Courtesy my pal Susie, here's a little Q&A on the recent holiday... Anybody feel free to add YOUR answers in comments section!
What you want(ed) for Christmas (given NO price limit): New throw pillows -- all silk and yet indestructible, four white pillowcases, bookshelves, and an end to all house projects.
What you got for Christmas: Some apricot jam.
...No kidding.
My child bought me jam. And it gets sadly worse from there... But, if I can count gifts for the whole family, my mother-in-law sent me GREAT kitchen towels, plus deep red candles and a completely cool, scroll-y iron candle holder. Oh, and my sister-in-law sent a serving tray I almost bought for myself at Target a few weeks ago -- ye-ha for coincidence!!
What you want for Christmas... in abstract: Time and peace. Succor for all who ache and seek. Good will among men.
Year of the first Christmas you can remember: My second cousin Amy was a crawling baby, and I was about 5. I crawled after Amy all around my great-grandmother's ancient, fire-hazard living room, snagging my green taffeta dress on one of the gas jets in the floor and smudging my white lace pinafore. Pictures were taken and my damp brow and droopy cocker-spaniel hair tell me I was having all kinds of untidy fun.
Ever in a holiday play? When?: I'm pretty sure I was Mary once. I think I've seen the photos. Either I was much milder as a child, or the play organziers were doing a little wishful thinking!
An early Christmas memory? Teaching Shannon how to undo the tape on the sides of packages in order to peek... Seeing an Easy-Bake oven next to our over-stuffed stockings on the log cabin hearth and knowing, for sure, that Santa was REAL... (The Easy-Bake probably came before the snooping, chronologically.)
Favorite holiday ornament (Past and present): I have a rocking horse from Hallmark that says 1976. It's wonderfully outdated.... I also have a red-headed toddler ornament from Hallmark 2002. It's a boy stacking blocks that will unstack themselves when you press a button in the base.
Classic Christmas song you never get tired of: Hark the Herald Angels Sing... Oh, and O Come All Ye Faithful.
Classic Christmas song you loathe: The Holly and the Ivy -- it does not even rhyme, by crimminy!!
Modern Christmas song you never get tired of: What are You Doin' New Year's Eve ("Maybe it's much too early in the game/ Oh, but I thought I'd ask you just the same...")
Modern Christmas song you loathe: Anything that cats sing.
How many languages can you say "Merry Christmas" in? Does Noel count as not English?
Naughty or Nice? The only "naughty" I can lay claim to is decidedly NOT the fun kind, so nice it is!
Favorite Christmas Ghost: Mine? Christmas Future. Ebenezers? Christmas Present.
Favorite Misfit Toy: A soft snowman with a felt carrot nose. Oh, how I wish I had the strength to jettison this cutesy junk. But, alas...
Can you wrap presents well? Oh, yeah, baby!
What tops your tree? A star, a red orb (we have more than one tree) and, close underneath, a tin angel from Fredericksburg.
If you were a Christmas elf, what would your name be? Something with "Peppermint" in it. Peppermint Albemarle, maybe.
Just a girl, asking for grace, to survive her happily-ever-after.
12.28.2005
12.20.2005
Update
The engine-inja's proved too mature for our viewing audience. I checked on Miles about 10 minutes in, and he was looking befuddled... consternated, even.
I asked if he wanted to keep watching or switch to Zaboomafoo. He chose to switch videos. Just before I pressed stop, I heard, "Does the phrase 'go suck a lemon' have any meaning for you?'" Ahh... this must be why I LOVED those Ninja Turtles!
I asked if he wanted to keep watching or switch to Zaboomafoo. He chose to switch videos. Just before I pressed stop, I heard, "Does the phrase 'go suck a lemon' have any meaning for you?'" Ahh... this must be why I LOVED those Ninja Turtles!
Stardate: Christmas Break
We are watching "M & N-ja Turtles" at my house. Right now! I am awash in memories, since my brother and I watched this same cartoon together in the early 80s. We, of course, called them the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," but whatever. Sometimes, these days, they are alternately referred to as "Engine-inja" turtles. Whatever they are (known through other kids' tales and toys, the actual cartoon is being viewed for the first time by young master M.), we are now pretty sure they are "AWESOME, Mom! Cool!"
M. and I just went to the video store to find some afternoon distraction, as it is raining and I have mucho work to do. Here's a fast reenactment of our time in the kid video racks:
Me: Do you want this Captain America cartoon?
Son: No... It looks SCARY! I think it is for teenagers.
Me: How about Clifford?
Son: Uh... I think it might be for babies.
Me: OK, Miles... What about this one?
Son: I will get that video when I am four. Or maybe five. I won't watch the big-boy movies until then, Mommie. I PROMISE!
Suffice it to say, that stop took longer than I hoped, but how could I be upset?
In other business, the ninja mispronunciation reminds me of a cute moment last week -- something that transpired in my car, of course -- on the way home from preschool. Miles says, "Oh! Now I get it! It's the daymu!" I say, "What?! The Daiwoo?" He says, "No! The day... MOO!"
"Again," I say, "I don't understand you."
"Not the one for nighttime, Mom, but the DAY MOON! The one that comes out in daytime."
(I was momentarily thrown, then I began to look up and around. True enough, the huge, perfect orb of a full moon hovered right over our church, its soft white shape fully visible against a pale blue sky.) "It doesn't come out every day, so, so... I figured it out! It is the VERY SPECIAL Day Moon. When I see it, it means it is going to be a GOOD DAY!"
Yes, that must be it! A very special celestial body perfectly matched to the very special days of childhood.
Viva la Day Moo!
Long live M&N-ja's!
...Just two more days until my own Christmas vacation!
M. and I just went to the video store to find some afternoon distraction, as it is raining and I have mucho work to do. Here's a fast reenactment of our time in the kid video racks:
Me: Do you want this Captain America cartoon?
Son: No... It looks SCARY! I think it is for teenagers.
Me: How about Clifford?
Son: Uh... I think it might be for babies.
Me: OK, Miles... What about this one?
Son: I will get that video when I am four. Or maybe five. I won't watch the big-boy movies until then, Mommie. I PROMISE!
Suffice it to say, that stop took longer than I hoped, but how could I be upset?
In other business, the ninja mispronunciation reminds me of a cute moment last week -- something that transpired in my car, of course -- on the way home from preschool. Miles says, "Oh! Now I get it! It's the daymu!" I say, "What?! The Daiwoo?" He says, "No! The day... MOO!"
"Again," I say, "I don't understand you."
"Not the one for nighttime, Mom, but the DAY MOON! The one that comes out in daytime."
(I was momentarily thrown, then I began to look up and around. True enough, the huge, perfect orb of a full moon hovered right over our church, its soft white shape fully visible against a pale blue sky.) "It doesn't come out every day, so, so... I figured it out! It is the VERY SPECIAL Day Moon. When I see it, it means it is going to be a GOOD DAY!"
Yes, that must be it! A very special celestial body perfectly matched to the very special days of childhood.
Viva la Day Moo!
Long live M&N-ja's!
...Just two more days until my own Christmas vacation!
12.08.2005
Life Bandage
I just put on a Band-Aid. It's a cheap Band-Aid, so I can't even rightly use that name.
It's a bandage. A "flexible fabric bandage." And perhaps one not originally manufactured in the United States, as all its packaging is bi-lingual.
The top of the wrapper says: "Sin Latex."
And the line under that says: "Latex Free."
But the two lines are offset from one another. They would normally be printed in flush, left-centered alignment; instead they make a kind of diagonal pattern. When I try to read from the top line to the bottom line, the words that line up are "Sin Free."
Great! A Sin-Free bandage! Just what I always wanted! :)
Actually, I love the picture of a big life-bandage that could wrap around a soul and keep it Sin Free. (It would probably have to be Latex Free, as well, because I bet a lot of souls are allergic.)
It's like Pat Green sings:
"I heard a voice when I was thirteen
Got baptized and washed up clean
The world has a way -- if you know what I mean --
Of scuffin' you up again...."
Just a passing thought. An image. A soul bandage!
I better get back to work now....
It's a bandage. A "flexible fabric bandage." And perhaps one not originally manufactured in the United States, as all its packaging is bi-lingual.
The top of the wrapper says: "Sin Latex."
And the line under that says: "Latex Free."
But the two lines are offset from one another. They would normally be printed in flush, left-centered alignment; instead they make a kind of diagonal pattern. When I try to read from the top line to the bottom line, the words that line up are "Sin Free."
Great! A Sin-Free bandage! Just what I always wanted! :)
Actually, I love the picture of a big life-bandage that could wrap around a soul and keep it Sin Free. (It would probably have to be Latex Free, as well, because I bet a lot of souls are allergic.)
It's like Pat Green sings:
"I heard a voice when I was thirteen
Got baptized and washed up clean
The world has a way -- if you know what I mean --
Of scuffin' you up again...."
Just a passing thought. An image. A soul bandage!
I better get back to work now....
12.06.2005
Tech Support, Revisited
"Ved-ry in-der-vest-ink, your cum-pew-tear.... no vun has a probe-limb jheest like theece."
WHAT? That doesn't sound good. And I'm not even sure of all the sounds.
"Oh my gut. Oh my gut. Let me see....
Can you al-vays, al-vays open Outlook fierce. Ho-kay? We vill try for few days, uh, and see if this helpves."
EH?! WHAT, again? I think I get it. I'm pretty sure I do. But what if I don't? What if I open things out of order? Will they not work? Will something in the server room blow up?
Damn! If it weren't for this post, I would have plausible deniability for any explosion. :) As it is, I better al-vays, al-vays open applications in the right order.
Oh-vey!
WHAT? That doesn't sound good. And I'm not even sure of all the sounds.
"Oh my gut. Oh my gut. Let me see....
Can you al-vays, al-vays open Outlook fierce. Ho-kay? We vill try for few days, uh, and see if this helpves."
EH?! WHAT, again? I think I get it. I'm pretty sure I do. But what if I don't? What if I open things out of order? Will they not work? Will something in the server room blow up?
Damn! If it weren't for this post, I would have plausible deniability for any explosion. :) As it is, I better al-vays, al-vays open applications in the right order.
Oh-vey!
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