movie time!

Time to pull out the Christmas movies. Ours, of course, have been sitting on top of the VCR/DVD player since mid-November, but since it's December it's now acceptable to actually watch them.

Thusly on Saturday morning we got up and made cinnamon rolls (and by 'made' I mean I popped a tube of them, separated them, and put them on a pan to bake), snuggled up on the couch and watched that most classic of all holiday films....A Garfield Christmas. It doesn't get much better than that, but we also own and intend to watch

Alvin and the Chipmunks
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
White Christmas
Charlie Brown Christmas
A Muppet Christmas Carol
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

and of course will one day (I dream of the day!) own It's a Wonderful Life, one of the very few movies that makes me well up and weep every time, without fail. Even if I just see randomly that little blip of them all signing Auld Lang Sign my face starts dripping and I begin to blubber incoherently.

-----

J had Friday off so we hit up this bi-annual sale at a church nearby. One of those cosmically huge rummage sales crammed with people and unbelievable bargains. We came, we swooped, we spent $4.75 and got (you'll be shocked to hear) a bunch of books, an Ernest movie, and an awesome picture carousel that holds 12 pictures (you spin it around like a carousel...okay forget it, I should just post a picture of its gloriousness).

ta-da! now i just have to print some pictures...

-----

GooberBear's family got their Christmas tree from a lot yesterday and he was upset because he "wants a Christmas tree that comes out of the attic like Grammy and Pa's"...Mom and Pa keep their fake tree in the attic, which GooberBear apparently has stored in his little mind all year hoping for one of his own!

the clapper

So today is Gramma Funny's 93rd birthday. That's right, and yesterday was the day of celebration. Apparently people on the Funny side of the family live forever...and by forever I mean most of them make it past 100 - which I find very impressive. It's also comforting to think that J will probably outlive me and I won't be a sad lonely widow...of course the flip side of that is that J would be a sad, lonely widower so I guess now I'm not really comforted at all. Now I feel all sad and despondent thinking about us being dead so I'm going to change the subject.

-----

So the gang assembled at Gramma and Grampa Funny's new apartment and we had a gay old time. One thing they never show in commercials for the clapper ("Clap on! Clap off! The clapper!") is that someone laughing loudly can turn the lights off. They also never depict what I find to be, by far, the most amusing benefit: eight adults all clapping furiously trying to turn the light back on and eventually giving up and talking in the dark until somebody laughs really hard again and the light finally comes on again.

Like I said, Gramma Funny is 93 and oh...the stories that older people can tell. For instance, when they first got married Grampa and Gramma Funny bought a farm and it didn't have electricity. When Gramma was pregnant with her first child (Pa's oldest sister) she was dreading having to start a fire in the middle of the night just to warm a bottle...but Grampa got the electricity hooked up at last right before Gramma and baby got home from the hospital. It is truly an amazing thing and listen to her rattle on about things like that, it blows my mind to even think of living without electricity!

-----

On Tuesday I had the van. Oh! Freedom! I have purposely not been counting the days since Ruby, the car of greatness, died. But it's been a long time and I was starting to go crazy and so we worked it out for me to have the van for a day. It had been so long since I've been the driver that I grabbed my purse and coat (and gloves and hat and scarf...darn you, winter!) and was standing outside the passenger door for a few seconds before I realized that I had the keys and would have to let myself in.

I drove all over and looked at many Christmas-bedecked stores and felt oh so jolly. I bought wrapping paper so that I could come home and start wrapping presents (one of my favorite things to do), I got some more stocking stuffers for J and yes, I picked up some groceries while I was out. I got stamps and...well I guess that was it, but it was a day of greatness and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

sunday

Sundays follow a predictable pattern for us...

9 a.m. - J gets up and takes a shower
9:30 a.m. - J wakes me up. Apparently I make a very angry face when being woken up and the first few times he did it he stood as far away as possible in case I started punching. I don't punch, I just hate getting out of bed. I didn't realize until a recent conversation that the grumpy from my brain showed up on my groggy face. 0:-)
9:45 a.m. - We're both dressed. If there is Mountain Dew in the house I pour us a couple of glasses and we head out the door to church. If there is a lack of Dew we wish we had some and leave anyway.
10 a.m. - Church starts. Pastor Dan preaches. I make notes that within weeks I am unable to comprehend. Today's gleanings: "Bitterness smells like roadkill".
11:15 a.m. - (I'm guessing on the time here, I never actually pay attention to when church ends) Church is over and we ooze forward with the mob to exit the church, usually stopping to chat with Pastor Dan for a minute before leaving.
11:16 a.m. - We decide whether to go home or to go Do Something. Today we headed out to our new favorite haunt - a park with a volunteer wildlife refuge center full of injured hawks, eagles (bald and golden), buzzards, one bobcat, and owls. We walked and talked to all the animals (i.e. I talk to all the animals and J whistled, trying to sound like a scared rodent to get their attention) and then realized we were freezing and headed back to the van. It's see-your-breath weather. :(

Once in the van we realized we hadn't had enough animal contact and went to pet the bunnies, kitties, and puppies at the pet store in the mall.

Muuuuuch better.

1 p.m. - Home again - eat a brief lunch and
1:15 p.m. - I'm collapsed in bed for my afternoon nap. Napping is an essential part of a Sunday for me, my body enforces the ritual around the same time every week. During this time J will usually run to the library and pick up some movies (westerns, since I'm not a big fan of cowboy flicks and he gets to watch them by himself) - today it was Tom Horn starring Steve McQueen.
3:20 p.m. - Is when I woke from my beauty sleep. The rest of the day is a great affair of doing nothing in particular - reading, watching football, harassing each other, annoying the hamsters. Today, however, we lugged our laundry over to Mom & Pa's (4 loads worth...so much, in fact, that I have to go back and finish it tomorrow. Needless to say we had literally no undies left, and had been wearing the same clothes for a couple days now...) and sat down with them to watch the Pats/Bills game on NBC. This particular fam are Bills fans, so it was a painful, ugly, disturbing affair. By halftime it was 28/7 Pats and J and I went home...because we were tired and what was the point? *sigh*
10:49 p.m. - That would be the moment we're at right now. Home again and getting ready for our ritualistic 11 p.m.-climbing-into-bed routine.

I love Sundays for all their laid-back glory. Most Sundays are like taking a deep breath and contentedly letting it out.