A quick Christmas morning post before we go see my folks and other assorted family members. We have had an excellent Christmas morning. I am wearing the following T-shirt:
Mine has blood splatters on it and I don't have a tattoo and I'm not that built.
But the gift that Heidi got me that was the MOST appropriate for me was the vintage Fisher Price Little People Farm. Found at a souvenir shop in Dubuque near the 4th Street Elevator, it was apparently a bargain at $55.00, especially considering its condition and the fact that it looks like pretty much all the pieces are there. I was so enamored of it then that I took a picture of it...
...never dreaming that it would show up on Christmas morning.
Yep, that really is me. I am that nerdy. And yes, I look that good doing absolutely nothing to myself. It's worth it though.
Anna is as excited about it as I am! She had warned me that when she and Heidi were wrapping it, she wanted to play with it which had me all curious. Now I know. We'll have to clear off a space in my office for it, somewhere where she can reach it.
Now, if I can figure out how to make the moo sound when you open the door my notification ring tone on my phone, it'll be the best Christmas ever.
Tonight at supper I was perusing the news and I came across this link and the little bit of Christmas spirit I actually had evaporated. For those that don't want to subject themselves to the article, resident arch-conservative and gay-hater Bob Vander Plaats is at it again. He's calling on the remaining four Iowa Supreme Court justices that authored the state's 2009 unanimous ruling that allowed marriage equality in Iowa to resign at the Condition of the Judiciary speech. He says that they should do this because had they been on the ballot with their three former colleagues, they would have been booted from the bench. He then goes on to make a completely nonsensical metaphor comparing someone to teenagers fleeing a beer party but for the life of me, I can't figure out who he's talking about.
This made me equal parts sad and fiery angry. I am so tired of this guy spouting off. I am so tired of him thinking that he speaks for the majority of Iowans. Sure, he might have been speaking for a slim majority of voting Iowans in this election, but that's not the same as speaking for all Iowans. I am especially weary of his smug assurance that he's right, all the while continuing to preach hate, intolerance and prejudice. It makes me want to smack him every time I see him on the TV or in the paper.
As if this weren't bad enough, he speaks of the ills of gays and lesbians serving as foster parents and how those in the LGBT community can be teachers as long as they don't rub our face in it. Oh, and the repeal of DADT will "endanger the military." To add insult to injury, three incoming freshman legislators are drafting impeachment legislation against the remaining justices for...DOING THEIR JOB.
This is the problem with feeling passionate about an issue. Things like this REALLY wear you down. I would like to believe that, as they have been saying all year, it will get better, but with Repubs in charge of the Iowa House and in the governor's mansion, things have a much higher likelihood of getting worse before they get better. Right now, one man (Mike Gronstal) stands in the way of writing discrimination into Iowa's Constitution and you better believe the Republicans are after him.
But instead of feeling defeated, I'm going to turn that negative energy into something positive. Now more than ever we need people to speak up in favor of marriage equality. Being a silent supporter is not good enough right now, not when we're being drowned out by the opposition. I still can't do cold-calling, but I will continue to advocate for the rights of all LGBT Iowans and stand against the idiot prejudice and intolerance. These kind of setbacks are bound to happen. As a friend of mine says, the march forward on progressive causes are frequently two steps forward, one step back.
So my wish for Bob Vander Plaats this Christmas? Originally it was for him to shut the fuck up and go far far away. But now, I just want his heart to grow three sizes. I know that it probably won't happen, but Christmas is a time for miracles and if anything would count as a miracle, that would be it.
I'm also not going to let local politics ruin my Christmas because that would just be plain stupid. It looks like we might be snowed in tomorrow, but we have many festivities planned for the next few days. And next Friday, my little sister gets married AND all three Cullinan siblings will be in the same room - something that doesn't happen very often. I'm looking forward to it.
I may do a couple posts tomorrow if we're snowed in, but I have Heidi's presents to wrap so who knows. If not, Merry Christmas to everyone reading.
This weekend was the first of a few Christmases we have lined up this year. I can't keep track of how many there are actually going to be or when they're going to take place. I've kind of adopted the attitude of "you just tell me where to be and when to be there. Provided I'm not working, I'll show up." Truthfully, I find it to be much less stressful just to go with the flow rather than getting worked up and end up not enjoying any part of the holiday.
But last night's Christmas was what we lovingly refer to as "Tina's Christmas." It's called that because of a 15+ year-old inside joke that started between Heidi, Jeff and me. It refers to Christina "Tina" Crawford, adopted daughter of Joan Crawford and author of celebrity tell-all turned camp-classic Mommie Dearest. Don't ask me why the joke started, it just did. It's part of the history now and honestly, if it weren't there, life would be A LOT less interesting. But Tina's Christmas is tradition now, so much so that we book it a year in advance and God preserve your soul if you schedule anything else on that weekend.
Food is consumed, gifts are exchanged, alcohol is drunk, games are played. We always try to outdo each other when filling out the tags on the presents. This photo below gives you a pretty good idea of what I'm saying.
The best part of this was when Anna was passing out presents and she said "Who is La Bouch?" (pronouncing it so that it rhymed with "ouch") Close, but no cigar Anna. Among the other people receiving presents last night were Richard Burton & Liz Taylor, Barbara Mandrell, Dexter, 'Lizbeth Walton, Wonder Woman, Starbuck, Liza (from David Guest) and many others I can't remember. Seriously, it's the best part. It gets so bad that sometimes the gift giver has to think about who it was really for. It's kind of a very camp Christmas.
And somewhere along the line, Santa started to visit early. We're starting to push up against the age where Anna might start to not believe in Santa for much longer (she's 9 and not showing very many signs of disbelief) so we kind of milk it a little bit. Last year, he brought everyone pajamas and this year was the same thing. We orchestrate this quite elaborately to perpetuate the belief. Anna was really anticipating this to happen this year and so when it did, she came down the stairs declaring that she KNEW it would happen because she still believed.
Of course, a man in a red suit did not actually visit. We all had drawn names to see who would buy pajamas for who and Jeff got my name. We all had e-mailed our pajama sizes and preferences and I think for the most part, everyone was pleased. Inside my package was a pair of flannel pants and a big navy thermal shirt that I wore to bed last night. Also in the package was a T-shirt that might only ever be a bed shirt, I'm not sure. I did wear it today. I think the image kind of speaks for itself.
Really, coming from Jeff, it's a perfect gift. The Golden Girls is beloved by gay men far and wide, but he and are among the few straight men I know that enjoy the HELL out of it (although I do know of at least one other - you know who you are.) It really is - pardon the pun - comedy gold. The writing is so strong, the performances so perfect that even in the later seasons when Blanche was ultra slutty, Rose extra dumb and Dorothy extremely bitchy, it still didn't suffer. I've seen every episode multiple times and Heidi always says that watching me laugh my head off for the hundredth time is, for her, the best part of watching it. My friend Mary, who was also at Tina's Christmas, is fond of saying that in high school, while her friends were out getting laid on Saturday night, she was at home watching The Golden Girls. Well, so was I.
What I love about this gift is its subtle meaning. In many ways, what Tina's Christmas is all about is how everyone is loved for being exactly who they are, despite AND because of their flaws. These folks are our family of choice and it's so important to me that this continue in some form or another for as long as it can.
I've spent a lot of today in a funk I couldn't quite shake. That's not all that unusual for me after a flurry of activity. When the party's over, I'm more inclined to quiet introspection than anything else. It's not about turning it into something sad or melancholy, it's just about the transition. Tomorrow is back to work for four days and then a few more Christmases. I'm not getting that much time off around Christmas but I am taking eleven days off beginning December 30th for my sister's wedding on NYE. Then it'll be a week of trying to catch up and unbunge (as my brother always says) from the hustle and bustle of the season and get back to normal.
I would end this post with a "thank you for being a friend" gag, but really, it's too obvious. To all those who are family of choice to me - those present last night and others as well, just listen to that damn cheesy theme song and know what it's all about.
As is pretty much custom around these parts, we put the Christmas tree up today. I lugged all of it up from the basement and to the porch yesterday afternoon and then this afternoon, while Heidi was at the gym, Anna and I pulled it all inside. Every year we laugh at how big the tree is. We bought it when we moved into our first house in 1999, after years of apartment living and having to settle for the scrawniest artificial tree you have ever seen. We got it home and immediately it was too big for any space in our house. But it's still around and it fits better in this house than it ever did in the other one.
We came to the rather startling conclusion that we had not a single strand of lights in the house, so we had to run out to Target to buy some. We are now comfortably outfitted for Christmas lights until next year when I plug them in and half of them don't work. This is always balanced out by the plethora of ornaments, some going back to both Heidi's and my childhoods, but most just ones we have accumulated in our 14 years together. Amidst all this, Anna and I did our annual dividing of the Christmas music into "booty shaking Christmas songs" and "non-booty shaking Christmas songs." We added one other category - "party-pooper songs" - of which we decided "Hard Candy Christmas" is one even though it is Dolly.
So here's a shot of the finished tree - it looks pretty good this year. Actually, it looks about like it does every year, but that's probably part of what is so comfortable about it. It's also hard to take a picture of a lit Christmas tree, so this is as good as it gets.
One other thing that got pulled out of storage are the holiday mugs. People give us mugs all the time - which is great as one can never have too many mugs. (although we really are starting to test that theory) Holiday mugs are always dicey because they only get used for about 6 weeks out of the year. Anyway, there's one mug that I particularly like. I don't even remember where it came from or who gave it to us, but it's one of my most-favored holiday mugs.
What I like about it is how it seems to depict such a worry-free existence. They don't have to worry that the 4-day weekend ends today or that they'll inevitably spend too much on Christmas. All he has to worry about is riding in that open sleigh and making sure the dog follows you home when you're bringing back firewood. But the more I thought about it, that's all an illusion. They have to worry about tuberculosis and diphtheria. They have to worry about the baby having a good chance of not seeing its first birthday. So it helps me put things in perspective. I'll keep my first-world problems (as a friend of mine refers to them) and let the people in this scene worry about vaccine-preventable diseases.
(I am also pretty sure my hair has never been longer. And I love it.)
And as if that were not enough, she got me something for Christmas that 1) I didn't know I wanted and 2) I didn't even know existed!
It's the Region 2 DVD of the KylieX 2008 World Tour! We watched the lion's share of it this afternoon and say what you will about Kylie, she knows how to put on a show. It is so detailed and intricate that it is nearly in league with a Madonna show. Too bad she will probably never tour the States (talk about a show I would travel ANYWHERE in the continental US to see), and if she did, she wouldn't be able to fill an arena bigger than C.Y. Stephens save in the most metropolitan areas. Not exactly the best place for a spectacle such as what is contained on that DVD.
Here's one of my faves - "LoveBoat" - even incorporating some of the theme from "The Love Boat." When Kylie emerges after the lengthy intro, Anna says, "Dad, she has Dolly Parton hair!" WTF?
A really great Christmas around our house. I hope everyone else had a good one! I also wanted to take a moment to stop and thank everyone who stops by this blog and reads my words. And I want to especially thank everyone who arrives here looking for a picture of Mbwun. That is by far my most popular post thanks to a Google Image Search.
It's time for a Christmas set from one of my guiltiest of all guilty pleasures.
Everyone has to get into the Christmas act, and while surfing around Amazon.com the other day, I came across yet ANOTHER Anne Murray Christmas album. Turns out this is her 7th holiday collection, and actually, it's a bit of a cheat. Fifteen tracks, but ten of them are collected from her previous six Christmas albums. That leaves five new tracks.
This proves to be a tactical error for Anne Murray. While she has always had a fantastic voice, and the voice that sings these new songs is unmistakeably Anne Murray, the new songs suffer the same fate as a lot of those duets on her Duets: Friends & Legends. While good, you can tell that Anne Murray does not have quite the vocal chops she had in the past. This is certainly not her fault, but when you listen to her newly recorded version of "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" and then compare it to "Winter Wonderland" which has been around forever, you can't help but feel like you're listening to your grandmother sing "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree." Again, that is not Anne's fault - it's just what happens to your voice as it ages. You become a bit of a warbler.
But Anne is such a class act, we'll forgive her for that. We'll even forgive her the frosted hair and the gradual morph into Katherine Chancellor from The Young & The Restless.
I'm fond of saying that nothing says Christmas like Kenny & Dolly. I'd be willing to add Anne Murray to that definitive Christmas list.
Some stupid kid at Anna's school has sowed the first seeds of Santa doubt. My child is SEVEN. Maybe I'm just being a protective parent, but I think that is way too early to even be thinking about there being no Santa.
I simply can't remember when I found out there was no Santa. Growing up, my belief in Santa was unshakable, even when a girl in my class (I forget the year) came out and said in plain English that Santa was my mom and dad. End of story. A part of me didn't want to believe she was right, even though I had long been wondering why my folks put us all in the car for a good 20 minutes prior to leaving for Christmas at my grandmother's house and why Santa's handwriting was the same as my mom's. I firmly believe that part of me that didn't want to give up believing in Santa is the same part of me that wants to believe that Barack Obama now knows the truth about Roswell and UFOs and all that stuff. I really am Fox Mulder. I want to believe.
I am not so naive as to think that Anna will always believe in Santa. While I am a bit wistful about her growing up, I am not going to stand in the way of it happening. In response to her friend's revelations about the true nature of Santa, I asked her what she thought about it. We talked about The Polar Express and how the narrator of that story could hear the magic jingle bell his entire life, even after his friends and siblings could no longer hear it, because he still believed. I think it's important now to lay the groundwork for the revealing the myth of Santa, while at the same time, not turning it into a big deal. We'll see how that goes.
In the end, there's more to it than a man in a red suit anyway. But I will admit, her belief is pretty amazing. I would think that in this day and age, it would be so hard to believe in Santa. And once the polar ice caps melt, I figure it will be virtually impossible to believe the Santa myth.
Heidi has been trying to bake Christmas cookies every day for the last week, but between me on the overnight shift and then the plague from hellTM, it just has not worked out. Today it did. And what a good day to stay the hell inside because it was 48 degrees when we woke up and by mid afternoon, it was in the teens. Now, it is 7 degrees.
Anyway, round one of the cookie baking extravanga commenced today. She made monster cookies and gingerbread men. Actually, she made the monster cookies and the dough for the gingerbread men. The actual cutting out of the men (and women) fell to Anna and me.
This one is my favorite - it is my vogue-ing gingerbread man.
I will not rest till I figure out how to put a cone-bra on him. Then he'll be straight out of the "Like A Virgin" performance on Blond Ambition.
I think this has been the longest 5 days at work in the history of the world. I am very much looking forward to my day off tomorrow, even though a good portion of the afternoon will be spent listening to the piano tuner tune the piano.
Quite out of the blue, I started listening to Rachel Stevens again. God, I love that album. It's one of the albums from the fall of 2006 that I am still able to listen to. The first song I ever heard of hers was "I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)" that was on a compilation CD that I purchased at Borderline Music in Chicago. But the song I am loving these days is "Dumb Dumb." I can't get enough of it.
Speaking of dumb dumb, I have spent a good chunk of the last 24 hours trying to rid my computer of some spyware that managed to make it on despite my best efforts to keep the computer spyware free. I had noticed an abundance of pop-ups and pop-unders in the last few days. Stupidly, I had let my Norton Antivirus lapse and after spending 40 bucks to update that, it found a ton of shit that was bogging down my computer. I also e-mailed my computer guru brother-in-law who recommended Spybot and that also found some stuff. However, I am still noticing a pop-under every now and again. It has something to do with Google searching, I think. I am afraid that I may have to wipe the whole thing, but that is probably an over-reaction. The worst that will happen (more than likely) is that it will have to go to Best Buy and be cleaned out. I did buy the performance plan when I bought the computer but I will bet you a million dollars that this is not covered under the performance plan! (Look ma, it's just like health insurance!) My next computer is going to be a Mac, no doubt about it.
Someone flipped a switch in me this week and I am suddenly in the Christmas mood! It didn't hurt that we got our first significant snow of the season this weekend. I came home from work on Saturday night to find the tree set up! For the first time in forever, I had completely missed out on the hauling the Christmas shit up from the basement. We spent most of Saturday night decorating the tree and listening to Christmas songs on Heidi's iPod. Anna and I divided the Christmas songs into "booty shaking Christmas songs" and "non-booty shaking Christmas songs."
I am almost completely done Christmas shopping, if you can believe it.
Still plowing through The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. XO mentioned in the comment section of that post The Object of My Affection. I, too, read that book many years ago. It was after I had seen the movie, and the book is much more melancholy than the movie. But I suppose that was inevitable. But his mention of it made me at the very least want to rewatch the movie. I am pretty sure that I got rid of the book.
My year-end best of lists are in the offing. Expect the first probably next weekend. I will admit that I am having trouble getting 80 minutes for the year-end song post, so it might be less than that.
So Christmas is over for another year - well, it will be in a couple hours anyway. I think we had a pretty good one overall. Even though I was very oddly tired for a lot of the 4 days I had off, I feel pretty good tonight and I think I'm ready for a run of three evenings before another 4 days off.
Predictably, we woke up before 7AM today as Anna was ready to go investigate what Santa had brought her. She made out like a bandit - I don't recall ever having such loot at Christmas time. But as I've pointed out before, our childhoods are not really comparable because I was not an only child. Anyway, she got lots of good stuff - some fun toys and more Littlest Pet Shop stuff which she loves. She is still in awe over Butterscotch aka Spirit the FurReal pony that Jeff (her godfather) and Caryle purchased for her this year. Anything we could have gotten her is pretty much chopped liver next to that. But Heidi's going to blog Butterscotch so I wouldn't dare to steal her thunder although I will say that Anna sleeps with the head of the horse right next to her bed, which is just a little too Godfather for me. (Which just reminds me of this, which I am SO getting when I have $45 just sitting around burning a hole in my pocket.)
Santa also brought an iPod stage for Anna since we seem to be carting the one we have up and down the stairs all the time. It seriously needs GPS tracking on it as I can never find it. The only problem is that the one Anna got doesn't work. The volume goes up and down. It cuts out randomly during songs. We have the receipt and all the pieces, but how does one go about exchanging a present that is supposed to be from Santa? Anna is one smart cookie and is not easily fooled, but she fell hook, line and sinker for my story that I e-mailed the elves and found out we needed to take it to Kohl's to get it fixed. Not sure how well that will play in even a year or two, but thank God it seemed to work this year.
One of the best things I got this year was something that was from Anna, who always wants to get me "something scary" for my shelf. Usually, that translates into some kind of horror action figure for my shelf in my office. This year proved to be no exception - and it was something totally unexpected. Yes, my 6 year-old thought it would be a good idea to purchase Zombie Hulk for her dad. She was, naturally, correct.
As it turns out, they have Zombie Spiderman and Zombie Captain America down at Mayhem, which I might have to pick up at some point in time as the bases all connect together. I love the addition of the "eaten" Silver Surfer on the base. Nice touch.
Speaking of being eaten, one of the earliest gifts we purchased was a Barbie wheelchair. We got it off of eBay right after we got back from Phoenix in October. While we were there, my brother's dog, Eddie, found one of Anna's Barbie's and partially mauled it - just one foot and part of one arm. We went online to see how much if it could be easily replaced, and wouldn't you know, it's one of the dolls that costs $60 to replace! So instead of doing that, we got a wheelchair for her - Anna loved it.
And just because I can, here's a Christmas morning picture of Anna with some of her loot - and Spirit (she renamed the pony.)
Mostly though, I had a good time being at home with my girls and seeing family and friends. I can't say that I'm terribly looking forward to returning to work tomorrow, but that's mostly just vacation brain talking.
Mine has blood splatters on it and I don't have a tattoo and I'm not that built.
...never dreaming that it would show up on Christmas morning.
Yep, that really is me. I am that nerdy. And yes, I look that good doing absolutely nothing to myself. It's worth it though.
