My Favorite Week of the Year

I'm gonna go out on a Christmas tree limb here and say, 'TIS OFFICIALLY THE SEASON..... except for that part about dropping the ragtop of my mom's convertible while shopping because it was 75 degrees on December 21st (p.s. anyone that complains about weather like that is certifiably insane and obviously mad at the world. Why would ANYONE complain about that???)

Anyhoooo - the tree is dressed in red and gold, like a royal tree of Lucas, TX. Dad's sitting on the couch across the room watching KERA channel 13 on mute, listening to his favorite blues CD on the stereo. I can't get a good grasp of what this FASCINATING special is about. There are chimpanzees, intermittent violinists and an overweight woman showing pictures of her childhood journal maybe? But what cracks me up most is that while we sit here in the same room, watching the same show on mute, I know he must be as confused as I am... but yet there he sits, so peacefully enjoying his show... there he sits, in the very utter simplicity that confuses the hell out of me. I'll tell you all about The Possum later.

And then there's grandma over there in her little house out back. She's the sweetest little putterer south of the Red River. She spent the last 72 hours baking chocolates, snicker doodles, datenut pinwheels, pralines and more. And I've spent the last 72 hours pretending I'm going to the bathroom, but really sneaking over there and eating 1-3 servings of the latest batch.

Brooke, Max and Mom are on their way home from OKC now. They're bringing me 3 of my favorite things for the holidays:
My culinary math book
My 2nd niece or nephew in utero
and
My First Love

See that bib??? I didn't even buy it for him. He just does sweet things like that for me.

So as soon as Alyssa is released by the Work Police and Grandma Joy finds her way to the house, the Anderson village will be complete for my Favorite Week of the Year! We need to hang our stockings and ask Santa what he wants to snack on this year... it was Shiner Bock in '09... and then Alyssa and I will prepare to annoy the hell out of the entire family for the umpteenth time. We like to wake up at about 6am to open presents. It works because it's tradition, and tradition is pretty much THE Anderson family foundation. That and story telling. And sarcasm. Or stuffed bellpeppers.