Meerrrryyyy Christmas!

I have to start with the highlight of my evening: during a viewing of the Polar Express (a sickeningly sweet and oppressively tryannical movie... why reward the doubter? you all kno that the chick is the cool one, *she's* the leader, and yet he gets the present. It's like the prodigal son story... stupid prodigal son. You don't get any of MY fatted calf), and we've reached the climactic Santa scenes and my dad cannot stop laughing. He's bright red and doubled over, trying not to annoy/insult my EXTREMELY republican/christian aunt, all the while he's gasping out things like, "The elves want liberation! Blow up the Santa Tyrant!" between chortles. TRULY a glorious moment. Another great moment: while going through photo albums from my dad's childhood, my sister found a series of photos of them at the beach. In one photo, my dad is standing with an attractive but much taller girl. In the next, they're necking like nobody's business. My mom giggled and said something about the height difference, to which my uncle responded: "Yes, but he makes up for it in willpower."

Also big in the news: my baby cousin can now say No. It's very clear. Do you want to eat the healthy food, Megan? NO. Do you want to go to sleep, Megan? NO. All with the biggest baby grin imaginable. I especially loved when her mother, my aunt Fran, said, "Don;t you want to eat with your spoon, Megan?" and Megan grinned an especially mischevious grin and dipped her hand entirely into a container of yoghurt and pulled a dripping handful out.

A great holiday, all in all. I was disappointed that me favorite of the youngsters, my particular friend Becca, was not there, but these things can not be helped.

My lunatic cat is chasing a red pen around my feet. It's amazing how he doesn't realize that his hitting it away makes it MOVE away and, therefore, makes him chase it. I tell him all the time that he's looney and he never listens.

PS -- I passed Topics! *sings* Ding dong, the math is dead!