It’s time for my traditional holiday activities. I have to cycle the fruit fly stocks. I need to feed the spiders. As a special treat, I’m setting up a pair of black widows for breeding, I hope. And then…the washing of the lab ware. There are many vials and containers that must be scrubbed.
I will get all that done today so I can slack off on Christmas Day, which will not be celebrated. We did not put up a Christmas tree, or any decorations. There will be no children in our house and no presents. The Christmas feast will be a simple casserole. Hell no, I’m not going to church.
I hope you all get to celebrate a mid-winter vacation in the manner of your choosing!
I don’t mean to one-up you, but I have a spider living in my kitchen who cleans up after herself. She had a beetle in her web, and after finishing it she disposed of the body without a trace.
In Northern Europe there celebrations that take place between Christmas and New years day. These celebrations are meant to chase away the winter weather. Partying, parades feasting and drinking and parades. Some including parades of costumed Krampus celebrants. Wheeeeeee!
I faithfully attend church on Christmas, my favorite church, Saint Sofa.
The great thing about being in a church is that it doesn’t magically get inside you. I was in St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco Sunday night for a performance by Chanticleer, a men’s chorus. Excellently performed music, although not my favorite type of music. In any case, here I am today and I still don’t consider myself a Christian.
Thanks for the reminder.
I must put up my Xmas trees.
They are made of Lego.
Happy holidays to PZ and the great community he’s built.
My fervent holiday wish is that PZ either updates or eliminates the copyright date at the bottom of the pages.
Decided to use the free day to do some stuff around the place. Started with fixing the new curtain rods in the living room. Found out that the two windows are at different heights, found something really solid in the wall with the drill, mislaid one of the screws… The usual. Postponed everything else till after the holidays. Or maybe next year.
Doc Bill and Doc Trophy Wife, praise Bastet, wring dry the Christmas season before ringing in the New Year.
Decorated fir tree scenting the house. Check.
Garland across the mantlepiece. Check.
Sparkly lights out front. Check.
Enough presents under the tree that Jeff Bezos sent us a fruit basket. Check.
Doc Bill’s Famous cornbread/sage/sausage stuffing prepped. Check.
Real chestnuts to roast thanks to Viet Nam and Whole Foods. Check.
Leg o’ Lamb marinating in an olive oil/garlic/rosemary (from the herb garden. What winter?). Check.
Kings College Choir Christmas carols on vinyl. Check.
English Christmas pudding ready to be flamed with brandy. Check.
Sausage rolls ready for baking. Check.
Racist uncle lined up for Christmas dinner. Check.
On Donnor, on Dasher, on Prancer and Vixen! Come on, people, let’s get this show on the road!
PZ, we wish for you and your family and everyone here, an enjoyable day. For us, tomorrow, 25 December 2025 will be just another day, where we hope and work for peace and decency while we are surrounded by murder and destruction, too much of it caused by the plutocratic sociopaths running this country. And, we are up to our eyeballs in guns on the streets causing multiple injuries and deaths in phoenix.
We’re going to have low-key holidays for two as well.
We made visits to kids and grandkids this fall, so we have already done the obligatory gift-giving with them.
However, we have a slightly different take on the festivities than PZ.
Right after Thanksgiving, my husband put up the lights on the house. On the outside, it looks like the typical little xtian home, dressed up for the holidays. BUT, when one looks closely at our tree (also put together and decorated the day after Thanksgiving), it definitely looks different.
Our tree is a “Star Trek Tree”. We’ve been collecting Hallmark Star Trek ornaments since 1992, when we bought “The Shuttlecraft Galileo”, complete with the voice of Leonard Nimoy wishing “happy holidays” to all. We’ve had to expand into taller trees a couple of times as our collection grew. Today, it is quite spectacular.
I love to cook, and I’ve incorporated traditions from the places in which we have lived over the years.
Christmas Eve, we will enjoy cioppino for the feast of the seven fishes.
Christmas Day, we will have a traditional Midwestern pot roast, topped off by a pumpkin pie.
New Year’s Eve, we’ll have Tamales, salsa, chili,queso and chips while we enjoy a movie (probably sci-fi).
On New Year’s Day, I’ll go back to healthy food with black-eyed peas and greens for good luck in the new year.
As I write this, my personal engineer is busy improving the design that won a cosplay contest at a GalaxyCon last August.
He transformed my powered wheelchair into a Dalek and he dressed as Dr. Who.
He then signed us up for a Dr. Who convention in LA in February, so he’s making improvements on the Dalek.
As a very special treat just before our 50th anniversary, he bought tickets to the 60th annual Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas next summer. I can’t wait for that one!
We’ve decided to just have fun spending the kids’ inheritance now that he’s retired. That will even include celebrating our 50th at The Hale Koa in Hawaii in October.
However you choose to celebrate, Happy Holidays to all!
The only Xmas decorations that I’ve put up, as usual, are the seasonal cards that friends and family have kindly sent me. My Xmas dinner this year will consist of gammon, egg, tomatoes, pineapple and chips, followed by steamed pudding and custard a few hours later when I can manage it.
Normally I treat myself to a bottle of Scotch at this time of year, but given the extraordinary events of the last twelve months I instead chose a transPondian option in the form of a bottle of Southern Comfort, seizing the opportunity before President Fantasist totally shuts down international trade in the belief that it supports Commie chewing gum on transgender sidewalks or some such lunatic shit that his followers will lap up.
Merry Crimbo!
And a traditional Xmas song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flA5ndOyZbI
I said, “Merry Christmas,” twice today. And I did it without a hint of cynicism.
The first time was when I walked up to the guy who was vacuuming the hallway and gave him 20 bucks.
The second time was at the grocery store as I picked up my bundles and honored a rather tall woman’s request for my cart.