el tercer ojo

A Christmas Meme

A Christmas edition of a getting to know your friends meme.  :) 

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper with ribbons except where the gift makes it impossible.

2. Real tree or artificial? Can be either depending on the year.  Real the years we're at home, fake for the years we're traveling.

3. When do you put up the tree? Early to mid - December.

4. When do you take the tree down? Twelvth Night.

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, but only the commercial kind, over ice and without booze.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? A Spirograph when I was 9.  I've never wanted anything so much before or since.  It was the most perfect gift ever.

7. Hardest person to buy for? Paul, not because he's difficult but because I want the gift to be just right and that rarely happens.

8. Easiest person to buy for? My father.  He loves getting presents and is thrilled by everything he gets.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes -- a creche which passed to me when my grandparents died.  I love it in all its chipped and glued-back-together glory.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?  Mail -- about once every 5 years or so.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? You know, I'm so spoiled that I don't think I've ever gotten a bad present.  Or maybe I just love presents!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Ooo... so many.  In order: "The Thin Man," "Love Actually," "Nightmare Before Christmas," "A Christmas Story."

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? The week before Christmas, finishing on Christmas Eve because  I love shopping on Christmas Eve (seriously). I can't shop early because as soon as I have a present for someone I have to give it to them.  The idea of shopping a month or more ahead of time sounds like torture.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? See's chocolate a few times.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Tamales and homemade Christmas cookies.  

16. Lights on the tree; colored or white? Colored

17. Favorite Christmas song? "The Christmas Song," "Baby It's Cold Outside" "There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays" and "River" But I like almost all Christmas songs / carols.  Except "The Little Drummer Boy" -- that one makes me want kill myself.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I don't care, so long as we get to be with lots of family and friends.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yes, though I need to sing the song in my head to do it.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Depends on the year.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Eve, after Midnight Mass.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Red is a favorite color, but my favorite ornaments are the ones Paul's bought for me over the years.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Roast Beef and Yorkshire puddings with chocolate yule cake for dessert.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? My mom's total recovery from her surgery on December 8th.

26. Who is most likely to respond to this? Sentimental sorts like me.

On Monsters and the Election

From Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman in his blog at the New York Times:

[F]or the past 14 years America’s political life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Tom DeLay, who suggested that the shootings at Columbine happened because schools teach students the theory of evolution. Monsters like Karl Rove, who declared that liberals wanted to offer “therapy and understanding” to terrorists. Monsters like Dick Cheney, who saw 9/11 as an opportunity to start torturing people.

And in our national discourse, we pretended that these monsters were reasonable, respectable people. To point out that the monsters were, in fact, monsters, was “shrill.”
Four years ago it seemed as if the monsters would dominate American politics for a long time to come. But for now, at least, they’ve been banished to the wilderness.

Amen.  

I smiled this morning at the sight of an American flag and realized it was the first time I'd done so since the horror of Abu Ghraib.

Today I'm very proud of my country.  

I voted! Hopefully you did too.

How did I vote? Over a longish period of time while sitting outside Coffee Bean (it was a long mail-in ballot that I carried in in person because I wanted to watch it go into the machine).

Among other things,I voted for Obama (I voted for him in the primary too).  I wish I could find the words to express the emotions that washed over me as I marked my ballot. Maybe later I'll be able to express it.

Finally, but not in passing, I voted NO on Prop. 4  and No on Prop. 8.  I generally vote "no" on propositions on principle, but I feel very very strongly about the NO vote I cast on Prop. 8.  So much so, I don't think I could even have a civil conversation with someone who voted "yes."   The idea of people voting to take civil rights away from other people is obscene and shouldn't even be legal.  If Obama wins tonight but Prop. 8 passes, I'm afraid my celebration will be bittersweet. 

Anyway, hope you got your sticker!