Friday Five: Annoying Holiday Edition

Will Smama over at Revgals writes: Please tell us your least favorite/most annoying seasonal...

1) dessert/cookie/family food
I've got to go with fruitcake. PeeWee Herman had the right idea when he used all the fruitcakes he received to build a new wing of his playhouse. (Fruitcakes are basically inedible, so why not use them as building blocks?!)

2) beverage (seasonal beer, eggnog w/ way too much egg and not enough nog, etc...)
I'd say it's a tie between "Tom and Jerry's" (which just make me queasy) and Egg Nog Shakes (what a perfectly good waste of ice cream!)

3) tradition (church, family, other)
Our town has an annual Christmas parade which would be a nice tradition except for the fact that too many entries are logging trucks and cement mixers with little or no Christmas decoration on them. (If you are going to use the Christmas parade to advertise, at least try to disguise your motives a bit by putting some effort into decorating your entry!)

4) decoration
Nothing says "tacky" to me more than Santa kneeling at the manger. (Sorry if I've offended anyone who likes these!)

5) gift (received or given)
In 5th grade our class exchanged names for presents. I got somebody a nice board game, and I got a waaaaay-too-small pair of slippers. They barely fit on my big toe. I'm obviously still bitter.

BONUS: SONG/CD that makes you want to tell the elves where to stick it.
I'm going to have to go with "Little Saint Nick" by the Beach Boys. (A drag-racing Santa? Puh-leease. )

Here's a sampling of the inane lyrics:

Just a little bobsled, we call it Old Saint Nick
But she'll walk a tobogan with a four speed stick
She's candy apple red with a ski for a wheel
And when Santa hits the gas, man, just watch her peel.

Wow, to balance this post, at some point I'll have to blog about my favorite seasonal things!

dancing with the (blogging) stars...

Click here if you want to see Presbyterian Gal and me spreading a little holiday cheer.

The big question: Are we good dancers?
The bigger question: Will Presbyterian Gal be ok with me "borrowing" her picture?

thanksgiving break draws to a close...

Later today I will drive Offsprings #1 and #2 (along with Offspring #2's GF and marie's SBC) up to Seattle where they will catch a shuttle bus the rest of the way back to college. We'll try to allow plenty of time for traffic, but that is soooo tough to gauge. It's been a nice break. We had a good Thanksgiving, went to a cute movie, put up some Christmas decorations, drove to Portland for a little shopping, etc.

While waiting for lunch at the Macaroni Grill in Portland yesterday, Offspring #1 quickly rendered this little scene to kick off the season, using the 'drawing paper' tablecloth and crayons provided at the table. (She only had 4 available crayons which begs the question: What masterpiece could she have created with an entire box at her disposal???) I think all restaurants should allow you to color on their tables and unleash your creative potential. (Hmmm... now that I'm thinking about it, wouldn't it have been interesting to do lunch at the Macaroni Grill with, say, Magritte or O'Keeffe?)

for the love of pie

The First Annual Pilgrim and Native American Pie Sharing turned out well! We dressed silly, acted silly, and ate lots of pie. I reallllly wasn't going to post a picture, but since Presbyterian Gal asked...



my family = Native Americans (even my mom got into the act!)
marie's family = Pilgrims (notice they all carried Bibles like good Pilgrims!)

Yep, we're doing it again next year.

thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to my Blogging Pals! I am enjoying a cup of coffee and doing this quick post before the kitchen frenzy begins. (It's always such drama in my kitchen since I am the antithesis of Martha Stewart.) Offsprings #1 and #2 are both home so my nest is happily full.

Dinner will be around 1:00 (with "around" being the key word -- see reference to "kitchen frenzy" and "drama" above). Then, instead of having dessert right after dinner as we usually do, we will prepare for the First Annual Pilgrim and Native American Pie Sharing which will happen at 4:00. To help commemorate the original Thanksgiving (er... make that because we are silly), my family (dressed as Native Americans) will get together with marie's family (dressed as Pilgrims) and eat pie together. We've all worked hard (ok, not that hard) on our costumes, and I'm thinking this should be a fun, new twist to our Thanksgiving celebration.

Well, I better go check on my turkey -- Can I get it fully thawed in time?? The drama begins...

weekend update

OK, so this picture is a TOTAL exaggeration, but we did have some major car trouble this weekend. We drove up to Bellingham to see Offsprings #1 and #2. (Offspring #1 was in a play about the lead-up to the Iraq war called "Stuff Happens", and she turned in another fine performance!) While in Bellingham the transmission on our Honda Odyssey van decided to go kerflooey. (I believe that is the proper technical term.) We managed to get it into the Honda dealership there about an hour before closing on Friday, which was just enough time to learn some bad news and some good news. The bad news: the transmission needs to be replaced. The good news: Honda is going to pay 100%.

With our van needing to stay up in Bellingham for repairs, Hubby and I decided to take Amtrak home today. (In a couple of weeks, Offspring #2 has a jazz band concert so we'll get to do the van-train thing in reverse.) Anyway, I've been wanting to try Amtrak for some time, so that actually worked out great! I liked being able to read, get a snack, etc. I especially enjoyed the scenery from the train window...

OK, so this picture is also a TOTAL exaggeration (one might even say fabrication) because there weren't any orcas. Nope, not one. But Puget Sound was still pretty without them...

'toon of the day

I find good stuff while mindlessly googling...