Holy Holly Holy Day Tree Yahoo Hooey Canoey

Julie over at Attempts at Rational Behavior wrote an enjoyable post about the Holiday Tree Hooha. <<– Go read it. It’s good.

The war on Christmas is the most manufactured hooey canoey since the birthers’ long-running and still perpetuated obsession with old Obama’s background. I saw yet another attempt to forward this load of easily disputed tripe in my inbox last week.

I’m quite positive that my own family considers these ideas to be major threats to their “freedom”. I don’t get it. I didn’t get it as a Christian, and I certainly don’t get it now.

I would love to have access to a liberal conspiracy theory that had any legs. Please, somebody, for the love of candy canes, tell me something of equal bullshit levels as the stuff that runs amok in the conservative bowel movement.

 

Are You Controlled by Hate?

Did Suicidal Tendencies have that much of an influence, or should we report this guy and his lovely lady to be the next shooter(s) in a homeland terrorist-style shooting?

Thanksgiving Started on Wednesday

On Wednesday Tina and I drove to Grand Rapids, Michigan to my maternal grandparents’ home. They live in a not-so-assisted-yet-slightly-assisted home. We rolled in around 6:30 or 6:45 eastern time from Chicago, and we immediately gathered around a small table with my Gs, my Ps, and my sister Kelly. We ate my mom’s excellent pea soup and some pigs in blankets (best I’d ever eaten) that my grandpa bought at a church bake sale.

The pigs were more like sausage in a crumbly, buttery dough bread. The ones I grew up eating were hot dogs wrapped in Pilsbury-style croissants.

After dinner, my dad and I walked over to a game room equipped with a couple computers to print out directions on how to get to his sister’s house in Waukegan, Michigan where we’d have Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday night with the Witteveen clan. Thursday morning at 11 a.m., we had reservations at a restaurant to gather with my mom’s side of the family.

While dad was bumbling around on the computer to check his mail and search mapquest for directions, I found a Nintendo Wii hooked up to a flat-screen TV on the wall. I turned it on and bowled ten frames. My brother Jon called while I was on the 4th frame to tell us that he and SiL (my sweet Sister in Law) were decorating the house for Christmas. We got off the phone and I noticed I had bowled to frame eight.

My dad saw me bowling and wanted to give it a try, so I set up another Wii controller. He proceeded to kick my ass through the first 6 frames and I told him we should get back to the room before I had a temper tantrum mom killed us for being gone so long.

Wii Wii Wii all the way home

Not pictured: My sister Kelly and myself

 

The whole family ended up traipsing down to the game room for a romp on the Wii. It was fun.

No More Grumpy Kitty

Zoe gets a little jealous and grumpy when she shares her haunts with strangers. The last of the Thanksgiving guests have left this morning. My parents hit the road about 3:30 a.m. local. They’ll pull up in their driveway in North Carolina around 6 p.m. (1800). Driving is a bitch, but heh, it’s somewhat cheaper than flying, right?

I hope you had a lovely Turkey day and time spent with family was not only enjoyable and beneficial, but that every ounce of gravy was scraped out of that bowl called Love.