God save me from folks whose default setting is to think the worst of people and then perpetuate that assumption as reality without validation.

Nuff said on that one.

Favorite Christmas memories?

I was the youngest of five children in a military family. Our gifts were mostly clothes and things with a special toy or two. My favorite gift one year was a Barbie with this incredible orange and pink striped dress and coat and I think orange gogo boots...very 60's. She was gorgeous and got to move in with my brother's discarded GI Joe because Ken's leg had broken off. I never got the Barbie dream house but Katie had one that took up half her room....we live on in our children they say. I guess we heal old wounds there too.

Every other year we moved and ornaments got broken. Few consistent memories except that as youngest I got to do the tree topper (star, then long thin 70s glass spindle, then angel)...and my daddy was the tallest man alive because when he held me up, I could reach it. I remember the first time I had grown too big and being disappointed I had to stand on a chair. I remember also when I realized my daddy was not really tall (go figure for those of you who know me). I remember not wanting to buy a tree the year he died but Les made me.

We have one of the ornaments from a set I grew up with. All the others are broken. It comes out every year and is then tucked safely back in tissue for the next 12 months. This year the girls did not want to hang it cause it was "old and scratched." It made a sharp pang in my heart to hear it. I told them it should be...it was older than me and had been a favorite of my mother. They treated it with a bit more reverence then...as much as you can get from teenagers.

We always have soup and grilled cheese on tree night and then we sit and watch the lights twinkle with the house lights off. The girls suffer the sentiment for my sake for a few minutes, Les for much longer.

Baby Jesus does not show up in the manger til Christmas morning.

The girls used to get Santa marks...that is when you rub your finger in the fireplace and touch their cheek as you wake them up. They used to run to the bathroom mirror to look to see if Santa came instead of the tree!

And now it being the 10th I need to get on the stick. With all the prep for Unevent I am way behind.

Happy holiday season to all of you.