A few things.

One of the most adorable things happened yesterday morning.

Josie and I dropped Matthew off at pre-school, and came back home. Josie was watching the Disney channel's Movie Monday. They were showing Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. I was in the office reading my google reader.

I came out into the bedroom and Josie was lying on the floor, crying. Like her heart was broken.

So I immediately sit down and pull her into my lap, hugging her, trying to find out what's wrong. She looks around me to watch the tv. Still crying.

The movie was at the part where Pluto has destroyed all of Mickey's Christmas decorations, and Mickey had yelled at Pluto. Pluto was banished to his dog house (and subsequently ran away).

She's still crying.

Then Mickey later comes looking for Pluto, and his dog house is empty, she says "Pluto gone" in the saddest voice ever!

It wasn't until Pluto made it back to Mickey (via Santa, of course) that she stopped crying.

My 2.5 yr old daughter was crying over a movie! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So I did both.

As Keith said to me, as they're more able to take care of their physical needs, our job will be to take care of their emotional needs. Of course, I responded with "I hope we don't fuck it up".

We then went and picked up Matthew from pre-school, and in his bag was a letter that he dictated to his teacher to Santa.


Too freakin' cute! It's lucky that he wants train stuff for Christmas, cause he's getting some!

And then, my son decided to cut his hair while Josie and I were taking a nap.



So he's getting a shaved head just in time for winter! Good thing I bought him a new coat with a hood, and a hat/glove set.

Did I mention that we're going to get pictures taken with Santa this Saturday? Yeah.

Happy Festivus, everyone!

May your holidays be filled with good food, crazy family, and lots of phat lewt!

something we need.

At least those of us who are Chiefs Fans, anyway.

Chiefs Therapy.

Now go have a drink before the all the Christmas insanity starts.

Directly from the PossumMomma

Counter poem

War on Christmas? - by possummomma

Twas the month before Christmas and all through the land,
the Christians were stirring: a war was at hand.
As the secular people hung lights and red bows,
the fundies were thinking up mass e-mail prose.

They picked up their Bibles and lobbied with fury
at atheists and lib'rals as cop, judge, and jury.
The fundies - they cried, with phenomenal flair,
at a war that just didn't appear to be there.

They spoke of no greetings and secular schools,
while expecting the nation to bend all its rules.
Sorry, poor Rachel, you're only a Jew,
the Christians 'round here can't be bothered with you.

Kwanzaa is new, and therefore, competing,
with Jesus and Santa and holy tent meetings.
"How horrid!", "How dour!", "How pathetic!" they cried,
"It's Christmas or nothing!" and "nothing" just died.

"No glorious mangers and tunes at low level?"
"Surely, this must be the work of the devil."
And, all of those secular wallets at stores,
are they turning away all those dollars at doors?

"Jesus is the reason" they'll scream, pray, and shout,
while whipping their wallets, with credit cards, out.
And, while they are screaming, I hope they remember,
that their Jesus was likely not born in December.

iPods and XBox, enemy toys!
The Bible's the gift for good girls and boys.
Oh wait! They have products to substitute in,
by Haggard, and Hovind, and someone named Hinn?

"Here Billy! A book that will help you stay true,
about pillage and rape and incestual crews."
But, woe to the Wii game with family fun.
Unless it's of Jesus, we shouldn't have none.

Tolerance, humans, and diversity,
are the wrong reasons to light up a tree?
Encouraging good will towards folk of all kind,
is not what dear Matthew and Luke had in mind.

It's a war on Christmas and the fundies are back,
to tell us that Jesus is under attack.
Cradles, and crosses, and creches galore!
But, worship him, worship him, worship him more.

In their zeal and devotion to make Jesus matter,
their cause has been hurt by their incessant chatter.
A war with no weapons or obvious sides,
is a war of no reason but blind fundie pride.

So, here's my proposal, for all human kind:
You celebrate your way and I'll party mine.
Praise Jesus and Mary and stars that shine bright;
I'll read to my kids and then turn out the light.

For the gifts of humanity, freedom for all,
means seeing a menorah a-light at your mall.
The lessons of Kwanzaa, it's principles seven
do nothing to prevent one a place in your heaven.

And, when we awake for our own celebrations,
it's okay that we'll build them on different foundations.
You have your Christmas and we'll have our own,
and we'll strive to feel pride in the friendships we've sewn.

(make sure you go here to discuss this!)

Why, as an Atheist, I celebrate Christmas.

Religious fanatics. Gotta love 'em.

Sticking it to the man.

Or, more accurately, the Evil Empire. The Evil Empire in this case being a very popular store that shall not be named, just to cma.

Two years ago, the day AFTER Christmas, I went to the Evil Empire and bought a pre-lit Christmas tree for $50. This was half of its normal price of $100. I promptly took it home, set it up and plugged it in to make sure all the lights worked. They did, so I eventually took it down and stored it away.

Last year, I set it up, and had one section decide to not light up. No matter what I did or how many lights I replaced, nothing worked. I just turned the tree around so that section was in the back and ignored it. I think I finally figured out which one it was after about 4 days of messing with it.

This year, same tree, I had TWO sections out, the one from last year, again, and one at the top, going all the way around, and totally NOT disguisable. So after three days of trying to figure out which bulb needed replacing, I head off to the Evil Empire to get some more replacement lights since I ran out of the ones that came with the tree.

They don't have any. The gentleman working in the area tried to help, and finally told me to just bring the tree back and exchange it. I even told him I didn't have a receipt or anything, he said it didn't matter.

So after making a trip to Target to make sure they didn't have any lights that would work, I took the tree down, packed it in the box and schlepped the family back to the Evil Empire's exchange desk.

Damn, that lady was PISSED. Apparently, the Evil Empire now has a 90-day exchange policy (that they've never had before, and there are no signs speaking of this, unlike at Target), but she has to honor the exchange because the gentleman told me I could return it!

She refunded me the entire $100 plus tax. It was on a gift card, but it was still $50 more than I paid for the tree. So we went to the back, bought an un-lit tree and 10 boxes of lights. The total came out to 2 pennies more than what was on the gift card. I only used 6 boxes of the lights, so I'll probably be returning the rest in the next day or two.

My tree is finally up and decorated, and it looks very pretty. Eventually I'll get pictures posted, but that requires uploading the pictures from the camera, so it may be a few days.

Love/Hate

I love having a pre-lit christmas tree. It's a wonderful thing. All the lights are already on the tree, so you don't have to worry about knots and tangles.

But, those same lights are a PAIN IN THE ASS. Even though my tree boasts that when one light goes out, the rest stay lit, they don't. I have entire sections that don't light up. I can go thru, pull every single light out, make sure they work, replace the two or three that don't, put them all back in, and the section still doesn't light up.

So I went back to Walmart today to get some replacement lights, and the guy there told me to just return it and get another one. FUCK! That sucker was a pain in the ass to carry to my car the first time! Of course, I was five months pregnant at the time.

I hate pre-lit christmas trees now.