It must be Advent --
The house smells like warm buttery yum, as I've just finished making the first batch of toffee. This one is designated for a couple of upcoming holiday parties, and a little something for my BSC workstudies.
Today was a busy one, with make-up choir rehearsal all morning (make-up from missing the one before Thanksgiving, because of the hospital stay), and Ollie's birthday party this afternoon (WAY fun, now Isaac wants a party at Storyville Station too!), followed by the obligatory run to the store(s) on the way home.
This year, rather than think of more elaborate teacher and workstudy and coworker and friend holiday happies, only to back down at the last minute to a just-toffee-because-it's-all-I-had-time-to-do (and feel bad about it for some reason), I decided just to go whole-hog with the toffee. Isaac helped me find butter and chocolate in bulk at Sam's today, and this year I'm going to try not feeling apologetic.
Eve has been so thoroughly inculcated with the term "hoho-head" (Marc's affectionate term for a plastic santa nightlight that the kids really love) that she now shouts "HO HO HEAD!!" every time she sees a santa or someone in a santa hat, which is really often, lately.
And speaking of ho-ho-head, I have to confess my own squeamishness over the many santa-heads I've already seen this season. You know the ones I mean -- santa's head, but no body.
Ok, so I'm a visual literalist -- I don't know how these heads come across to other people, but my own eyes/brain/mind don't automatically supply the body. So the effect is something like John the Baptist after his encounter with Herod's henchmen. Creepy!
Just look at this poor fellow's expression -- he's so hapless and confused without the rest of him! He's not mobile, can't open a book or get himself a beer or anything...
Some years ago, Isaac became enamored of a very cheap santa liquid-soap dispenser, so I bought it for him what was I thinking? The visual literalisim kicked in again, and suddenly we were washing our hands with liquefied santa brains. It's really very disturbing.
Ho ho ho! What am I doing in a chimney? Why can't I remember my own name?
But what you really need to see is the Cavalcade of Bad Nativities. My favorite thus far might be the clock (although it's hard to choose -- yes, the base of a cuckoo clock would be a really challenging place to give birth.) And if you get tired of that, Angels We Have Heard are High is another way to laugh really hard, which helps with the pre-holiday madness.