Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had a great holiday! I just got back from New Orleans, where I spent Christmas with my parents. Pictured above (all photos courtesy my cousin Lindsay) is my cousin Katie's son, Michael, at our family Christmas party on Christmas Eve. He was cracking everyone up with the glasses. My cousin Candace came, with her almost-three year old, Isaac, and her six-month old twins, Caleb and Sarah. So cute!

Sarah

And a drooly Caleb.

7 Sleeps 'til Christmas

And after going to the Aimee Mann Christmas show on Tuesday, I am finally feeling Christmasy. (Must've been the talk of krav maga that did it.) I've been listening to holiday music online, but it's getting a bit repetitive. Anyone have a favorite online holiday music station to recommend?

I mean, I like All I Want for Christmas is You as much as the next girl, but honestly, there's only so much Mariah Carey one person can (or should!) take.

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving, you know, if it's your holiday and everything. We had 15 people at our house, and it was a lot of fun. Even if my placecards did get re-arranged by someone who was not my parent. (As the owners of the house, they of course would have the rights to rearrange my seating layout!)

Saturday, we went to my aunt's house for a party. My cousin Lindsay is getting married at Christmas, so the party was for her and her fiance. There was a jazz band, which was great. After the party, my cousins Anne Yvette and Rick and I went to a bar, where there was also a band playing. Anne Yvette and I danced (even though no one else was dancing) and the drummer said, "We got some good dancin' going on out there."

On our walk back to the house from the bar, something really weird happened. This minivan full of high school kids slowed down next to us, and they said, "Hey! Y'all got any drugs?"

We did not, so they kept going. I could not believe that happened! I guess they were just bored teenagers, and nothing more dangerous than that, but really. People in minivans should be cruising for milk, not drugs.

Look!

I found Cadbury creme eggs today at the grocery! Um, this seems a wee bit early to me. It's not even Valentine's Day yet, let alone Mardi Gras. But whatever, I love these little eggs, so I bought three.

Le Père Noël

Guess what, guess what, guess what? Le Père Noël visted me! (That would be Santa Claus to us Anglophones.) He was so kind as to leave a present for me with my friends Peggy and Frédéric, which they then so kindly put in La Poste for me. It arrived yesterday.

And what did Le Père Noël leave for me? Some gloves with chickens painted on them. I love them and I will remember to take a picture for you when I get back from New Orleans on Monday. Because I know you are all dying to see what chicken gloves look like.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a nice new year's celebration. Mine was good. Low-key. I went out, but I was home and in bed before 1:00.

Is everyone making resolutions? I *think* I am, but I don't think I'm going to talk about them. For some reason, they're kind of private to me this year. I'm not sure why. Several of them are probably similar to resolutions everyone makes.

I think it's time to take down my Christmas decorations. Which only means one thing... time for the Mardi Gras decorations to come out! (there really aren't that many of those, to be honest)

Christmas!

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. Mine was great! I arrived in New Orleans on Saturday, to discover that Southwest had lost my luggage. The luggage that contained all my Christmas presents. YAY!

So, I slept in my mom's pyjamas and opened a new toothbrush. In the morning, they located my bag, and delivered it to the house, along with a $100 travel voucher. My mom and my sister thought I should try to get my luggage lost more often. I say it's not worth the stress.

Christmas Eve, we had our family over for the annual family Christmas Eve party. We do one of those gift exchanges where everyone brings one gift and everyone leaves with one gift and you can steal other people's presents. I stole my cousin Lindsay's present, which was cocktail napkins and a cheese knife with fleur de lis on them. Loyal to cheese, that's me. (Don't feel bad for Lindsay. She stole someone else's Best Buy gift card.)

Christmas morning, my aunt came over and we opened presents and ate and didn't do a whole lot else. Took my dad's car for a spin to test out the new GPS system. I wound yarn on my very own yarn winder and my aunt taught my sister to crochet. (I still don't know how)

The next day, my dad, my sister, & I went over to my grandmother's house and cleaned out the attic. Well. I should say Amanda did most of the work. I am scared of heights and so me and going up into attics don't mix very well. I did more of the passing off, stacking up kind of work. Amanda had to deal with mouse poop and roaches.

My other sister arrived on Tuesday and we opened more presents. I came back to Washington on Wednesday. I'll be going back to New Orleans next Friday for my dad's 60th birthday. Hooray!

It's the Creche!

Or crib, or nativity scene, or nativity set, whatever you will. This is a very special creche. My parents bought it for me in 1998, when they went to Guadalajara. My grandparents were on vacation there when my grandpa died, and so then my parents flew down to Mexico to help my granny get everything taken care of. And apparently, they also shopped for Christmas accessories!

I kid because I love. I do actually really love this set. And the Australian wildlife toys were added last year, when my friend Michael, who is Australian, sent them to me for Christmas. I mean, who's to say there wasn't a koala present at the birth of the baby Jesus? (OK, chances are, probably not, but I suppose the world may never know...)

And can you see the dreidel, just off to the right? Someone gave that to me last year when I volunteered at the Washington Jewish Film Festival. (I volunteered this year and came home with a Lufthansa post-it notepad... I think the dreidel is better!) He also taught me to play, but I promptly forgot the rules. Anyway. Jesus was Jewish, right, so he will know how to play. So I leave it out there next to the creche because as we all know, toys come to life while we sleep, and I want the baby Jesus to have something to play with.

Maybe I shouldn't blog right before bed anymore. I feel like too much of the crazy just came out.

Holiday Meme

From Amy.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? Wrapped but when I was little, not wrapped. Or, not all wrapped.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Well, I prefer white lights. But my tree is this little two-footer I bought at CVS a few years ago. (yeah, it's fake... I live in a third floor walk up! Who wants to haul a tree up that.) Anyway, it's got fiber optic lights. I think you can change out the colored for white, but I decided if I'm going to have a tacky bought at the drug store tree, I want it to be as tacky as possible. So the colored lights stay.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? no. but I do have a creche. does that count for anything?

5. When do you put up your decorations? the first weekend in December. must do it this weekend.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Yorkshire pudding.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? waking up early to run downstairs & see what Santa brought.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Santa is real! He lives in your heart. Just ask my mama.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We have a family party on Christmas Eve and everyone gets one present. We open those.

10. What kind of decorations are on your Christmas Tree? the same ones I've had since I was a baby. Most have my name on them. My favorite (which I don't hang on the tree, for fear it will fall & break) is a St Charles Ave streetcar painted red with a wreath on it and it says "Genevieve. 1979." I don't know where it came from!

11. Snow! Love it or Dread? I hate snow.

12. Can you ice skate? I even took lessons. But still, not very well.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Oh, I can't pick one!

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? I love chosing presents for people!

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? I love my sister's buckeyes and Mrs. Sebastian's sugar cookies. Which reminds me to email her for the recipe for those puppies.

16 What is your favorite holiday tradition? I really like our Christmas dinner food.

17. What tops your tree? an angel

18. What is your favourite holiday book? I don't have one. but my favorite Christmas movie? Home Alone.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? O Holy Night

20. Candy Canes! Yucky or Yummy? yucky. I don't like peppermint very much.

I Know it When I See It

Hope everyone had a nice holiday and/or weekend! Mine was good. My sister did a lovely job of Thanksgiving and we got to see our friends at the wedding. I've got wedding photos, but no USB cord, so I'll try to post them later tonight or tomorrow.

Yesterday, I was killing time at the Nashville airport, and I got on to one of those pay as you go internet kiosks at the airport. I checked my email. I replied to one email. And they had a minimum of 15 minutes, so I figured since I'd already paid for it, I'd check what was going on with other people's blogs.

Now. I use my blogroll links to get to other people's blogs. So I typed in my blog address. And you know what came up? A page labeled "this site has objectionable content and is blocked so that you don't offend other airport patrons."

Oh. My.

I'll try to stop posting objectionable content so often! I had no idea I was so offensive.

It's Almost Thanksgiving!

Hooray, a short work week here in America, as we prepare to eat turkey and travel to be with our families and go to weddings. What's that, you say? You don't have a wedding to go to this weekend? I guess that's just me.

Tonight, I go home and pack. I'm thinking of also attempting to bake some cookies to take with me but I'm not sure; that might be overly ambitious on the eve-of-Thanksgiving-eve.

Tomorrow, I go to work for the whole day. And then around 6:30, I get on a train. That's right, I am riding the rails this Thanksgiving, all the way from Washington to Clemson, South Carolina. It takes 11 hours. I get in at 5:30 am. I hope no one expects me to be cheerful, what with a night of sleeping in a chair and all. Can you get jet lag if you a. don't fly anywhere and b. don't change time zones?

Then my family is driving to Kentucky, to go to the wedding of a family friend. I hope it's fun.

And THEN, my parents are driving me to Nashville, where I hop a flight home. Well, sort of home. To Baltimore, where my friend Courtney so kindly offered to pick me up. (I offered to baby-sit in exchange, but as they have a live-in houseguest right now, I don't know if my services will be needed.)

What are YOU doing for Thanksgiving? Or, hey, if you're not American, then, for the weekend?

Also? I made two hats. In one weekend! I know you are impressed.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas...

Look what I saw on my way to work this morning! That's right, Christmas decorations on the lampposts. Isn't it a wee bit early for this? What happened to the post-Thanksgiving rule?

Is anyone else noticing this in their hometowns? Is anyone else as disturbed by this as I am?