The Skullies are all dressed up and ready to stay in for NYE, like any smart persons.  May it be the beginning of a saner, more civil year in our country and world.  Join me in resolving to VOTE out the old.

We personally will have cause to breathe a sigh of relief in the new year, once we find a home and start over.  I wish my son and family some relief, direction, and smooth sailing in their challenging  transition, as well.

With record snows and unseasonably low temps across the country, one might almost think climate change is happening!  We’ll have the loser-in-chief to thank for the next ice age (and hell freezing over).

Meanwhile, we’re busily making trip lists, and checking them off.  And avoiding going Beyond the Wall, into the Land of Always Winter, where the White Walkers came from during the Long Night, if you catch my GoT snowdrift.  We ourselves will be cleverly heading south into balmy almost 30 degree temps.

Hell freezing over is not such a long shot, with so much of the country in such a record-breaking deep freeze.  Driving south into 30 degree temps will seem sauna-like.

Erev cheers from the Skullies, who are gearing up for new year’s.

We have multiple countdowns this year—our first official house foray begins right after the new year.  We are optimistic about finding one soon.  We’ve had to keep modifying some of our hopes and expectations to be more realistic, but hopefully our little roof and garden are out there awaiting us.

Meanwhile, Challahs by E–these are even nicer than ever, as she’s been experimenting and picking up more sophisticated bread techniques.  These feature cranberries, raisins, sesame and poppy seeds.

Yes, you read that right, it’s not a typo.  It’s that fun time of year in the midwest when it’s just friggin’ frigid out, and the inside of our thin windowpanes become permanent ice sculptures.  We just stay inside as much as possible, like normal hedgehogs.  I think we’re going to like the south.

English, gotta love it.

So, here’s what post-IT looks like around here–a very nice subtly-spiced Belgian-style White Rascal ale by Avery Colorado, and an everything leftover stir-fry by YT.  If I tell you what else went into it, a Ninja will kill you.  (Hint: not approved by any Rabbis ever.  But good.)

It’s annual sigh-of-relief day–IT is over for another year!  Surveying the damage out there from the comfort of our peaceful, simple existence, I think we have the best deal of everyone.  We avoided all the frenzy, fires, emergencies, shootings, confrontation, hangovers, debilitating debt, and piles of garbage.  There are some compensations for being family-less and poor!  And our leftovers will make an awesome Asian stir-fry.

Now to gear up for a new year of finding a new home.  I’d say strangers in a strange land, but it’s taken.  I suppose it’s some kind of weird poetic justice or karma that just as I’m finally coming full circle to the place my son was born, he and my family will be on their way out of there.  Hard to keep up sometimes.

Anyway, here’s one view I won’t miss– the Dark Tower of Doom and the Black Lagoon of Sludge (deceptively white with snow).  It pretty much sums up the bleakness of this state.

I refer of course to the snow which indeed fell, after all.  I’m happy for all the people who were counting on it.  I’m even happier that we don’t have to go anywhere in the cold, crazy white world.  😉  Na zdorovie!

Chinese: check.  Chinese fish tank, Chinese beer, and pseudo-Chinese food, our tradition is complete.

This is our nod to a holiday with associations ranging on a scale from annoyance to sad melancholy.  For E it represents grieving the loss of a child, complete abandonment by family, and lonely isolation.  For me, it conjures up mere anti-semitism and frenzied materialism, not much more.  I’m trying to keep up spirits with festivish things.

We’re headed for the traditional Chinese restaurant later; not many are open on xmas around these parts, being devoid of a Jewish population.  Tomorrow we’re just making hors d’oeuvre-like things to snack on with drinks.  E has a couple of gifts from YT to open.  There is Renn-music in the background.  Somehow that Crusades and Inquisition flavor just seems to enhance the season.  😉

Me, cynical?  Nah… nothing a little Tsingtao can’t dispel.