homage to christmas past.

I’m dreaming of a #dingleballChristmas

Just like the ones we’ve had before

With the craft beers flowin’

And siblings plottin’

To ride their bikes out to the bars

I’m dreaming of a #dingleballChristmas

Just like the ones we’ve had before

With the Christmas movies playin'

And I keep waitin’

For Sarah to make her yummy scones

I’m dreaming of a #dingleballChristmas

Just like the ones we’ve had before

Where the fire’s cozy

And the cousins nosy

I love it when they randomly stop by

I’m dreaming of a #dingleballChristmas

Just like the ones we’ve had before

With the nieces dancing

And the mutt a’snugglin

There really is no place like home

I’m dreaming of a #dingleballChristmas

With every tweet I try to write

May your days be silly and light

And may all your dingleballs delight

a pack of strays.

I've been touched lately by the thoughtful Christmas essays featured in The New York Times recently.  One spoke to the realities- and hopes- of being a single person during the holidays, another, more poignant, answered for the struggles of the unmoored and the families who take them in on festive days.  While I have never been in the foster care system or experienced even half of the traumas the author alluded to, I have felt the pinball feeling of ricocheting off of other people's (and sometimes my own) family events as both a grateful participant and an uncomfortable intruder.  Confronting this feeling annually involves a late, reluctant, and resigned purchase of an airline ticket and a frustrating blend of enthusiasm and dread.  I love, love, love being around my family but I struggle to really enjoy the holidays (coming home in the summer is so much easier!).  After reading this NYT story about people skipping the holidays- I, feeling very curmudgeonly (probably from gorging on candy and teriyaki to cope with, you know, the stress) was like, YES! Maybe next year I could just spend the holidays at home in Philly in my most amazing bed that I miss so much, without any drama or feelings of holiday malaise!  Maybe I could just skip it, all of it!  Validated in my dark and brooding state, I was plotting a dramatic iCal reminder that would suggest I consider traveling after New Years so that I could just bypass all of the running around and the inexplicable misery I feel in the midst of all this apparent happiness.

It's like you see me making a white sauce, but really I have this complicated inner life. 

I recognize that I'm not the only person on the planet to feel this, and I recognize I'm probably not the only person in this house who feels it either.  Which is why I'm so especially grateful that my some special folks rallied our pack of strays this evening.  Fragments of an extended family, we boast a large percentage of single people.  We lack a clear leader- there are no matriarchs or patriarchs here, just a  contingent of several generations willing to go where they are called.  Suddenly planned, the food was simple, the giving was directed primarily towards the children, and the evening involved the installation of a car radiator.  This was not some ungainly production, but an effort of basic pragmatism:

We would all celebrate Christmas elsewhere, but tonight, we needed to celebrate our Christmas.  We gathered from the far-flung corners of Seattle, rural Pierce County, Tacoma, and Philadelphia to be together.  And perhaps, because of the nature of the season, we were able to see in each other qualities we'd missed or thought too long dormant.  It was an awakening moment for me.

It is easy to see the holidays for what they aren't, for what ones' life isn't.  It is a default, for some, to feel lost and aloof amidst endless hams and cookie platters.  It is not difficult to focus on those feelings, it just happens.  And that is why it is so blissful when that moment of grace presents itself and you can't feel anything better than the love and caring that comes from being a part of a family.  We say we're coming together for the holidays, but really, we're coming together for each other. It is good to be reminded that we are no longer strangers and together we are no longer strays.

God bless us, every one.

my love for tacky, vulgar animated gifs knows no bounds.

you're the promise that i found.

These pictures of the Venice flood kind of blew my mind, and sent me into a whirl of "I've got to get back..."

I think it's turning into Mark Kozelek week here at COTGB, which is alright by me. Click here for "Revelation Big Sur." It's lovely.

Thank Bicycle Jesus that we have Chris Buttars to save Christmas.

i'm feeling festive.

something for everybody.

For the health issues folks: A very interesting story about how abortion providers are trained.

For the design people: FONTS! The 'Aller Sans' font is really nice for an every day font, I think it's going to replace 'Corbel' as my default font.

For the history and juvenile lit nerds out there: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Twitter account.

For the bike riders: Speculation on whether or not Obama's transportation secretary will be a bike proponent. Survey says probably not.

Something for everyone:
Only two days left until we get past the biggest barrier to wholesale Christmas obsession (although the whole 'being a grad student' thing may cramp my style a bit). The fact that Thanksgiving has not yet happened is not stopping me from listening to Christmas music. Not even my pumpkin-pie-free state of being could keep me away from wishing I was one of Mariah's backup dancers.

Mariah Carey- All I want for Christmas I
by tktouz

o tannebaum.

I put up my Christmas tree three days ago.
Pretty classy for white tinsel, methinks.

What more can I say? Amidst the trauma of being so busy and continuously sick, this glowing fake conifer is my Paxil.

fantasy christmas list.

Just listening to the Harry Connick Jr. christmas album tonight (it's one of the best!) triggered an instaneous online Christmas shopping reaction. For somebody else. But if I were buying for myself, I might head in this direction:

This Eleanor Grosh print on canvas. Pretty much sums up my favored aesthetic, and would look good with my fantasy brown modern couch (with cute Japanese pillows) in my fantasy PhD apartment where I have my fantasy queen sized bed, my fantasy docile pet and my fantasy freezer that doesn't stank.


These cutie slippers by Simple. My awesome felted wool slippers are beyond repair. :(

A roof rack and carrier to ease the stress of moving all these G-D books next summer.

Oh wtf, this is fantasy. Somebody find me a road bike, stat! And hey, I want to build a Muppet too!

what the world needs now.

There has been all this contention on the interwebs lately about politics and the involvement of certain exceptionally large churches getting involved in certain exceptionally volatile political issues in certain exceptionally large states. So to change the subject, I am going to get really, really fixated on Christmas. In fact, to show you I am committed, I am posting this Christmas themed video for your entertainment: