Nadolig Llawen!

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</td> Tried this once, the PC froze up... let's try again. Happy Christmas to all, even if you celebrate other things! It wasn't as warm as Down Under here, and it was actually a little cooler than I expected, but it certainly didn't feel like any kind of 'winter' holiday. *wry grin* I spent a large chunk of the day with a sick headache (retribution for Trilogy Tuesday, karmic balance) under partial control and Mrs. Cummings -- who explained me to the strangers over for Christmas dinner by saying she was my 'second mother'. *BEAM!* Yes, the sane and rational one. I got there early enough to help make gravy, and was the only one who stayed after [snooty look of superiority] to help clean up ALL that food that Mrs. Cummings cooked by herself [even snootier look] -- I stripped the turkey carcass for her. Yes, she shall be making soup. She gave me a big jar of that tasty SNAX mix that includes those little rice crackers and [drool] sesame STIX. I'll be getting her a Twelfth Night present, in part because I need to wait for my next paycheque before I can afford it.... Same for her blood-grandchildren, my quasi-niece-phew (they're twins) -- they'll be getting Amazon GCs and a contribution to their college fund. Aside from being more classically traditional in their timing, Twelfth Night presents are just plain more convenient (don't you think? Jan. 6 instead of dealing with Christmas rushes?) I opened my biggest haul when I came home from work on the Eve -- GOODIES from Gwynne and Sunny! Sunny made the prettiest hand-stitched bookmark, all daffodilly, with a very pretty, cleverly-rendered daff button on the ribbon-dangle. Makes me wish I had a shirt to stitch some onto. Gwynne made the major contributions to ensuring I have a complete set of plush Marauder dolls [silly expression]. Build-A-Bear Workshop is just not healthy for one's wallet to be around. She included other goodies, like snackage and a guardian Padfoot for my PC, but the biggest surprise was... My very own Daylee Wand! It was commissioned to look like medeni_ci_jones's wand -- there's a nice scan-image of it here if you're curious. Since sunny_daylee carved it, it's almost like it's from both of them. Thinking of scans, I wish I had some way of showing you D'Argo wearing his Chanukah-coloured belled collar. He's my Jingle Dog! (I couldn't find the antlers this year, so he's escaped being a ReinDog.) And before I forget again -- Axe, I got your card! Woo!! Did you have those custom-made, or did you find them? She sent me a pair of clothing-labels reading: 'Property of Sirius Black, Gryffindor'. Hee! I'm tempted to stitch one onto my Gryffindor scarf Gwynne had given me on my birthday trip.