BONG BONG BONG BONG - Tis Christmas Day!

Hey!  Merry Christmas, people!  Happy Holidays!  Happy post-Hanukkah!  Happy coming Kwanzaa!  Happy post-Solstice for my witchier compatriots! 

However or whatever you celebrate - we hope it was a good one.  Or will be, when you get off shift.

So far we had a lovely Christmas Eve with Family and Neighbors and Blue Cookies that I am pretty sure I should not have eaten (broke my rule of "never eat anything colored blue").  We made Coquito - badly (I need a new blender) - and ate small sandwiches, drank wine, and generally had a good time of it.  Dug and K are here, and I am currently listening to the air conditioner go because it's 80 degrees today.  Feelings are mixed on this facet.

We had roll-wreath/ monkey bread and bacon for breakfast.  Then, did the present exchange.  Jamie spent months cross-stitching a picture of Emmylou for me, and it is amazing.

We had chatter with the screenwriter for probably the best Hallmark movie this season over at The Signal Watch.  We watched one of the most troubling Christmas movies which will post over at the Signal Watch at 6:00ish Central.

We're headed over to The KareBear and The Admiral's place for Christmas dinner and, maybe, family photos.  I have put on a lot of weight, so I am less than enthused that roly-poly-Ryan is getting immortalized, but that's what happens when you eat your feelings and can't walk anywhere thanks to a busted foot.  But I am looking forward to a fabulous family feast and festivities.

Oh, also, I watched pieces of It Happened on 5th Avenue, and next year we're doing a re-watch.

We didn't watch The Grinch, because I loathe the movie, but here's Martha May Whovier, the most confusingly foxy of Christmas characters.  

Here's a very good, brief Christmas sketch:

Anyway, Merry Christmas.  

May the most Texas-accurate Christmas tune of all carry you through:

Christmas Pals: Julebokk - the Christmas Goat

So, there's a whole lot of Scandanavian stuff here I don't quite grok.  

There's the Scandanavian habit of, much like Mari Llyd, dressing up and going around to get booze from neighbors (a solid plan!).  And that is referred to as Julebukking.  Neighbors who have not slammed the door in your spooky face now welcome you in for smorgasbord and a cocktail, I'd guess.

How this happens without already being drunk looking at the picture above, I can't say.  

But this may have originally been a tradition where the participants mostly dressed as goats, thus the name.  And how did we get there?

Jule means Yule/ Christmas-time, and Bok means Goat.  

League Weekly Rewind 2025 (December 21, 2025)

Emmylou is worn out by holiday cheer

I'm Out of the Sandal/ Boot

So sometime in mid-October I was put into a surgical boot, even before I'd actually had surgery on my foot.  Well, on the morning of the 19th, I had a round of x-ray's, high-fived with my surgeon, who is a super cool guy, I might add - and was given the all-clear to put on a shoe instead of the boot.

I had my shoe in the car and was delighted to do so.  I can't say how freeing it felt to not hobble around with that clumsy thing on my foot.  I even took Emmylou for a little walk yesterday.  And will now do so every day as I rebuild confidence in the foot and the walks get longer.