i can't wait for the cookies to start coming

i love christmas. i used to be kind of a bah humbug and i only liked the holidays because there was no school and i could go home and eat things that i didn't pay for and watch tivoed episodes of all my favorite shows, which my mother is gracious enough not to delete for me, as well as a million episodes of law & order all and then stay out with my friends until four in the morning. that is all pretty fun and i plan on doing it this time around, but i used to get pretty down on the whole caroling, red-and-green holiday spirit stuff. then, last year, the parents of a girl i was babysitting were going to be home very late, so i let her stay up and watch elf with me. the next day, i went out and spent $300 on christmas presents. while i still maintain that red and green look terrible together (although i find myself wearing them together by accident pretty regularly), and i have a much smaller budget for presents than i did last year, the holiday spirit has not yet worn off and i think christmas is awesome. honestly, i really don't care if i get anything. honestly, i know i really won't be getting anything because i already used up all my birthday and christmas presents on getting my car fixed and applying to sixteen graduate schools. but i'm still excited, partially for the little things that my relatives will send me (now that i am working in the real world the presents i took for granted in high school are awesome treasures, and things that i would never have worn before are suddenly wardrobe staples) and partially because it's a time when everyone can feel good about everyone else in their lives. while other christmas shoppers are kind of a pain, even on the weekdays ( i am constantly surprised by how many people are at target instead of at work. what do these people do that so many of them are around and in my way on a monday?), spending money on other people is pretty satisfying, especially when it's something that you know will make them happy or at least something that they will appreciate if you include some way-back memory in the card.

another reason i love christmas this year is that i found a bunch of christmas songs that some great artists have done. obviously, you've got the bing crosby and perry como standards, but the beach boys and ringo starr also both have christmas albums. there is a country christmas album, featuring johnny cash's rendition of the little drummer boy, as well as a motown christmas album and a collaboration album between john denver and the muppets. elvis, roy orbison and louis armstrong all have original christmas songs, and the sonics wrote and recorded three (although one is just a bunch of talking over music and bells). there are a few by dion, some by the platters and the ronettes, and even chubby checker has a version of "jingle bell rock." then think of the movies! again, you've got the muppets, who are the supporting cast to michael caine's scrooge. michael caine made a feature-length movie with the muppets! and that movie is about christmas! patrick stewart played the same role in a slightly darker adaptation, and then there is the untouchable jimmy stewart in perhaps the most recognizable christmas classic of them all. of course, we don't watch these movies in our house. i can only get partway through it's a wonderful life before i want to throw myself off a bridge, and god forbid i make it through to the undigestably sugary end. that movie is just too much of a rollercoaster for me. and my mother thinks tiny tim is "smarmy." our holiday tradition is to finish wrapping presents and watch chris isaak's christmas special, with special guest stevie nicks. let me just put this out there: i love chris isaak. i think he's the modern day roy orbison. sometimes when i'm home i will make up excuses to drive up and down the great highway on a sunny day, hoping to see him jaywalking with his surfboard. well, he has a christmas album, and a christmas special to go along with it that airs on pbs every christmas eve. he changes his outfit three times, and every time he comes out with a new elvis suit on, all with holiday decorations in sequins on the lapels. it is amazing, and it makes you wonder how many he has in his closet. is there one for easter? one for first dates, or his mom's birthday? obviously, copious celebrities are way into christmas, so who am i to abstain?


yessss his name is on his guitar - is that in case he doesn't know which one is his? yesssss