Perfectly Disgraceful

Disgraceful Disco Elves

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Pere Ubus

 

Rex made these for me years ago. They may be my all-time favorite Christmas present, even if I do greatly appreciate the Ipod and matching Tivoli he gave me two years ago (I'm a public radio nerd). Rex is often quite stellar in the gift-giving department. The Pere Ubus always get a place of honor on the tree and make me happy whenever I see them.

Christmas

 

The gifts were well received, as you can see. The Younger Child was enthralled with her many tiny princess toys and has played quite contentedly for hours with only one screaming tantrum. The Older Child read Beedle the Bard in record time and then made lots of tiny cut-out fashion plates. Rex was well pleased with his LP of psychedelic Iranian folk songs from the 1970s. No, really. And I, well, I was so hungover from the neighbors practically forcing me to drink limoncello on top of the prosecco and tempranillo and red zin and Alsatian consumed with Rex's Christmas eve steak au poivre, that I had to go back to bed after the presents were opened. And when I woke from my little nap, it was a very fine Christmas indeed.

Merry Christmas!

 

From the angel of Christmas past.

Princesses

The Younger Child has several conversational gambits that revolve around favorites. What is your favorite children's book? What is your favorite color? But the most popular question is, What is your favorite princess?

I gave a tiny bit of thought to the question and answered Belle. Belle seems like the smartest and most resourceful of the Disney princesses. She's altruistic, and she learns to love in spite of appearances. What's not to like about her?

The Younger Child prefers Sleeping Beauty. Why? Because she's beautiful or kind or generous? No. Because she is pink. Pink. And you know what? I never did like that damn yellow dress Belle wears.

 

Decorating the tree

This is what we'll be doing tonight (pic is from last year).

 

I'm of the large colored lights on the tree school, though I do also admire tiny twinkly white lights. My parents use the large colored lights and Rex was gracious enough to give up his family tradition in favor of mine.

The crazy grid of Ikea lights is no longer in the window, thank goodness. Don't tell Rex, but I hated those lights. The window is gone, too, and replaced by something much nicer. I've been intending to do a before/after for the longest time. Someday...

I predict that tonight there will be Christmas music and consumption of spiked and unspiked eggnog, as is our tree decorating tradition. There will be a very excited Younger Child who will lose steam after hanging three ornaments and devolve into shouting "Mine!" about various ornaments. The Older Child will lose patience with the Younger Child when the latter refuses to take direction. But in the end, we will have a fine time and a beautiful Christmas tree, which is possibly my favorite part of the season, aside from the increased opportunities for drinking with friends.

Skirts

 

Taken at my cousin's wedding in Montana in 2007. I guess it means that black and white patterned skirts are done. I almost wore one and I was so relieved that I didn't.

Tantrumriffic

   

The Younger Child is fond of a tantrum or two or five. She's never been an easy child, though she finally started sleeping through the night when she turned three, which makes the tantrums ever so slightly easier to take.

She seems to go through phases with worse tantrums, like right now, when she often takes to screaming as loudly as she can, as if she were being beaten. Which kind of makes me wonder why we don't actually beat her. I'm not sure it would make things worse.

This is what I'm sayin'

I see this picture by the Sartorialist and I think, I WANT that hat.

And not because I think the hat looks good. Oh no. Because it looks WARM. I'm sitting in my office wearing not one, but two large sweaters over multiple layers of clothes while trying to figure out how to get some arm warmers in there. Right now I think a burka would be AWESOME. Especially if it were made of flannel or fleece or a down comforter. Anything. Style, I don't care about you at all anymore and I will not care about you again until the temperature gets near 60 degrees.

The economy is ruining my sense of style

I think I got the haircut out of sheer desperation. I can't afford to buy any new clothes, and let me tell you, I'm not sure my mental state is up to wearing only old clothes. Rex and I may not even be able to buy any Christmas presents for each other this year and my winter wardrobe really relies on a few key prezzies.

Even worse, now that we're keeping the thermostat in the house turned down to chilly, and my office seems to be doing the same thing, I have to wear about eight layers of clothes to stay warm. The over-stuffed sausage look is definitely not stylish. Add in the arm warmers, which are admittedly quite warm, and I look like an over-dressed and confused reject from the 80s.

All that was left was the hair. I built a bi-monthly haircut into what's left of our budget, and dammit, new hair was going to have to substitute for new clothes. I think it may keep me subdued for another month or two. Although, since the stylist talked me into scheduling for some copper highlights, the budget is blown anyway. I keep telling myself I can cancel the appointment, but I don't think I will.

So I never bought myself the red ruffled shoes that I still dream of every night.

And my shoe rack still has a giant hole where there should be a pair of something with a medium heel and a little oomph, but still walkable. My black suede boots from last year are literally down at the heel, and while I still like them, I want something new. And I want to not be wearing them nearly everyday.

Sigh. First world problems are so difficult. But you can help solve them! Go buy some books, y'all. There's also a show tomorrow night at Brickbat, have a free beer, listen to some music and buy our damn books. Please.