Days of Christmas: Day 2

Today's Christmas blog is a craft fail.

You see, sometimes when I go to Michaels, I get sucked in by all the crafting possibilities, particularly if the packaging on a particular craft kit or supply is especially shiny or colorful . . . or inexpensive.

When I saw a two-pack of tiny Christmas figurines, complete with paints and a tiny brush for only $2, I thought myself stupid NOT to buy it.
I guess next time I'll check to make sure the basic Christmas colors are provided (yeah, I had to mix my own green). And, I'll remember that painting tiny detailed crevices isn't really my strong point.

Days of Christmas: Day 1

Today, December 1, is the day that families across the world get to crack open that first door on their advent calendars, counting down the days until the magic of Christmas is here. A piece of chocolate or a tiny surprise awaits every day from now until December 25th.

I want to share that magic with you.

Starting from this moment, think of Ped Eggs and Hamlet as not only a blog, but as a sort of internet version of an advent calendar. From now until Christmas, there will be at least one Christmas-themed post every day (intermingled with regular posts of thoughts, snarks, and goings-on).

Awesome, right?

So, here's Day 1:

While the kids were here over the Thanksgiving weekend, we began our Christmas season celebration by breaking out the gel-paints . . .
. . . and mugs of cleansing waters . . .
. . . to create 8 cheesy "stained glass"* ornaments to add a personal touch to our Christmas tree.
These ornaments are stylistically reminiscent of some ornaments my family made 20-25 years ago where you pour tiny crystals into manufactured frames, bake, and are left with "stained glass" ornaments. Did you do those? Where can I get those now?

On an additional note, my friend Beth makes REAL stained glass ornaments and sells them for a more-than-reasonable amount on her Etsy shop: Visual Anarchy. I have 5 of her stained glass stars myself. They are beautifully hand-crafted.

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*"Stained Glass" is apparently the manufacturer's way of indicating a particular "look." These ornaments are neither stained nor glass. They are painted plastic.

Late Night/Early Morning Nonsense

It's 1:26 a.m. as I begin to type this blog post.

I went to bed 2 hours ago. I laid next to Troubletron and heard him drift softly to sleep about 10 minutes later. I laid awake for what seemed an eternity before I determined to get up and read for a while to lull my eyes to sleep about 20 minutes ago. I grabbed my book (latest in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series), and sneaked out of the bedroom to the couch. But, then I got distracted. So, here we are.

When I can't sleep, I feel a sense of urgency to fall asleep--like my brain gets mad at myself for not taking advantage of this time to sleep since these chances are so few. Only now, as I am unemployed, my brain struggles between this urgent guilt for being awake, and the remembrance that it doesn't matter one bit whether I can sleep or not. I can sleep all day long if I need to.

Sigh.

I'm cyber-sighing a lot lately.

Thanksgiving Recap

I hope you all had lovely Thanksgivings filled with families, friends, and/or good food.

Troubletron and I enjoyed a quiet dinner, home alone together. In fact, the only picture I have from the entire weekend is aerial shot of our Thanksgiving plates. Looks kind of gross now. But, it was delicious at the time.

We dined alone, but enjoyed desserts with members of both of our extended families, and the kids, so, we fulfilled all our Thanksgiving needs.

From the "How do you feel about Thanksgiving" poll we had up on the blog last week, I see that really only half of you care one bit about Thanksgiving, while the other half are either indifferent or hate it. But, whether you hate it or love it, it's done, and it's time for Winter Holiday extravaganzas!

I can't wait to start telling you all about the Christmas fun we've been having/planning to have. And, we'll be having Christmas-themed polls every week! So, start voting!

Question: How do you get a 9 year old boy excited for the holiday season?

Answer:

I Love Al Gore!

"Quiet. A whale is in trouble. I have to go!"

Bill O'Reilly and American Family Assosication are SO out of touch

I was about to write a blog entry about how completely RIDICULOUS Bill O'Reilly/Sean Hannity and the American Family Association have been with this call on Americans to boycott The GAP family of companies because of the completely made up "War on Christmas." But, when I looked around on the internet to fill myself in on all the facts, I realized my blog entry had already been written by the LA. Times.

CLICK HERE TO READ.

The article makes excellent points. Like:

• You can't ask for a boycott of The GAP for not using the word "Christmas" in its holiday advertising, mostly because it DOES use the word Christmas in its holiday advertising--and it sells Christmas-specific merchandise.

• Even if The GAP didn't use the word Christmas, they would be doing so out of a desire to be inclusive and respectful of ALL the December holidays (including, but not limited to Christmas). Don't ask for respect for your own religion when you have no respect for others.
• The AFA called for this boycott BEFORE The GAP released its holiday ads. So . . . it really wasn't about The GAP at all. It was about getting your fake agenda some publicity.

I honestly can't even begin to comprehend why it would bother Christian fundamentalists if an international corporation advertised to market to everyone, and not just them. Why can't they acknowledge that other people and their traditions might also be valid and valuable? What good is society if everyone is the same?

I understand that, among Christian faiths, proselytizing is an important aspect of their faith. But so is respect. Why does that, so often, get lost?