“I want you to write … a theme: ‘What I Want For Christmas.’”

So how was your xmas? Mine was pretty great. The turkey came out fab, thanks to Mr. Gleemonex’s skill and artistry, despite the fact that the bird was, shall we say, indifferently plucked — what, because it’s organic and free-range and all that happy horseshit, it’s OK if y’all miss a couple feathers? Must we carry the hippie shit to its logical conclusion — the avian equivalent of unshaved armpits?

But anyhoo, great turkey, my best dressing ever (if I do say so myself), excellent wine (the Michel-Schlumberger 2004 La Brume Chardonnay, and a 2004 Ridge zin), and the SIL/BIL/2kids contingent only showed up about 2 hours after we told them to.

I do fear that I’m becoming The Childless Lady Who Isn’t a Bitch, Exactly, But Likes to Keep Her Nice Things Nice — e.g. when the three-year-old asked for juice, and was given it in a glass (not a plastic cup) because we don’t have any other kind of drinking vessel, I followed her every move with my eyes and was grateful for my MIL taking the Hovering Duties for me so that I didn’t have to … I could just see spillage (on my nice tablecloth), breakage (of a glass I’m sentimentally attached to), injury (glass + 3-year-old = bleeding, pain, ER visits).

Oh well … and also I got excellent xmas gifts, e.g.: gear for my bass (a compression pedal, cord for same, strap locks so I don’t accidentally clock myself [again] in the face, clip-on light so I can see my tabs during drunken musical jackassery in the near-dark), Beatles Love, books on anticipated travel destinations of the next year (Tuscany, Molokai), bookstore gift card, kickass fondue set, and another year of the Sunday New York Times.

And now, on to New Year’s Eve … ill-starred though it appears to be (awesome plans got torpedoed by events beyond my control, backup plan scotched due to the intended place burning to the ground last night, etc.) …