It's been a good year.

Then came Christmas day. We got up pretty late. After putting it to a vote, we decided to have a delicious breakfast of eggs and mushrooms before opening presents. Christmas morning was very sad since we were only running at 66% capacity. There wasn't anyone to put underwear on their head. Very sad. The pain was dulled by all the presents. I got a bunch of blue, gray, and black shirts, a bunch of candy, some paint and some paintbrushes, an iPod playing clock radio, a small tin of "after the rapture mints", 30 Things Everyone Should Know How To Do Before Turning 30, and my very own aluminum screens (which didn't arrive until yesterday). Wait, is that all I got? I must've been bad this year.

After some drama revolving around my grandmother's very large present (we got her a teevee...someone else got her a teevee...), we went back down to the South Side and ate leftovers. Well, I guess the ham is actually new at that point, but who gets excited about ham? Cabbage rolls! Yum. I was really rusty, and I couldn't hardly remember any songs, but I jammed with my uncle Curt for a bit. It was actually pretty cool. Grandma was really into it which is always good. I could only remember I Fall To Pieces, Lyin' Eyes, and part of When U Were Mine, but we made it work.

Finally we went up Mt. Washington and put the stake through Christmas' heart. Except that it's not dead! I guess we're having New Year's Christmas with my brother and Orthodox Christmas with my sister. Woo!

Merry Christmas!

Another Christmas has come and gone. Except it's not really over since my bother and sister haven't come into town yet (and I think I have another large Christmas present coming). Christmas Eve at Grandma's was pretty tight. The feel of it has totally changed but it's still great fun. All the anticipation has gone out of it. All the food was out when we got there and people just started eating. There wasn't even a line.

Then they had a grab bag "game" for the kids, and, before you knew it (and without any announcement or people trying to delay it), the presents were passed out and opened. I don't really have anything to do with that part since I only got one wrapped present (thanks Grandma!) and I didn't get it until the next day because it got put in with the out of town gifts. What's up with that?

The adult grab bag has gone from being a bizarre novelty to being the focal point of the night, which is sad because it can be pretty lame. It had a couple good moments, I guess. The two t-shirts I put in got stolen twice. My aunt's husband opened them (and was not at all into it), but then they were stolen by my aunt Donna (who got my shirt last year), and finally ended up with my aunt Anne. I'm curious as to which of her ten kids will end up wearing them.

I think my favorite thing I learned this Christmas Eve was that my cousin, Anna, who ended up with my shirt from last year (since it was way too small for Donna) wore it when she gave a presentation in her health class at school about date rape drugs. Awesome.

But back to the grab bag. I decided (since I knew that there wouldn't be anything I really wanted) to go for the weird gift, and, luckily, it was opened before my turn. I stole that delightful glass head from my cousin Emery. She wasn't into it for some reason. After that, I ate some apple pie and poppyseed cake, and headed home to wait for Christmas morning.

Oh, shit. I just realized that I only told my parents what to get me for my "big gift". I didn't give them any smaller things I'd like. No books or movies or such. This could be bad. Good thing we're having, according to my mother, a "meager" Christmas.

Well, I ran out of hooks so I guess I'm done decorating the tree. I've got tons of decorations left. I didn't even get to the awesome fruit. Damn. Maybe I can find some wire. Never fear, the octopus and the unicorn are on the tree. As per tradition, I watched Muppet Family Christmas and Christmas Eve On Sesame Street. I usually watch It's A Wonderful Life as well, but I saw most of it when it was on teevee, so I watched Scrooged instead. Also, all the shows on teevee trying to figure out what happened on the "first Christmas" get on my nerves. None of it's "real". Just enjoy it. Personally, I try and forgive Christmas for its religious aspects. I think that's what baby Jesus would want me to do.
Merry Christmas!

I'm going through the hole in the attic closet to get the Christmas decorations. Pray for me!

Observations from the "morning" after:
My feet still hurt. Printing alone at 3:00 am really makes you wish you had some sort of robot companion. 5:00 am is one of my favorite times of day. Too bad I'm never awake at that time. I wish I'd remembered to take the camera. Printing three and four colors takes a hell of a lot longer than two colors. Prince's 3121 is good printmaking music. When you go to your car at 5:00 am there will be one other car in the parking lot, a very shady looking sedan, and it will be parked next to your car, on the driver's side. There will be about a foot of clearance between the two cars. One good design can make it all worthwhile.

5:00 am -- Shutting off lights, locking up, and going home.
4:59 am -- Shirts heat set, folded, and put in box.
4:18 am -- All shirts printed. Gotta heat set 'em now. Feet hurt.
3:13 am -- Final design still going strong. Six shirts to go.
2:29 am -- Last design works. Praised be.
2:16 am -- One design completely done. Only one of those four shirts turned out well. Another design also going poorly. Spirits very low.
1:10 am -- Three shirts done. Twenty to go.
12:15 am -- Screen looks good. Christmas saved.
12:10 am -- Burning another screen (hopefully, the last one).
11:40 pm -- Coated two more screens. Darkening lines on one image. Spirits not as high.
10:32 pm -- Found sweet green ink for one of the layers. Spirits high.
10:05 pm -- Back to work. Hairdryer on shirts as needed. Opened 1 liter Lipton Brisk iced tea.
9:56 pm -- First layer done on all shirts. Breaking for dinner.
8:28 pm -- Shirts laid out, colors chosen, screens shot and taped, starting on first layers.

200 more lights on the porch!
100 more lights on the tree!
Running at full capacity!
Or are we!
Where can I put more lights!
Go, go, go!

Christmas lights are up on the porch. It started snowing half way through. For the record, it takes 400 lights to go across two times. Last year we went across three times. I need more lights. Would four times across the front be too much?

I heat set my first batch of shirts and I'm itching to get them on the block. I wish I had them up in time for Christmas but I'm shooting for a January launch. There's still so many steps! And first I have to wash one to make sure it won't fade. They shouldn't but I want to be absolutely sure. Or, I guess, I could go into the novelty, disappearing shirt business. Also, people wear bright orange shirts, right?

I've been using the old Wacom tablet the last few days. I have my brother's old flat screen monitor set up and even though it took some sort of blunt force trauma so a bunch of bottom pixels are messed up, it's still bigger and brighter than my laptop. It's spoiling me. It's very nice for digital painting. I've been trying to paint with just two colors and I'm hoping I can make some prints out of them, but I'm not sure how that's going to turn out.

I'd forgotten how differently I look at everything when I'm painting. I was watching teevee tonight and everything was planes and shadows. Well, except Orlando Bloom and Eva Green. They're just pure beauty.

Kingdom of Heaven is an uneven movie, but Eva Green is so beautiful she makes my hands go numb.

I may have to go see the Golden Compass just to see her.

I've been listening to Prince's 3121 a lot. Also, Gordon Lightfoot.

I went over 10,000 songs in iTunes. I was jazzed about that.

I have a "smart playlist" in iTunes that all songs stay in until they've been played twice and rated, but lately I've been obsessing over those songs that get played twice and then just sit there. I feel that after listening to a song twice I have a good sense of what to rate it, but what if I was way off? There's got to be some gems in all those three star songs that have only been played twice.

80% of the Christmas tree is covered with lights.

I was at AIR until 1:30 am last night printing t-shirts. Now I have inventory. Soon there will be an Etsy store. I don't know what happens after that. You can over plan these things.

Dearest Constance,
The days go by slowly here on the frontier. Went to the post office to mail a parcel and buy stamps. The woman in front of my couldn't believe that the stamps cost the same amount no matter how many you buy. Bless her soul. Snow is falling. The cold seeps in. I miss your kind embrace.

All my love,

Etc, etc.

The eagle has landed.