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eregyrnIt would appear that some kind of Xmas-y post is de rigeur for LJ, so...
Like a bunch of my friends, I have been finding it hard to really feel Christmassy this year (right up to and including today). I don't really blame anyone; it's something as much inside of me as it is due to the fact that nobody seems particularly up for it. I've been having a fairly low-key and low-effort holiday, therefore.
-- Revels was lovely, as I've reported, and *almost* Christmassy, despite the way my description sounded. Almost.
-- I like my tree.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
raqs (who visited briefly yesterday, which made for a really nice day because we also had lunch at the Iguana with tafkarfanfic and her lovely husband; and then we watched three episodes of SG S3 that she had somehow never seen, and how can you *be* a Daniel fan and not have seen "Maternal Instinct"? But I digress...) pronounced my tree "pallid", which I think is fair, although I prefer the term "golden". Also, "cat-safe". It is nothing but golden-white lights and golden straw ornaments, which the cats are perfectly free to take down and turn into cat toys, since they can't hurt them; and which they do with great frequency. (I would post a picture except I don't think I can upload it to my webspace from here. Or at least, I don't know how.)
-- good lord. I just realized that I had a dream last night in which I caught the larger cat, Emily, actually jumping up and climbing up INTO the tree. This is something neither has actually done yet, to the best of my knowledge, although I did actually catch Emily standing up into the tree, so that only her hind feet on the ground were visible underneath it. Huh.
-- I watched "Sense & Sensibility", which is not Christmassy, but which is possibly my favorite movie and which makes me feel gooey inside. Last night, I also watched the 1984 George C. Scott "A Christmas Carol", which is my favoritest version of that story EVER, as everyone to whom I have ever subjected it knows. That *does* make me feel Christmassy.
-- And! It's not Christmas without a Christmas Miracle! In my case... I have this cassette tape thatraqs and I bought in like 1992 called "Handmade Christmas Music", produced by this tiny little private folk-music place. I got the tape in the divorce. For years now we have been saying that we ought to try to get it digitized so that we can both have good copies. I tried really, really hard to do that this year, but that's another story (a comedy of errors about a bunch of hapless help-desk guys and an equally technologically hapless middle-aged woman on the day before Winter break). Suffice to say, I didn't get it done this year.
Last night, after I had takenraqs to the train station, on a lark, I typed "Handmade Christmas Music" into Google. Please understand, I have done this before. I think I did it only a year ago, without luck. Last night, however -- the first link that popped up was a link to the website of the guy who had recorded this tape, and lo and behold (cue choir of angels), not only was there finally a CD version of this album for sale, but ALSO, a SEQUEL. You do kind of have to really like instrumental versions of Christmas carols played on folksy instruments like hammer dulcimer and harp and banjo ("Duelling Jingle Bells" -- no, not kidding), to like these, but we do. I have now ordered them in the hope that they'll actually come soon, while it's still really the holidays, which makes up for my having been a moron and not doing this Google search on a lark a couple of weeks ago, say.
http://www.strumstick.com/html_pages/CDs.html
-- Tonight I will take my friends to the traditional Christmas dinner at a fine Chinese restaurant. And that will be nice. Then I will come home and readraqs's new draft of "Two Sides", because honestly, that story is probably my favorite Christmas present this year, and I don't care what anyone else thinks.
So, merry Christmas to all, whatever you're doing. I hope that no matter how you celebrate the holiday, or even if you don't, that it's a good day, the kind of day you want it to be.
Like a bunch of my friends, I have been finding it hard to really feel Christmassy this year (right up to and including today). I don't really blame anyone; it's something as much inside of me as it is due to the fact that nobody seems particularly up for it. I've been having a fairly low-key and low-effort holiday, therefore.
-- Revels was lovely, as I've reported, and *almost* Christmassy, despite the way my description sounded. Almost.
-- I like my tree.
raqs (who visited briefly yesterday, which made for a really nice day because we also had lunch at the Iguana with tafkarfanfic and her lovely husband; and then we watched three episodes of SG S3 that she had somehow never seen, and how can you *be* a Daniel fan and not have seen "Maternal Instinct"? But I digress...) pronounced my tree "pallid", which I think is fair, although I prefer the term "golden". Also, "cat-safe". It is nothing but golden-white lights and golden straw ornaments, which the cats are perfectly free to take down and turn into cat toys, since they can't hurt them; and which they do with great frequency. (I would post a picture except I don't think I can upload it to my webspace from here. Or at least, I don't know how.)-- good lord. I just realized that I had a dream last night in which I caught the larger cat, Emily, actually jumping up and climbing up INTO the tree. This is something neither has actually done yet, to the best of my knowledge, although I did actually catch Emily standing up into the tree, so that only her hind feet on the ground were visible underneath it. Huh.
-- I watched "Sense & Sensibility", which is not Christmassy, but which is possibly my favorite movie and which makes me feel gooey inside. Last night, I also watched the 1984 George C. Scott "A Christmas Carol", which is my favoritest version of that story EVER, as everyone to whom I have ever subjected it knows. That *does* make me feel Christmassy.
-- And! It's not Christmas without a Christmas Miracle! In my case... I have this cassette tape that
raqs and I bought in like 1992 called "Handmade Christmas Music", produced by this tiny little private folk-music place. I got the tape in the divorce. For years now we have been saying that we ought to try to get it digitized so that we can both have good copies. I tried really, really hard to do that this year, but that's another story (a comedy of errors about a bunch of hapless help-desk guys and an equally technologically hapless middle-aged woman on the day before Winter break). Suffice to say, I didn't get it done this year.Last night, after I had taken
raqs to the train station, on a lark, I typed "Handmade Christmas Music" into Google. Please understand, I have done this before. I think I did it only a year ago, without luck. Last night, however -- the first link that popped up was a link to the website of the guy who had recorded this tape, and lo and behold (cue choir of angels), not only was there finally a CD version of this album for sale, but ALSO, a SEQUEL. You do kind of have to really like instrumental versions of Christmas carols played on folksy instruments like hammer dulcimer and harp and banjo ("Duelling Jingle Bells" -- no, not kidding), to like these, but we do. I have now ordered them in the hope that they'll actually come soon, while it's still really the holidays, which makes up for my having been a moron and not doing this Google search on a lark a couple of weeks ago, say.http://www.strumstick.com/html_pages/CDs.html
-- Tonight I will take my friends to the traditional Christmas dinner at a fine Chinese restaurant. And that will be nice. Then I will come home and read
raqs's new draft of "Two Sides", because honestly, that story is probably my favorite Christmas present this year, and I don't care what anyone else thinks.So, merry Christmas to all, whatever you're doing. I hope that no matter how you celebrate the holiday, or even if you don't, that it's a good day, the kind of day you want it to be.
