32 responses to
“Happy holidays, heathens.”

1. Carolyn said on December 24th, 2008 at 9:52 am

   Stop mak­ing fun of the trop­ics!
   Merry Christ­mas, Nancy! From work.
   Am hop­ing to take a long lunch and make an early (5p.m.) exit.

2. Connie said on December 24th, 2008 at 10:07 am

   I am read­ing this today! Soon off to the gro­cery store, then home to make two ice cream pies for tomor­row, then wrap our lit­tle pile of gifts. My broth­ers have con­vinced that on a cold Christ­mas morn­ing two ice cream pies can sur­vive the 40 minute drive in a cooler in the van. They may have only them­selves to blame.

3. Rory on LawnGuyland said on December 24th, 2008 at 10:24 am

   Back atcha, Nance! I read NNC daily before plung­ing into a crapload of work, just so’s I start the day in a decent frame of mind. You never fail to amuse or impress. Thanks for mak­ing every day a lit­tle brighter.

   Merry Christ­mas to you and yours.

   –Rory on Lawn­Guy­land (now New and Improved, hav­ing moved to Connecticut!)

4. whitebeard said on December 24th, 2008 at 11:44 am

   Merry Christ­mas to you and yours from Con­necti­cut — - — and yours includes all your loyal read­ers.
   My birth­day treat today is a Chi­nese lunch as long as the sleet storm we are hav­ing does not make the roads too slip­pery.
   Ah, Win­ter won­der­land and stud­ded snow tires on all four wheels of the Tau­rus sta­tion wagon.
   And we did get the bath­tub drain thawed, which could be con­sid­ered an omi­nously good sign for Christ­mas Eve.

5. Colleen said on December 24th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

   Happy and Merry to you…the house is warm and lit, the serv pro equip­ment is suck­ing the flood­wa­ters from the base­ment, and the weather is coop­er­at­ing with our travel plans for today and tomor­row. Oh. And Mex­i­can food for lunch with a friend. Yay holiday!

6. Bill said on December 24th, 2008 at 12:05 pm

   You and Alt­house and Reynolds are my daily guar­an­teed reads. Thanks for doing this every dan­ged day. Off to fix brunch, since when I shoulda been fix­ing break­fast I was enjoy­ing near-death expe­ri­ences on the ice (clear, so it looks just like inno­cent water) get­ting the mail and tak­ing out the trash.

7. Dorothy said on December 24th, 2008 at 12:13 pm

   I’m with Bill — I always stop by Nancy’s Bar & Grill to see who’s hang­ing around! Greet­ings to all of my friends here and hope you all have a lovely hol­i­day. My Christ­mas will be on the 28th this year due to daugh­ter arriv­ing late Sat­ur­day from Vir­ginia. I’ll send in a pic­ture for the bul­letin board after we open our gifts that morning.

   Con­nie I might need the recipe for those ice cream pies. They sound deca­dent! I myself am mak­ing an apple one later today. Our son invited a friend, who is an Ohio State Police dis­patcher, up for din­ner tomor­row. So it’ll be the 4 of us and the pups for a turkey din­ner. Thank heav­ens Kroger had some fresh ones — I did not have time to defrost one!

8. jcburns said on December 24th, 2008 at 12:32 pm

   Merry Christ­mas, Spriggy’s family.

   And yeah, the sense I get here in Atlanta: peo­ple are work­ing and shop­ping and pick­ing up trash and serv­ing up Star­bucks today. Kinda like any other day. Hmm.

   And me, I’m doing graph­ics that get sent out to Den­ver today…to a cable tv exec who’s in the office today too. Hmm.

9. basset said on December 24th, 2008 at 1:21 pm

   Mildly hung over and watch­ing the rain in Nashville; we only have one party a year at our house, on Dec. 23 to cel­e­brate Bas­set Jr’s birth­day, Mrs. Basset’s birth­day, and Christ­mas, which all fall in the same week.

   Big pot of cheese soup tonight, but first gotta run to UPS and ship presents to the inlaws, who are snowed in up north and couldn’t get here.

10. derwood said on December 24th, 2008 at 1:26 pm

    Hope you guys all have a Happy Christ­mas and if you are trav­el­ing please be safe!

    Daron

11. annie said on December 24th, 2008 at 1:41 pm

    De-lurking here from Pasadena, CA, where I believe you have other com­menters. I’m think­ing of get­ting a bumper sticker “honk if you read nan­cy­nall” to see who else you’ve got.

    Came here from a long-forgotton link a few years ago. Appre­ci­ate your work and enjoy the com­ments. Happy hol­i­days to all.

12. Gasman said on December 24th, 2008 at 2:09 pm

    Nancy,
    Feliz Navi­dad de Nuevo Méx­ico nevoso! Thanks for let­ting us cra­zies run amok in your dig­i­tal realm. We are look­ing for­ward to our third snow­storm in a week here in the South­ern Rock­ies. I hope that some of you out there — I know Danny is —  are keep­ing warm this sea­son. We’ll agree, or not, on many more issues in the com­ing year, but for now, I hope you and those whom you love are safe and rea­son­ably together for the hol­i­days. Bill O’Reilly be damned; Happy Holidays!

13. wade said on December 24th, 2008 at 2:14 pm

    Season’s Greet­ings from Ply­mouth, where we have the best of both worlds — sand and snow!

14. coozledad said on December 24th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

    Jane says “Can’t tell it’s no damn Christ­mas here. I ain’t had my first apple today!
    But you just go on and enjoy yours. You hear?“
    http://​rur​ri​ta​ble​.word​press​.com/​2​0​0​8​/​1​2​/​2​3​/​t​h​e​-​l​o​n​g​e​s​t​-​j​o​k​e​/​d​s​c​08931/

15. nancy said on December 24th, 2008 at 2:44 pm

    Just drop­ping in to make a rec­om­men­da­tion: Don­ald Fagen (yes, that one) writ­ing about Jean Shep­herd in Slate.

    Note the sim­i­lar­ity between the photo in the story and the cover of “The Night­fly,” one of my favorite albums of the ‘80s.

    And thanks for all the props. It’s the best Christ­mas EVAHR.

16. Julie Robinson said on December 24th, 2008 at 3:56 pm

    Just drop­ping in long enough to say we are finally back in the house after 6 days with no power. I almost kissed the floor when we came in. Feel­ing par­tic­u­larly thank­ful for friends who took us in and another who hosted a party for me. And for online friends, who I found I really missed! Bless­ings to all over the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwaanza/etc sea­son. And spe­cial bless­ings to all the util­ity work­ers who are not at home for Christ­mas so that we can be.

17. MichaelG said on December 24th, 2008 at 4:29 pm

    Merry Christ­mas to all and, please, every­body, make it home safely from whever you go.

18. Deborah said on December 24th, 2008 at 4:38 pm

    I read 4 or 5 blogs reli­giously and NN.C is one of them, every sin­gle day, some­times more than once or twice a day. The com­ments are fab­u­lous too. Happy hol­i­days to all, look­ing for­ward to more of this to come next year too.

19. John said on December 24th, 2008 at 9:11 pm

    Merry Christ­mas to all! Enjoy­ing Coozel­dad coun­try (NC) with two coughy grand­kids. Peace and Joy!!

20. Hattie said on December 24th, 2008 at 9:16 pm

    Best to you from Hawaii. Try not to be too jealous.

21. Jenflex said on December 24th, 2008 at 9:37 pm

    Merry Christ­mas from Cen­tral Ohio by way of Cen­tral Illi­nois. Blessed Be.

22. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on December 24th, 2008 at 11:04 pm

    The winds have blown all the rain away, and after the sec­ond ser­vice, i went out and saw the Pleiades straight over­head, and the last clouds were shred­ding around Orion, strid­ing up into the south­ern sky with his red Santa cap on.

    Some fam­i­lies are going to be together tomor­row, and some would rather not, but mostly they will be. In this neck of the woods, we’ve done all we can.

    On the inter­net, some of us get to make con­nec­tions we couldn’t have even imag­ined not very long ago, includ­ing see­ing a snow­man made of Maui beach sand or close-up mule pho­tos. Life is good, or at least bet­ter than the alter­na­tive, and Baby Jesus smiles if we help make it a bit bet­ter for some­one else. Nancy, you main­tain a place where con­nec­tions and mutual aid are the norm, so a big beatific beam­ing grin be yours from the Kid of Beth­le­hem, and all his extended fam­ily — and may your adopted home­town get a cou­ple War­ren Buf­fets and Patrick Fitzger­alds in its future, not nec­es­sar­ily in that order.

    Peace on earth, and good will to all who want it, and even a bit for them’s that don’t.

23. Dave K. said on December 24th, 2008 at 11:37 pm

    Merry Christ­mas to all from cold and windy But­ler Cen­ter (est. 1836, thriv­ing sub­urb of Gar­rett, IN). Just spent the evening with my wife’s extended fam­ily, and our daugh­ter and her boyfriend made the trip from Indy in time to be here on Christ­mas morn­ing. Son and daughter-in-law made the Thanks­giv­ing week­end with us and are spend­ing Christ­mas with her fam­ily in Detroit. Every­one will be back here in a cou­ple weeks, to cel­e­brate together.

    Fri­day we depart for Land­stuhl, Ger­many, weather per­mit­ting, to visit our older daugh­ter, son-in-law and GRANDSON. I am truly blessed and very grate­ful. I told a friend last week that I had every­thing I NEED and most of the things I want. Can’t ask for more than that!

    Thanks, Nancy, for all you do with nn​.com. God Bless you and all your loved ones and have a Merry Christ­mas and a Happy New Year. Thanks to Jeff tmmo for remind­ing me of one more thing that I wish and Pray for. PEACE ON EARTH!!

24. beb said on December 25th, 2008 at 12:18 am

    Best wishes to you, Nancy, and many thanks for this ever delight­ful forum.

25. Bill said on December 25th, 2008 at 1:39 am

    We were blessed tonight by being with our kids, grand­kids, extended fam­i­lies for scrump­tious appe­tiz­ers and drinks and, later, for a won­der­ful can­dle­light church ser­vice where we cel­e­brated fam­ily friends and Christ­mas. Doesn’t get much bet­ter until tomor­row when I play Santa for a bunch of in-law grand­kids and then set­tle down for a won­der­ful meal with friends and fam­ily. We’re truly blessed. All our best to all nn/com-ers. What a great bunch of peo­ple you are.

26. Mindy said on December 25th, 2008 at 7:30 am

    Cheers to our pro­pri­etress and all the barflies as well. The tra­di­tional Christ­mas Eve lasagna was a suc­cess and we’re off this morn­ing to points over the river and through the woods with the hope of get­ting back before the next round of weather. Here’s look­ing at hap­pier times in ’09.

27. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on December 25th, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    If you doubt the poten­tial and power of peace on earth, good will to all, i just heard about and have found this blog basis — http://​hol​ly​wood​far​m​girl​.blogspot​.com/ — that Melissa Etheridge and her part­ner Tammy Michaels are hav­ing Rick War­ren over to their house for din­ner, and they’re plan­ning to go to Sad­dle­back some­time soon for worship.

    Let us break bread together! As Homer Simp­son might say, there’s noth­ing that approach can’t do.

    I’m start­ing to brown the sausage for the Box­ing Day lasagna. (Poul­try and stuff­ing are manda­tory ’round here for Christ­mas Day, and then i get to honor St. Stephen with lay­ered pasta goodness.)

28. coozledad said on December 25th, 2008 at 7:48 pm

    I’m cur­rently look­ing for a way to post my band’s only CD as MP3’s. That way, every one of you that I’ve belit­tled, attacked, or just sub­jected to any one of my mul­ti­ple para­noid fan­tasies, can have a play­ground to pit my own delu­sions against me. It’s a plea­sure I would be reluc­tant to deny any­one, as it will help me grow.

29. basset said on December 25th, 2008 at 9:33 pm

    For a true and pow­er­ful dose of group deri­sion, Cooz, I’ll post one I was involved with awhile back, banjo-uke and gui­tar duet on an old-time fid­dle tune from south­ern Indi­ana… recorded on a 1905 Edi­son cylin­der machine. Plunky-plunky-plunk.

    My own per­sonal growth expe­ri­ence over this hol­i­day period had to do with a York­shire pud­ding that didn’t rise. I am crushed.

30. Dexter said on December 26th, 2008 at 1:15 am

    Colum­bus was like another world…today, no ice, no snow at all on the ground, and a bit warmer. We drove the shiny new rental van (Town & Coun­try) home (got home an hour ago) and ice every­where, could barely get into the house, and took me a half hour to unload the van, nav­i­gat­ing solid ice on foot…then my brother’s Mazda Miata was frozen in ice in my dri­ve­way and it took another half hour of push­ing and dig­ging it out…finally I said “get out, grab by the door lock– works and we’ll both push the dri­ver­less thing up outta this rut.“
    It worked and he loaded up his gifts and his baby pug dog and headed off to his home way north of O’Hare Inter­na­tional . What a cou­ple of days…steady rain , wipers on all the way to Colum­bus.
    We’re only half done…off to Toledo when my wife clears her sched­ule up, soon.
    You should see the GIANT gift bas­ket my daugh­ter got me from Trader Joe’s …I’m good for a year!

31. MarkH said on December 26th, 2008 at 2:47 am

    Bless­ings to one and all from Jack­son Hole as this fine Christ­mas day comes to a close. A won­der­ful and very crowded ser­vice at our church last night, and today we had our daugh­ter, her fam­ily, two sons, and in-laws for a fine din­ner and gifts. Bless­ing for us indeed, and thank you Jeff (and oth­ers) for all the reminders you share of such things.

    What else we got, is much of what Gas got only much worse here in the North­ern Rock­ies: finally get­ting our much delayed snow start­ing 10 days ago. The cur­rrent storm which has been non-stop since Tues­day, bring­ing two feet in the val­ley by Fri­day AM, much more in the moun­tains, where it was accu­mu­lat­ing as much as an inch every 15 min­utes ear­lier today. Sup­posed to remain throguh out the whole region which may pre­vent us from our New Year’s trip to the sis­ters’ in Den­ver. Here’s how the town looks, live:

    http://​www​.jack​son​holenet​.com/​w​e​b​c​a​m​s​/​t​o​w​n​_​o​f​_​j​a​c​k​s​o​n​_​h​o​le.php

    Have a great week­end everyone!

32. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on December 26th, 2008 at 9:07 am

    Good news comes even in a hard time and out of sad events — Molly always has an amaz­ing assort­ment of gloves, mit­tens, and hats for all sizes as peo­ple leave if they want ‘em, and a bit­ter­sweet part of clean­ing up from the day is the pile of holey gloves and tat­tered stock­ing caps left behind next to that table near the door.

    MarkH, thanks for the link — i’d not seen that web­cam before, and it’s gor­geous this morn­ing … now on my blog linkbar!