Thursday, December 27, 2012

Pestilence and famine came for Christmas.

Or, just the flu.

My poor sister-in-law Mrs. Poochie got hit first. She spent all of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in bed, missing out on the festivities at my parents' house. Then, by the time we drove home Christmas night, My Guy was similarly down for the count.

Knock on wood, I have been spared - so far. But our plans to visit My Guy's family are kaput. And there's the little business of my husband feeling near death.

So, let's focus on the positive.

This Christmas, the family discovered something wonderful: My brother has a horrible fear of whales. Good thing he lives in the Midwest, as he is terrified of being swallowed by a whale.

So, it was only natural that when we decorated sugar cookies, a few of the mitten-shaped cookies were transformed into whales. Vicious, blood-thirsty whales with disemboweled frosting carcasses in their mouths. Happy birthday, Jesus!

This holiday also saw what I can only hope will be the first of many Lego-offs. My mom got the bins of Legos from the basement, and assigned a bin to each adult kid. We then had 45 minutes to craft an amazing, Christmas-themed Lego creation.

It. Was. Awesome. I had the bin of pirate-ship Legos, and for about 20 minutes actually thought I could create some sort of "I saw 3 ships come sailing in" kind of thing. But then I realized that a) the only line of the song I remember is "And what was in those ships a'three?" - and the answer is I have no clue; and b) those Lego ships are super complex, and there was no way I was going to be able to cobble together 3 of them in under an hour. So, I created an island lair - manned by monkeys - where Krampus takes bad boys and girls.

Mrs. Poochie made an amazing Santa sled, complete with a Santa shark. My Guy crafted an incredibly detailed living room vignette, complete with a tree and awesome gifts - including a G.I. Joe aircraft carrier. Not that he's still bitter he never received one as a child. Ahem.

And my brother? Well, Poochie made a Lego nativity. A nativity with a Lego dragon playing the role of the angel.

There were prizes. Obviously.

We had great fun. We were privileged to celebrate mostly together. And the flu doesn't last forever. 

8 comments:

smalltownme said...

With the whales and the lego-off, it sounds like a truly wonderful holiday.

Laura said...

I LOVE the idea of the lego-off!

I am totally jealous that one, I have no legos, and two, my siblings aren't that much fun. I am also pretty sure that the structure of the previous sentence is terribly incorrect. Hopefully your editor eyeballs aren't twitching.

8 said...

Youre family sounds like a lot of fun...... glad you enjoyed your holiday and hope MyGuy feels better soon.

Anonymous said...

I love the Lego-off. I still have the bins in my garage. Thank you!

Linda Anderson said...

At first I was wishing there'd been pictures - but then I realized THAT was the genius part of this post - my imagination is just swimming with terrifying whales, and lego dragon nativity scenes! Love love love it!

Rainbow Motel said...

This makes me want to bake about three dozen clown cookies. My youngest sister fears clowns in the worst kind of way. And it makes me laugh.

Janet said...

I love the lego thing. Maybe it will become a Christmas tradition. Along with whale cookies, of course.

Claudia from Idiot's Kitchen said...

The lego off is a great idea. Sadly I never had legos as a kid so it won't be part of our festivities any time soon. Sorry your family has the plague. Stay well.