My Holiday Blog

Enough people have told me enough times that I need to blog more often that I am finally caving in to the pressure. I know I need to blog more, if only to keep me writing, so keep pestering me.

I spent a few weeks at my parents' house for Thanksgiving. 'Twas fun. I stayed in the tiny bedroom I lived in when I was home. Although it's nicer now, because as soon as I moved out, my parents bought a new bed for it. They anticipated my limited mobility by shoving the rug that used to be in the hallway into the room, which resulted in 3 square inches of maneuverable floor space on which I could hobble into bed. Fortunately, once my wife joined me, we were moved into a larger room that had a desk shoved up against the doorway.

I spent the first week there reading and making Christmas crafts. I made several snowmen and Christmas trees out of Sculpey. I may not have many marketable skills, but I make adorable Christmas crafts. My reading list included Katherine Patterson's Christmas stories. If you've never read "Maggie's Gift," stop reading this and find it. Hilarious and touching without being sappy. Speaking of sappy Christmas stories, has anyone heard that awful Mockingbird song they play on Star 105.7? It's almost as bad as the song about the boy who wants to buy shoes for his dying mother. I hate schmaltz.

I also read The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein, one of my favorite authors. It starts out as a great adventure story, but then becomes incredibly philosophical and bizarre. I loved it. It also tied into his novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, one of my favorite books of all time.

I did very well this year not listening to Christmas music or watching Christmas movies too early (some years I begin as early as September), but now that Thanksgiving has come, I am free to indulge as much as I wish without guilt. We traditionally watch the recent Miracle on 34th Street at Thanksgiving. That breaks the damn, and since then I've watched "It's Christmas Charlie Brown," "Garfield Christmas," A Christmas Story (one of my favorites), and one of the greatest interpretations of A Christmas Carol ever, Scrooge starring Albert Finney and Alec "Obi Wan Kenobi" Guinness as Marley.

This year's Thanksgiving was different, but good. We traditionally go to my Aunt Carol's, but since the weather was so bad, we met in the church next door to my parents' house. I love eating in the basement at my aunt's house, but the basement of the church was fun too.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we celebrated another tradition, St. Nicholas's Day. True, it isn't until december 6, but since Christine and I will be in Illinois, we celebrated it early. Every year, we draw names and buy a gift for someone in the family. My brother and I got each other, and he got me both seasons of "Arrested Development," and I got him an NT Wright book and the movie Blast from the Past, which, for whatever reason, he really enjoys.

We also celebrated my birthday (which is December 12) and my brother-in-law's birthday (which is even farther away). His birthday is close to Christmas, his anniversary, and this year the birth of his first child, so it tends to get overshadowed, a fact that he bears with a quiet stoicism that inspires us all. He got gift cards for tools, which, for whatever reason, he enjoys. I got a sweet haul that included the graphic novel V for Vendetta (soon to be a major motion picture starring natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving), which was fantastic and has inspired me to read Alan Moore's entire catalog, including Watchmen, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Batman: The Killing Joke. I also got Anne Rice's new book, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt; the game Cranium: Hullaballoo, a gift card to Barnes & Noble, and some homemade chocolate-chip cookies.

My brother took me to Rent for my birthday. I'm not a fan of Chris Columbus's visual style (which is like saying I'm not a fan of Lady Godiva's clothes), but the music and acting was great. That night I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for the second time. I love movies, but two in one day is a bit much.

That about brings you up to speed on my life. I'm still crippled and unemployed, but Friday I'll learn if either of those will change anytime soon.

Happy Holidays!