Very merry indeed

The Christmas was awesome.

Good family time, everyone got along, great gifts to give and receive, low stress, good food, good drinks, good music.

Saturday Ben and I had our now traditional pre-Christmas Christmas morning. Made a yummy breakfast and opened presents together. I love giving presents and I had some good ones this year. I gave him a kitchen scale, a heavy cast iron grill press, a couple of shirts that he looks all hot in, and a springy (springy? What a crazy word. Rhymes with dinghy, not stingy) masher. Also, when he woke up that morning and put on his bathrobe (last year's present) he got to discover that the sleeves had been hemmed the night before and no longer dangled down to his knuckles. He gave me sweet stuff; new shoes, a hot roller derby t-shirt, earrings made of bike chain links, silicone trivet things, and a beautiful baking-only version of the (bible) Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen cookbook. Rad!

The day before pre-Christmas Christmas I gave the best present I have ever given. My friend Emily's in the middle of some rough stuff and she had said to me that she felt like she needed a new hobby or something to do for herself. I thought about what I do when I need some positive me-time, and one of the best things I love to do is go for a bike ride. Emily is awesome and has had two much-loved bikes stolen. I have only one body and do not need two bikes. I took my old bike, cleaned it up, lubed the chain, got it as pretty as I could. It's still just dingy (rhymes with stingy) enough to be not as stealable, but it's got some newer parts and is still a solid ride. Complete with bike computer, water bottle and rack on the back. And two locks. I tied a bow on it and took it to her house. She didn't get it at first, because she thought I had just biked over. Then she said, "No! No! No!" which eventually melted into a teary, "It's perfect!" Along with getting a bike for Christmas, which is a big deal in Christmas present lore, Emily was overwhelmed by the amount of freedom and independence that comes with a bike.
It was even better than I had hoped. It was the greatest.

P.S. Emily is so great! You should probably buy her CD.

It was nice to be home on the 23rd. Mom and Dad made a delicious dinner of pork loin on the grill and salads and good stuff, and then my family and I hung around and played Guesstures and laughed and laughed. Sang in the church choir on Christmas Eve morning and night. Had (incredible!) Christmas Eve dinner with the Chandlers. Christmas morning had fun family time. Gave: Sweatshirt, mittens, necklace (Mom); book, awesome extra guitar case sent to me in midst of case-return fiasco (Dad); ukulele and "ukedelic" groovy 60's uke book (Jesse); belt, button and "teen survival cookbook" (Julia). Got: new Decemberists CD, awesome cookie sheet and spring-loaded cookie dough scoop, nifty t-shirt(s), rockin red watch, and a crisp $50 bill later used to purchase three (3!!) pairs of hot new pants on sale at the Gap. Ben and I gave each other's parents a bottle of booze and a set of photobooth pictures of the two of us. He received a bike fender and I a silpat baking mat. Yes.

That afternoon I went first to Chandler family Christmas and then drove over to Simon family Christmas. One of the best I think. Gave uncle Johnny sweet guitar accessories purchased with staff discount (excellent job perk, even in lieu of insurance and sick days). Got cake pan, muffin pan, sifter, homemade earrings and necklace and CHRISTMAS MIRACLE t-shirt from (cousin Carolyn and her husband) Dan. Let me explain this t-shirt. Found in a Madison thrift store. Dated 1973. Perfect condition-- barely (if ever) worn. It is an extremely detailed drawing of the Old Twn Schl of Flk Msic. Where I work and teach. From before some remodeling, back when it looked like this instead of this. But it's an amazing reproduction. I guess it was the cover of the songbook at one point. I was blown away.

Then I played Guitar Hero with my cousins in the basement for a few hours. Holy. Crap. My mom asked, "Does it feel like you're really playing the guitar?" The answer is: not quite. But it feels like you're doing something AWESOME.

Christmas night Ben, Jesse and I went to Walter's, the bar in Tosa where we run into folks from high school every break. This year was no exception, and I ran into a couple guys I loved in high school who now both live in Chicago. I've seen them around the city once each, and we pledged to hang out more. Also saw good old friends: Jamie, Emily, Sara, Joey, Justin, JT, Chris, Pete. Aaron was working bar and gave us cheap Leinenkugels. It was really nice.

The next day we had Weinberg family Christmas. More fun family stuff and food and drink and GUITAR HERO AGAIN RUSSELL GOT IT FROM SANTA TOO!! AWESOME!

Russell drove me back to Chicago, back to work. Have been performing at Zoo Lights the past four nights, and again tonight and tomorrow, singing swingy holiday songs with a guitar teacher from the school, a stellar gypsy jazz violinist and a couple of rotating bass players. We're dressed up in red and green, playing in front of this cozy fireplace scene in the primate house. It's very cool. We're making great tips, people love us, the kids are fun, we're having a ball playing together. I've had a bunch of people come to see me: Tony and his sister, Shawn, Russell and Anna, Emily and her cousin, Lauryn, Ben, Jason and Julie, and then last night my parents, aunt, uncle and cousin drove down from Milwaukee to see us. I was so glad they came. They got to see our house, and we had pizza at Santullos with a couple pitchers of beer, and headed over to the zoo. They were impressed and everyone had a ton of fun. There's a lot of potential for further gigs with this little band we've assembled. We fit together really well. I love it.

I went to see Shawn hosting live band karaoke at the Pontiac the other night, since he came to see my show. Pretty awesome to get to see each other perform in Chicago after we happened to run into each other at a bar in Tosa on Christmas. It was really fun, even though I went alone. I was still in a good mood after playing Zoo Lights, and I felt awesome in my new Christmas clothes. I had a great burger and sang Son of a Preacher Man to start off the night's karaoke, introduced myself as Susan to a drunk guy who called me sweetheart and told me I was really fucking hot, and then left to meet up with Ben, Mike and Neal at Skylark. Went to Rainbo too. We had a good night and I feel like I finally am connecting with those guys in a good way. It's great.

And now it's New Years Eve already. Seems like it's always built up and then a bit of a disappointment, but hopefully we'll find some fun.

How do I always end up writing these long posts? I think my resolution will be to blog more often and more succinctly.

See you next year!