure it statistically, ha ha) Yes, it is a bit of a comic generalization, but being outside of dominant culture does not leave you culturally bereft...you have traditions that don't include that other stuff. I held onto Santa long enough to almost be the kid taking a blankie to summer camp. Would not recommend, not that I'm very concerned about next gen since none of us have gotten off our butts and bred, but still...

Chick made it through the night! I am happy.

Neighbors next door (NND) brought it up to our floor. It was in a new box with breadcrumbs and a new towel, so someone must have changed its location from the box with its dead sibling. However, that someone also didn't understand the clue and thought that a 45F stairwell is good for chick. It's slightly warmer on our floor (about 53-55F), but I didn't have heating pads and wasn't sure it'll make it through the night.

NND didn't know what to do from that point, so they called me. I didn't know what to do either, but I improvised. So we found a bigger shoe box, punched holes in it, I called a vet friend to ask what to feed it, moved it to the new box, fed it, and closed the box so the chick will be warmer and will be able to sleep and that stray cats won't get to it.

I called the municipal hotline this morning, they got in touch with the municipal veterinary services, and in about two hours chick will have some proper care by less clueless people.

Now, just crossing fingers that Clueless Person isn't a neighbor that will call and yell at me for saving their chick.