The Elysian Fields

After much delay, and I don't know how much anticipation (nobody told me they missed it! sniff!), the 2012 Warren Family Kissmas Card Type Thing is available! Get yours now! We're out of ink, and can't afford to mail 'em anywho! =)

(To be fair, the kids did there poems in time, it's mine that was a bit later than last minute!)

It took us a few years, but eventually our practices turned into traditions.

This year, of course, it was different.

Deb is in another household.

We ate the stuffed shell dinner. We unwrapped gifts from and to each other. Next step, normally, would be Santa.

Slightly different this year.

Tomorrow, we leave early in the morning, after seeing what Santa left for us, to drop the kids off at Deb's for whatever new traditions will arise there.

Lily and I will then go see Stacy, and we'll see what new traditions will arise from there.

Next year, Stacy and I will be together, and everything will be entirely different.

Love is there, though.. now, between myself and the kids, and for Stacy, who is far away, and at least partially distracted by the traditions she has been following; next year, things will be different, but they will be the same.

They will become traditions, over time.

Oy. Yeah.

And procrastinatinest, too.

Which is why I'm typing this and not wrapping so much. =)

I was telling aequitaslevitas that I love giving presents and I love watching people - especially kid type peoples - unwrap them - it's much less fun just to give them unwrapped - but, as Mr. B would say, "Geez My Wheeze!" I just don't like getting them into that wrapped state of being...

In addition to more new Brandonisms ("'top yankin' my chain, Ant Pat!", "Dat sound like a plan?"), we received a few other gifts as well. =)

For instance, I am now sitting in bed and listening to Stevie sing about flooding down in Texas - the Solos, Sessions & Encores, to be specific. Now, Santa has never let me down in all my life, not even my first Kissmas here in PA - didn't know anyone, living alone, with Justin visiting on weekends, no car (only a bike) and a snowy December that year. So in addition to this particular disc I'm listening to, he also gave me a Sony MHC-EC55 Mini Hi-Fi Component System to listen to it on. Thanks to patrixa, I can also listen to Robert Plant & Alison Krauss Raising Sand and a Feng Shui disc different than, but on the same label, as this one.

When I went to turn on the tree lights Kissmas morn', they didn't go on! Instead, Deb and the kids heard holiday music and saw lights from the Holiday Express Animated Electric Train Set. The music came from a train station (couldn't find a link to it) - and was actually well above par for most electronic toy music. In fact, it was so listenable (especially with a full volume control!) that we used that most of the morning, instead of switching over to our usual holiday CDs. There was also a bakery with Mrs. Claus (no link), and (slightly better, although no pictures for these two:) a Santa's Mailbox Car and a Log Mill Wood Car. My favorite is the Water Tanker Skating Car - one elf spins in circles, the other skates back and forth and spins. Each car is brightly lit - even more so when moving - and has some kind of action; Santa waving from the engine, an elf poking his head out of a hatch on the tender, and that sort of thing. They're brightly painted and quite clearly toy plastic, and that's part of the charm - this isn't some weathered, realistic train; it's a Kissmas toy. It doesn't simulate real-life operations all that well - although one of the names on the engine - Santa's Fe - is almost authentic. Send it on its way, and it rockets off instantly at breakneck speeds; you can slow it down to just slightly faster than believable scale speeds, but that's not its purpose. It's purpose was the smiles on the faces of the entire family as we watched it circle the tree. Surprisingly, Mr. B was the least impressed, but I think he was overwhelmed by the stacks of presents that piled up and around and lined the railway.

Eventually, I'll get some reviews of some of the things posted - I've fallen so far behind on getting those done it's pretty pathetic. I've still got some movie and music reviews from *last* Kissmas to get to...

Hope everyone else had a great day, regardless of whether or not they celebrate this holiday or that holiday or something entirely different.