The Peace Carol

To wish you all the merriest of Christmases, here is one of my favorite songs from the best Christmas special of all time (yeah, I said it!), John Denver & The Muppets: A Christmas Together:




The best line:

Add all the grief that people may bear,
Total the strife, and the trouble and care,
Put them in columns and leave them right there.
The peace of Christmas Day

The Official 2007 Christmas Play

Here's some video of my precious niece & nephew, who decided to put on an impromptu Christmas play for us after our annual holiday extravaganza this past Saturday.

There's not a lot of character development, and the story has some plot holes, but darn it if those kids aren't cute!

Bacon Brittle, Baby!

Ahh, the magic of Christmas...

On the Second Day of Christmas...

There's a lot of work to do here at the ol' homestead. Aside from the normal post-Christmas fallout to sort through, we also have a great big holiday extravaganza scheduled for this Saturday. It's always lots of fun, and since it's a pitch-in, no one person has to do a bunch of cooking. Generally, my kind of shindig.

But I'm starting to have ominous warning signs that all may not go as smoothly as I'd hoped... None of us have been very energetic since our bout with the uber-virus last month, but it seems to have been particularly draining for me. Last Saturday we went out for a yummy Chinese pre-Christmas dinner, then opened presents with my sister's family. On Sunday, Mark & I had breakfast with his sister, then after a long winter's nap, I went out with my cousins to look at Christmas lights in the evening.

None of this was particularly strenuous - I didn't even have to drive much. All I did was bathe, dress & eat, really. But it was apparently too much for my delicate system to handle. I awoke on Christmas Eve at about 1 in the afternoon, to find all the glands on the left side of my body swollen & tender. I ate some cereal, took my meds, then went back to sleep until about 5pm. Poor Mark had worked his cute little patootie off all weekend to have some free time on Christmas Eve, only to spend it watching me sleep. We did have a delicious ham dinner that evening, courtesy of Dad, but it was clear that Midnight Mass was no longer an option for me. So we tucked back up in bed & watched some TiVo to ring in the holiday.

Since then, I've had difficulty dragging my sorry carcass out of bed. I did manage to make an appearance at the Raymond family Christmas festivities on Tuesday, but I spent the majority of the holiday in bed. And the past 2 days haven't been much better. My glands do seem much less swollen today (yay!), but I'm still about as energetic as a ragmop.

And I awoke early this morning to an exciting new symptom: the good news is that it only affects one organ this time; the bad news is that it's my skin, which is... well, everywhere. I've had sore spots before, but they usually only affect one or two small areas at a time. But today, my ankles are screaming from the elastic band in my socks, the loose threads in my shirt tormented me until I just ditched it for a plush bathrobe, and I couldn't even stand it for Mark to touch me long enough to help me back upstairs after dinner (he often has to stand behind me & push, much as you would to get an elephant into a trailer).

Needless to say, this turn of events makes me feel less than optimistic about the impending Christmas party. At best, there's going to be a lot of last minute scrambling on my part to get my food prepared & to make the house presentable. Quite possibly, the whole thing may have to go on without me - which, to be fair, would probably only be a bummer to me for missing it. As guilty as I may feel for not helping enough, it wouldn't likely make much of a real difference in the amount of work everyone else has to do. My party-preparing capabilities have dwindled over the years to a point where Dad, Mark and the visiting team of Laura & John are usually responsible for the lion's share of the work, anyway. All I'd really need to do is give John my coveted Cheesy Potato recipe, and everything else should go along fine without me, I'd wager.

But it sure won't be very much fun for me... Of course, my girls would be excited to have the company, even if I'm too sore or tired to play with them. They're usually banished to our bedroom with the door locked during our parties, since much of the extended family is allergic to cats. So they're always stuck behind that closed door, listening to all the fun just outside & wishing they could be out there in the middle of the excitement, surrounded with laughter and merriment.

Unfortunately, this year it looks like I may find out for myself just how that feels.

Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra, ra-ra-ra-ra

It was a rowdy gang at the Lotus Garden Chinese restaurant for Christmas this year...







And they heard us exclaim as we drove out of sight...


Crispy rangoons to all, and to all a good night!

Happy Raymond Holidays!

Here's a cute little JibJab movie I made to send to Mark's dad for Christmas... It stars my wonderful husband and his siblings.

Merry Ho-Ho!

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Getting to Know You

I received a Christmas "Get to Know Your Friends" quiz by email today, and thought it might be fun to post my answers here:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? While I fall back on gift bags for most occasions, I really like to use wrapping paper for Christmas as much as possible. It seems more festive, and I always enjoy my Christmas gift-wrapping sessions, with holiday music in the background. While it's a bit more physically exhausting than using bags, I find it far more mentally relaxing.

2. Real or fake tree? Nothing but the best artificial tree for this family! Real trees have so much upkeep, and finding a good size can be tricky. Plus, with 4 cats in the house, a real tree is just asking for trouble!

3. When do you put up the tree? Right after Thanksgiving, usually... Alas, this year, we're still working on it. We've got the tree with lights & garland, but no ornaments yet. *sigh!*

4. When do you take the tree down? I always aim for Epiphany (January 6th), but I've been known to leave it up until February... A few years ago, I couldn't find the boxes for the ornaments, so I left my bedroom tree up all year! I kinda liked it... I used it for a nightlight. :>)

5. Do you like eggnog? Um, yeah. As a kid, I think I was the only one who liked it, so Grandpa Don would let me help him mix in the bourbon and god knows what else... So, while I appreciate the eggnog-flavored shakes & blizzards of the season, it's just not quite right unless it's swimming with booze. And while I, like my grandfather before me, always use bottled pre-prepared eggnog, I can now mix a pretty killer nog myself. Mark doesn't even like eggnog, but he'll drink mine... Some fresh nutmeg & cinnamon, bourbon, usually some rum, maybe some of whatever else is in the liquor cabinet. Mmmm... tasty.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? That's a hard one... I always got lots of good gifts, but I can't think of any one that stood out as the best.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Several, actually.

8. Hardest person to buy for? Probably Dad. It's hard to get him to admit that he needs or wants anything specific.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Mark. I guess that's what happens when you've been with someone for 16 years...

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Oh, it's so hard to pick... Is it one of the many cases of Christmas strep throat? Or the holiday bronchitis? No, probably the shingles I came down with on Christmas Eve a few years ago. Not very festive!

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail, if I get to them at all.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Well, the best Christmas special of all time is John Denver & The Muppets: A Christmas Together, but that's not really a movie. So I guess I'd say the original Miracle on 34th Street. In the less-traditional vein, I'd pick Die Hard and Lethal Weapon - laugh if you must, but they are both set at Christmas, so they're Christmas movies.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Sometime after Black Friday usually, although I often pick up a few things here or there before then. Usually, I order a lot of things online, especially this year. I don't think I even set foot in a store this year...

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think so.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Archway Christmas cookies - Bells, Stars or Trees will do, but I also like the fancier ones. Candy canes are pretty sweet, too.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear on my bedroom tree, but always colored on the main tree in the family room. It just looks more festive that way.

17. Favorite Christmas song? I really like most of them, but for the past few years I've been hooked on "Feliz Navidad".

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home. It's best for the rest of the family to come unto me... I don't travel well these days.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? On Donder, on Blitzen, on Chuy, on Tavo - come on, Berto! Oh, wait, that's Cheech & Chong... Let's see: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner/Donder and Blitzen. And Rudolph, of course.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? I like a star, but our tree is too limp at the top to support one. We usually have a ribbon bow instead.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Santa always came to our house fairly early on Christmas Eve - I think he went in alphabetical order, so we were near the top of the list since our name started with a B. So we always opened our presents on christmas Eve. Then the next day we would go to Grandma Jeanne's & open presents again. These days, though, we usually open our presents whenever the Memmers can be here - this year it will be on the 22nd. We have Christmas Day with Mark's family, but we don't do presents anymore - there are too many of us, and no little kids.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? I would say traffic and crowds, but as I said before, I haven't been out to shop this year, so it hasn't been an issue. So instead I would say annoying commercials.

23. What I love most about Christmas? Just about everything... I love the lights & decorations, wrapping & unwrapping presents, spending time with family & friends. And I always dig some Christmas tunes.

A Bit of Christmas Cheer

No matter how Christmas-y we feel, we never quite manage to get our outdoor decorations put up. There's always too much bad weather, or a plague like we had this year, that keeps us from having a festive outdoor display. Which is really too bad, because admiring Christmas lights is one of my favorite pastimes.

I do have lots of ideas, though - you know, for when we're millionaires and can afford to buy whatever we want & hire someone else to install & remove it each year. If that ever happened, I have a feeling we might end up with something like this: