After watching football late on Christmas Eve, I spent Christmas Day sleeping in late, talking to Gwen (who is currently having the best holiday season EVER in Hit, Iraq, I might add), and finally going up to my friend Libby's house where she and a couple of house guests from out of town kindly cooked dinner for myself and several other local currently-away-from-family refugees. It was a fine meal, accompanied by good wine, and the night ended up in several giggly games of Taboo in which the team I was on absolutely destroyed the other poor team to the point of head-shaking high comedy. I'm guessing those were some of the most lop-sided games in Taboo history. (We're talking scores of like 35 to 6 here.)
Oh Christmas Tree
And, as always, my yule tide season has been anchored by the assembly and decoration of my kick-ass Star Wars Christmas Tree, which has been in existence and put up for five straight seasons now. (Although technically I've only put it up for FOUR seasons, because I never took it down after the first season, leaving it up for over a year (nearly 18 months in all actually) for various reasons. Mostly I just never got around to taking it down. But it's continuous presence did make for some interesting conversation throughout that year. For example, have you ever toasted your Christmas tree while staring at it on the fourth of July? I have.) My mom continues to be my Christmas accessory drug dealer of sorts, and has dutifully supplied me with not only the initial purchase of the tree itself, but also all the ornaments and all the yearly updates as well, ensuring that my tree stays continually fresh, hip, and edgy.
Now the sad part of this tale is that Gwen also loves this tree, and has been an instrumental part of its set-up and overall production/enjoyment the past few years, and so with her still gone it was with a bit of a heavy heart and a multitude of sighs (not to mention about a bottle of wine) that I undertook - all by myself this year - the chore of unpacking, constructing, lighting, and decorating this amazing tree for the 2006 Christmas season. And though the process of putting it up was somewhat sad, I remain pleased with the result. Now the tree stands stolidly in the corner of the family room, symbolizing this year the bitter-sweet dichotomy of my being back and Gwen's continued absence.
Happy Holidays.
Best Tree Ever
AT-AT with circling snow speeder - one of this year's new pieces
TIE Fighter - A Classic
Push that button on the side and you can hear the big news that Darth has for Luke!
"Is the dark side stronger?"
