Not a Manger in Sight:)

[mrdreamjeans]

I took this picture a few days ago of our neighbors. I'm looking across the fence between us and the adjacent ranch.


My Neighbors Are Asses ...

I've had a good Christmas holiday. As usual, my family has been very generous and thoughtful when it comes to the gifts. Mom and Dad gave me some cash and a magnifying mirror; my sister picked up Native American art from Alaska for me this summer on her anniversary cruise and three other presents from her have a Celtic theme. My brother and his family gave me gift cards to Pier 1 and AMC and a flashlight that takes no batteries.

We had a very different Christmas dinner for our family. The menu included ham, salad, green been casserole, mixed veggies in cheese sauce, ranch beans and biscuits short on butter, flour and sugar. Dessert was a "Gulit-Free Cheesecake with fresh blueberries on top. The entire menu was organized to make it easy for my dad and another guest who are diabetic. All of it suited me just fine!

As we often do on Christmas, we played ping-pong in the garage and I'm happy to say that I was undefeated at 6-0:) The only downer of the day was that Dad wacked out in the early evening when I was trying to get him to work on his journal (part of therapy). He started screaming at me in front of the others and I decided to drive the 90 minutes back home instead of staying overnight. My final gift to myself on Christmas is a "silent night" here in Brenham.

I caught up with a few friends by phone today. gotmoof praised the new "Dreamgirls" movie highly. I'm seeing it next. I saw "We Are Marshall" yesterday and enjoyed it alot. I know it hasn't gotten particularly good reviews, but I thought its message ... not so much about football ... but an exploration of individual and collective grieving ... how we deal with it ... how we move forward and beyond it, was inspiring.

I hope that everyone has had a good Christmas with their family, whether biological or by choice. Ok .. my neighbors are asses ... but they're kind of cute ... Don't ya think?!