Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.

And, yes, that’s the same New Years’s picture I used for both ‘06 and ‘07. Call it a tradition.

I’ll be back sometime after the 1st.

Peace.

I remember my dad reading A Christmas Carol to us as kids. Everyone knows the story, of course, but even knowing how it all goes, I still found myself wondering about old Scrooge and his journey of midnight horror that leads him to warm redemption and the blessings of Tiny Tim.

Perhaps it’s because I’ve been slogging through Dickens’s final work, Our Mutual Friend, as part of my on-going Lost reading project, but when I was filling in for a fellow teacher last week, I noticed a few copies of A Christmas Carol in her room. I started reading it over lunch and found myself drawn in. I finished it over a few lunch breaks and loved every word of it.

Who knew that Dickens could provide such a great respite from Dickens? There’s a special pleasure it rereading those books we knew as kids, in making new sense of the familiar and discovering those things we weren’t then equipped or inclined to see.

It was a great way to start the Christmas season. A tradition, perhaps?

Wasn’t that the title of a Cat Stevens record?

Yes, it’s the same picture as last year, but then it’s the same weather outside too. A tradition, perhaps?

Happy ‘07.

Cheers.

And, here’s the tree…

This year we ran out of time so our tree is decorated only with white LED lights. At first I wasn’t sure, but I kind of like the simplicity of it. Besides, what could be greener than white LEDs?

Merry Christmas.

Last year’s Christmas posts about the various holiday traditions still stand whether it’s decorations, Christmas music, movies and TV, or food and drink. We even packed up the pups again and drove to Orange for a few days with my in-laws, though we’ll be back in Austin tomorrow for Christmas with my family.

Perhaps I’ll post a picture of this year’s tree, which relies on a far different decorating strategy than last year, though it’s still the same artificial tree.

Until then, the tale of how I learned that Santa was really my parents…

One day in the mid-70’s, seemingly months before Christmas, but possibly only a few days I snuck into my parents’ closet looking for a place to hide from whichever kid had been designated as ‘It.’ I crawled across piles of shoes and boxes and as I neared the back, I discovered some paper bags.

‘It’ was getting closer and things were happening fast, but I noticed a Wonder Woman action figure in one of the paper bags. I thought it odd that my parents had a Wonder Woman action figure, but I wasn’t going to lose a game of hide-and-seek worrying about it.

I forgot about the whole thing until Christmas morning when I saw that Santa had brought a Wonder Woman action figure to my little sister. Odd, I thought, but I filed it away until I could investigate further.

Days must have passed in which I tried to avoid the truth, but eventually I had to know. I entered the closet and snuck to the back. Naturally, there was nothing but open space. No paper bags. No Wonder Woman. No more Santa.

When I brought this up to my parents, they let me join the conspiracy and asked me not to tell my younger siblings. It only took a few minutes after that to figure out the truth about the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and the Great Pumpkin.

Now that my blog seems to be working again, and I’ve emerged from my candy coma, I can finally post the Halloween pictures.

We stayed home as we usually do and handed out candy to the kids who are brave enough to face the occasional barking of the pups, who were dressed to impress.

Here’s Captain “Jack-O-Lantern” Joe, terror of the high pond near our house…

Phearsome Phoebe, the Good(?) Witch of the Greenbelt…

And, keeping a low profile, as is her wont, Dangerous Daph, just as likely to trick as treat…

Paul Stanley there is our 2006 jack-o-lantern. The guy on the right was carved by some friends of ours.

Happy Halloween.

Despite the lightning’s yellow glare and the thunder bursting in air (and sideways rain and strong winds) our flag was still there…

Right where some nice realtor left it the other day.

Oh, say, I could see!