On the first day of Christmas

Something that is mostly lost on our culture with its stark calendar: the liturgical calendar places the twelve days of Christmas starting on Christmas and going until Epiphany (January 6). 

We have had a great Christmas so far, with lots of fun activities planned by our families. We did get snowed in at Ryan's parents' house (we still have our little Neon, Betty, who is a bit timid around snow), so we didn't get to see my parents until the fourth day of Christmas.

Hooray for twelve days of Christmas!

My favorites

Three of my favorite famous people are Danny Kaye, David Brooks, and Mark Bittman. (Who?)

One of my favorite Danny Kaye movies is On the Double, and I've never been able to find it on DVD, but now you can watch it on YouTube. Very cool--well, for me at least.

As for the latest from David Brooks and Mark Bittman, check this, this, and this out.

Snowed in

The boys looked like scruffy nerfherders, the snow was piling up, and there was no way that this California driver was going to drive them to get a haircut. We have lovely hardwood floors throughout the house, and there was no way that I was going to litter every inch of it with boy hair, so we put plastic wrap down in the bathtub, and had haircuts. We just wrapped all the hair up afterward and threw it away. It sure beat sweeping! 

The boys thought it enough of a novelty that they forgot to complain.

Over the river

Lucas sings this song every time we go to Grandma's house. Today he pulled up a chair for me to sit in while he played it on the piano.