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Christmas with Darth Stevious

In the ongoing Christmas saga, our next character is eldest son, Steve, aka Stovie, aka Darth Stevious, orginator of "smooty" and "blurf" (and countless other wacky things like purple monkey dishwasher).

If you aren't familiar with Steve's ongoing, neverending project, please check out the website for The Saga Museum, particularly the blog postings in which you will be able to get a better idea of his part in this two-volume set which will no doubt make him rich and famous so he can support his mom in the manner she would like to become accustomed. Or, at least possibly attract George Lucas' attention and he'll invite us all to Skywalker Ranch. Yeah, right.

Steve is not usually difficult to buy for...especially when I end up in the right place at the right time and Gustave Dore is staring me smack in the face. Yes, right before Christmas, Ded and I were at Barnes & Noble and he found a gorgeous hardback Dore collection...which, amazingly, Steve didn't have. I became a Dore collector after Steve introduced me to him quite a number of years ago but I've only been able to find oversized paperback editions of such titles as Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the Bible Illustrations, and a couple others. Lately, however, we have run across these lovely editions at B&N at a reasonable price. I would provide a link here to show said book, but I can't find this particular volume online...go figure.

Anyway, Steve had hinted in his usual subtle way that I would be receiving an Otter for Christmas. Knowing that I am a Muppet fan and that I was trying to complete my Christmas DVD collection, one day he texted me to inquire if I had added Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas to my set. I hadn't been able to locate it at that point but he was lucky enough to stumble upon it! He texted me back that he foresaw an otter in my future and I should stock up on fish. Hooray!

Being a Hitchcock fan, Steve was also looking to complete a dvd collection of his own. Although I do take off points on the cool-o-meter for him preferring Vertigo over Rear Window, I picked up a copy of Vertigo for him at Borders. I had set out to find something good in the Doctor Who section, but Borders didn't have anything he didn't already own.

Interestingly, in my mom's extensive video collection (which we have been paring down and donating a lot to St. Vincent's Second Time Around store) I found a copy of Vertigo which Steve had apparently overlooked. So, just to be a smart-aleck, I wrapped the video and gave it to Steve for Christmas. I told him the DVD was too expensive and...well...sorry about that. Thus the confused look on his face when he opened the present. Yes, I gave him the real present, too.
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While we are on the subject of video tapes, I shall pull in Heather for a cameo appearance in this blog (although her post is coming up tomorrow). Steve won the award for the heaviest present when he gave Heather a huge basket full of Doctor Who tapes that he had collected since lord only knows when. Since he's been upgrading to dvd whenever the BBC decides to release another of the classic episodes, he is in the process of purging his extensive collection and now Heather has a whole lot of Who-viewing ahead of her.


I do apologize for the lack of knitting content here but I promise it will pick up again. I am currently working on a blanket for Caitlin and I shall post pictures as soon as it is finished. I'm probably over halfway there so give me a couple more days...then I get to start on Heather's!

Still Christmas Blogging - D.O.D.

So, I've been thinking about how to do the Christmas retrospect and I'm going to do things in a totally non-linear fashion...just to see if I can. The perfectionist in me will insist on some type of order so I'll try to post each day this week with a theme of the day. Today's theme is D.O.D. - otherwise known as Dear Old Dad.

My dad is 86 years young. The man still works a couple of days a week at the golf driving range owned by friends. And I'm not talking about working inside and selling golf clubs or anything non-physical. Nope. He maintains all the equipment...you know, the ball pickers, the lawn mowers...that kind of stuff. And he builds things. An innate carpenter, he can design and build stuff that will still be around long after the Terminators take over.

Now, the problem with my dad and gifts is that he doesn't need anything. Not that he buys everything he sees (that would be my mom and why she was difficult to buy for) but he doesn't want a lot. Each year he gives me his list of which crossword puzzle books he wants (the hard ones, of course, which he does in ink) and I pick them up at Borders. Sometimes that's all I can think of for him but this year was totally an exception. And boy was it grand.

It's been quite a number of months ago but Dad taped several shows on Italy that he was watching on The Travel Channel. He raved about them and I wanted to see them, too. Unfortunately, I didn't have a video player. So, he bought me one - it plays dvd and video. Okay, well, we tried that with a tv of my mom's that we brought over here. hmm...can't hook that sucker up because mom's tv was too old. So...dad bought me a new tv. Now I'm not talking about a huge ol' flat screen fancypants deal. Just a nice tv for the studio/office/guinea pig room. Well, I watched a couple of these Italy shows and thought, this is cool. I like this guy (and, yes, you may smack me here because I can't think of his name and I can't find out until later today) and, gee, I wonder what else he's done on Italy...oh, look! He has a book! Quickly, I ordered it from Borders.

Now, that was still back in the fall and I had to save this as a surprise for Christmas. And, more importantly, not forget where I hid it. So, I was good and hid all my Christmas presents in one place (family members will remember that my mom used to lose presents that she hid and forgot about). So, on Christmas Day, I actually surprised my dad and he loves this book! He is going to loan it to me when he finishes reading it - can't wait.

In another Grampa coup, I passed along some info to Steve and Heather which I gleaned one day when Dad and I were chatting about movies. Two of his favourites (and mine, also) are The Great Escape and The Sting. I made a mental note of this whilst we talked and told my kids that they should hunt down the dvd's of each. I found The Great Escape at Circuit City when they were going out of business right before Christmas, so I offered it to Steve as a Grampa gift since he hadn't come up with anything else. Then, I told Heather about The Sting - she couldn't find it in the stores so she ordered it and brilliantly printed out a copy of the cover and gave it to dad on Christmas with the date that she should be receiving it in the mail.

Then, totally on her own, Caitlin came up with a great gift, too. Granted, she had to do a last-minute shopping spree but it turned out to be fruitful. She found a wooden tray (sorry, I forgot to take pics) which had slots in it for four photos she then filled with pictures of the grandkids. Dad loved it. I asked Caitlin how long it took for her to find a tray that had those particular pictures in it and she told me the lady at Walgreens was getting pretty impatient with her but she just had to find the one that had her sibs. It became a bit of a running joke which I passed along to Dad.




When I talked to Dad the other day, he told me this was the best Christmas. He was thrilled with his presents. Somehow, it all came together - finally! Finding gifts for my dad isn't easy but this time...it was a very good year.

Addendum - I totally forgot. The picture above is Dad with a cd that Heather made for me - Christmas with the Rat Pack. When I saw it, I knew Dad would love it so I asked Heather if she would rewrap it and give it to him for Christmas then she can made another one for me later. Again, this turned out great and he enjoys listening to it.

I absolutely had to add this. Just took this quiz and I'm thrilled to see what turned up. Side note to Wendy - lookie!!!!

You Are a Ragdoll Cat

You are extremely cute and cuddly. You are downright adorable. Your personality matches your exterior. You are very laid back and sweet. You don't really like the outdoors. You prefer to stay inside where it's cozy. Luckily, you are the perfect houseguest. You are polite and obedient.

What Breed of Cat Are You?

Time Travel Backwards with Me...

...as I attempt to summarize the holidays. Let's start with New Year's Eve, since it's the freshest in my memory bank.

Ded and I wanted to go to a movie for NYE and decided to kill two birds with one stone by taking Michael with us and going to see Valkyrie. Thus, Michael gets to count it as history class. We drove out to Mall o'Georgia (with me working on Caitlin's blanket in the car on the way) and ate at our regular haunt, The Farmer's Basket. This is one place that we can actually fill up the bottomless pit known as my son without breaking the bank. And it's meat and veggies, not fast food.

So, while we were eating we noticed that the cleaning people began putting yellow tape around the food court area (suspiciously looking like crime scene tape, hmmm...) and we joked about being stuck inside. Actually, it turned out that the mall was closing at six, which was really strange but it was NYE, so okay. I guess it was a not-so-subtle hint that the stragglers were no longer welcome. We figured we would kill some time since we still had about an hour before the movie started, so we sauntered back outside to visit Barnes and Noble. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I found the doors already locked. They must have closed at six, also! How rude. A trip to the mall without visiting a bookstore just doesn't qualify as a real trip. So...

We went back to the mall area and decided to make sure the theatre was not closing early just to spite us. Fortunately, no problems there so we got our tickets and decided to go on in since by now it was about 30 minutes until showtime. It certainly wasn't as much fun as it would have been to hang out in the bookstore, but at least it wasn't crowded. Basically, we sat there and texted each other until my phone died. And, yes, of course we were sitting right next to each other but still texting. Duh!

The movie was very good and I'll admit that, even though I knew the plan failed and they didn't succeed in assassinating Hitler, I still got caught up in the whole thing and cried at the end. Now I'm going to read the book.

So, it wasn't even ten o'clock yet when we got out of the movie - certainly too early to head home, right? We had decided that we just might wander into another show for a double-feature evening but I had to get myself pulled together first. I was emotionally exhausted after the first movie and there was no way I could just switch gears and be ready for a comedy. So, we sat around for a bit and then decided to catch the 10:25 showing of Yes Man. It was enjoyable and the ironic thing is that Terence Stamp was in both movies.

Oh, yeah. While we were killing time before we saw Valkyrie, we also popped in for a few minutes to see Bolt in 3D. There was a box of 3D glasses at the door, so Michael and I grabbed them and went in. We only watched for maybe 5 minutes, tops, but I don't know if I could handle an entire movie like that. I think my eyes would start bleeding after a while. Of course, we were standing on the side of the theatre in the aisle so maybe it's easier on the eyes if you are looking straight at the screen and not on an angle.

When the second movie ended, it was a few minutes until midnight so that was pretty good timing. We avoided a few drunks on the road and began our journey back to Snellville when Michael and I decided we were hungry so, why end our evening so soon when we could go to Waffle House for a while? Perhaps we can start a new tradition of hash browns on New Year's Eve at the WH. Why not? Unfortunately, since it was pretty cold outside, I decided that two cups of coffee would sufficiently warm me up...yeah...and I didn't sleep that night either. Or that morning...whatever it was. But even with a lack of sleep, it was still a fairly low-key but fun holiday evening.

And on that note, I'll close this morning's post. Hopefully, I'll finish the holiday posting this weekend when I go further back in time to Christmas.


But first, how about a picture of Giuli's new shoes that Santa brought? Aren't they awesome? I think I want some, too!

Everything's Coming Up Roses...

In honour of the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl, I thought I would lead with a little childhood memory.

When I was a year old, my family moved from Rhode Island to Los Angeles, following my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin who had already emigrated from New England. I lived there until we moved to Atlanta when I was nine years old. Los Angeles may have been a little fuzzy on my timeline but I do remember New Years Day and the Rose Parade. I don't know how many years we did this, but it involved getting up at the pre-butt-crack of dawn in order to get a good spot along the parade route. While I don't really have any memories of the parades, we have lots of slides that my dad took. My one clear memory is sitting in the car with my dad driving in the dark.

However, I am fortunate that my dad has lots of Rose Parade memories and my favourite is this one. One year, after the parade had ended, he and my Uncle Bud came across a sofa - apparently somebody wanted to be really comfortable whilst hanging out for several hours before and during the parade. I mean, what time of morning would you have to get there in order to haul a sofa in? So, of course, Dad and Uncle Bud took pictures of each other on said sofa just to prove that it really did happen.

Anyway, back to our regular programming...

Christmas was great and I have been quite remiss in not posting earlier but I sort of got sucked into the Xbox that Heather brought over to visit. Since we had the guinea pigs and the Xbox, and I didn't want anyone to feel left out, I felt that I needed to bond with all three of our guests. So, I spent many hours on either the computer in the room with the piggies or downstairs with Sam the Xbox, playing GTA4. Considering I finished nearly every bit of Christmas knitting on time (with the exception of Caitlin's blanket) I think I deserved some gratuitous violence. So I ran over a lot of people, crashed a lot of vehicles, drank too much and drove all over Liberty City, and generally blew things up as often as possible. Ah, yes, good clean fun.

(I am going to note here that it is 5am and I am going to make this a several-part post so I can get a little bit of sleep. See y'all later with much, much more.)

Also, FYI, the picture at the beginning of this entry is my crew's version of Llama, Llama, Duck. It may be a litle bit difficult to discern, but the hats do have llamas on them and Paul and Giuli have ducks. I'll explain in the next post...maybe.)