A few more inches of snow last night, followed by what seems to be rain. (Checking…yes, it’s 34 degrees. Rain.) More snow behind it, but tomorrow promises to be mostly sunny hereabouts, so the usual platitudes about gratitude for small favors apply. Anyway, let’s all join hands and thank the deity of our choice that we’re not with Danny in Hawaii, where he’s stalking the Obamas and sending back photos of seasonal icons rendered in baby-shit brown.
Shudder. I mean, some things are sacred. Or should be.
What I will do is flake off for the day (because absolutely no one is reading this today) wishing you all a happy and safe holiday weekend. I may be in and out here — I have some video to edit if I get a chance today — or may not. If not, safe travels, great memories and happy celebrations to all. You folks are the absolute best, and deserve it all.
Carolyn said on December 24, 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.
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Connie said on December 24, 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.
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Rory on LawnGuyland said on December 24, 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!)
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whitebeard said on December 24, 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.
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Colleen said on December 24, 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!
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Bill said on December 24, 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.
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Dorothy said on December 24, 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!
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jcburns said on December 24, 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.
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basset said on December 24, 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.
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derwood said on December 24, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Hope you guys all have a Happy Christmas and if you are traveling please be safe!
Daron
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annie said on December 24, 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.
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Gasman said on December 24, 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!
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wade said on December 24, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Season’s Greetings from Plymouth, where we have the best of both worlds – sand and snow!
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coozledad said on December 24, 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://rurritable.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/the-longest-joke/dsc08931/
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nancy said on December 24, 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.
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Julie Robinson said on December 24, 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.
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MichaelG said on December 24, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Merry Christmas to all and, please, everybody, make it home safely from whever you go.
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Deborah said on December 24, 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.
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John said on December 24, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Merry Christmas to all! Enjoying Coozeldad country (NC) with two coughy grandkids. Peace and Joy!!
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Hattie said on December 24, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Best to you from Hawaii. Try not to be too jealous.
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Jenflex said on December 24, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Merry Christmas from Central Ohio by way of Central Illinois. Blessed Be.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on December 24, 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.
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Dave K. said on December 24, 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!!
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beb said on December 25, 2008 at 12:18 am
Best wishes to you, Nancy, and many thanks for this ever delightful forum.
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Bill said on December 25, 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.
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Mindy said on December 25, 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.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on December 25, 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://hollywoodfarmgirl.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.)
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coozledad said on December 25, 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.
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basset said on December 25, 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.
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Dexter said on December 26, 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!
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MarkH said on December 26, 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.jacksonholenet.com/webcams/town_of_jackson_hole.php
Have a great weekend everyone!
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on December 26, 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!
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