(no subject)

[cleolinda]

I love how I'm stuck on my paper but I can come up with half the lyrics to "Novellas of the Night." Ain't that always the way.

So we just finished decorating the tree. I don't know if you guys do this, but we get very territorial over whose ornaments are whose. My mom has these tarnished old glass balls from her great-grandmother that she has to hang, and until a few years ago had a tiny white bell on her ribbon that was also passed down through the family (it was lost somehow; there's a second white bell that came to me, and I still hang that). She also has these cloth-and-porcelain dolls that are bitch-ass heavy but always have to be hung in the depths of the tree anyway. And then there are my ornaments: the little albino doll in the swing, the frosted glass unicorn, the iridescent glass bells hanging Russian-doll style within each other, the weird little wooden ornaments of, like, bears and mice in sleighs or deck chairs or whatever that my preschool teachers gave me. Sister Girl has blown-glass Wizard of Oz ornaments and a Statue of Liberty from the time she marched in the Macy's parade and Baby's First Christmas-type things. This doesn't even include the mountains of generic glass balls and angels and Santas (Icicle Santa! Wreath Santa! Disembodied Head Santa! Mountain-Climbing Santa!) and things. And God forbid one of us should start hanging before the others do.

Well, except this year we started without Sister Girl, because she was still trying to pull herself out of a pool of her own mucus. In fact, she was so sick she let us hang her ornaments while she... baked Christmas cookies (YAY). She's back asleep in bed now, so I'm going to see what kind of dinner I can go rustle up...



Okay. I had the pictures. They had to be done.

Comments

[ineedvm.livejournal.com]

*g* she was still trying to pull herself out of a pool of her own mucus

The image that just came to mind was frightening.

*g*

[kimera.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you guys do this, but we get very territorial over whose ornaments are whose.

Us too. In fact, each one of us has our own set of boxes in which we store the ornaments during the rest of the year... cause we can't have them mingling with each other! noooo! We also each get to buy one new ornament every year, too... which means that the tree gets more and more crowded as time goes on. Last year there wasn't even enough room for some stuff.

[fiveforsilver]

She was too sick to hang ornaments, but not to bake cookies?

I wouldn't eat those cookies....


(Ok, I probably would. But I'd make nasty jokes about how I was sure I'd be getting sick soon.)

[cheshirecat339.livejournal.com]

Those icons...have totally made my day.

*Steals them all and fawns over them in a corner*

Man, between that last post and your brilliant "Lost" recaps, you've fast become my favorite blogger ever. Brava!

[mochajoy13.livejournal.com]

Cleo, I'm so snatching those. The Novellas will HAUNT ME, DAMMIT. How does he expect one to work under such circumstances?

[the-wanlorn.livejournal.com]

You let a sick person bake?? Treats that you're going to eat?? Ew...

My family is blood-drawing territorial over "our" ornaments. Gods help us if we touch Da's wicker bells, or Mum's angels, or my sister's wooden... thingies. :-D

[xanimagusblackx.livejournal.com]

oh man. i'm giggling to myself over here. the other girls on my floor have come in to see what's so funny. novellas of the niiiiight!

we used to have two trees at our house: a real one in the basement that was the "family" tree and we decorated that with copious amounts of tinsel, garland, cross stitch ornaments that my mom has made over the years and about a million of those bulbs that have the year on them... then we had a fake one upstairs that was the "guest" tree and that was where we put all of the ornaments that we got as gifts from other people. it was always nicer looking, but i liked the real one downstairs the best.

my family is really possessive about our ornaments, too. i was always the one who put the angel on the tree in the basement because it somehow had something to do with the fact that i was born on christmas eve.

[wtfbrain.livejournal.com]

*snicker* Those icons are priceless, Cleo. I think I shall steal one of the "writer's block" ones, and a couple others, too... :)

[sorcha-feanor.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you guys do this, but we get very territorial over whose ornaments are whose.
we so do that too.....my dad has his soldiers, my mom had all her old mothers glass ornaments and me and my sister each have our own ornatments too...

[raanve]

I don't know if you guys do this, but we get very territorial over whose ornaments are whose.

Just a quick comment (because I'm on my way out to a Christmas party!) but, yes, we do. And I haven't lived with my parents for almost 10 years. And we still do. ;)

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Heh heh. Ornament wars!!!

I myself always lay claim to the China Nutcracker, the Santa Windchimes, my own Baby's First Christmas, and the Stuffed Oliver the Cat that Still Plays Jingle Bells When You Squeeze Him Even Though I Got Him From McDonald's When I Was In SECOND Grade!

My sister is very territorial about the Partridge and the Pear.

Also we have Climbing Santa, along with every other transport-related Santa you can imagine. My Dad likes things with wheels.

[shoiryu.livejournal.com]

I require that you SHARE cookies!

[rufus.livejournal.com]

My sister and I battle every year over which set of ornaments to use -- the old fashioned ones that were on my grandmother's tree or the streamlined modern ones. Usually we end up at about half and half.

(p.s. Hi, I'm a new reader!)

[arayuldaiel.livejournal.com]

The Disembodied Head Santa Ornament gave me nightmares as a little kid. We even had a matching Mrs. Clause one. *shudder*

But those ICONS! *steals and giggles*

[pigsnicket.livejournal.com]

Haha, my family gets territorial over ornaments too! You touch my gold rocking horse, you DIE.

I am also going to steal some of those Novella of the Night icons. You rule so much.

[kudzita.livejournal.com]

Funniest icons EVAR OMG!!!11!1!one!!

...though come to think of it, they probably wouldn't be that funny to those who type in the style I just mocked.

[laurelin-kit.livejournal.com]

*friends you finally* That's it. Novellas of the Night did it. You must be on my flist. :) *<3s you*

[ernie-lundie.livejournal.com]

I find it funny that your mood is "merry", but you're listening to So Cruel...This just doesn't match up...Oh well. And I love your icons...Now if only I knew how to get them...*blush*

[sapphires13.livejournal.com]

Your wonderfully traditional tree makes mine sound so clinical and cold.

Tree =D (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/sapphires13/tree.jpg)

Fake white tree, blue/silver garland, blue lights, blue glass ornaments, blue/silver tree topper.

We used to have tons of mismatched ornaments that had been collected here and there over years and years, and a green tree. I'm not sure what exactly happened...

[highlystrung.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. Chrismas decoration turf wars are common at my house. Of course, the fact that thsi results in the loss of limb, clapper and heads of most of the decorations means nothing. Most of them 'mysteriously' disapear during the year anyway. ^.^ ... It is a bit of A worry that most of our Santas only have an arm and half a head though. XD

Oh, and icons. So. Good. Have taken all. ^.^ Where are you now? How many pages do you have? Are you on a new chapter yet? *cracks up* Beautiful. ^.^

[aurora-borialis.livejournal.com]

At mi casa, you may or may not get tackled if you hang up one of the brother's "wolf" ornaments without their consent. It's a war-zone every year when the tree goes up. Then the 3 dogs get involved... 'da puppy got his head caught in a light strand and started walking away, clearly thinking the strand was his, someone noticed as the tree was shifting and re-claimed it to the tree. hehe. 'tis the season!

[cabell.livejournal.com]

I was a junior in college before my mother stopped freaking out about me hanging the breakable ornaments.

music of the niiiiight...

[kittile.livejournal.com]

dude, maybe you should introduce '79 dracula to the phantom? snerk. question, tho - *where* do you find your images???

[meredith-mae.livejournal.com]

My brother and I each have round ornaments we got when we were born that say "Baby's first Christmas, 1982" and "Baby's first Christmas, 1985." We also have these old, huge lights that go on the tree, rather than the little ones. And my dad always insists on a real tree. At one point, we started getting 2 trees - one for the living room, where we also had the train set up, the stocking above the fireplace, and the presents, and one for the family room, for the crappy ornaments my brother and I made in school and whatnot. Now that they have a smaller house, there's just one tree. And my roommate and I don't have a tree this year, since she doesn't celebrate Christmas, she's moving, and I'm going to be at my parents from December 23-January 1.

[elbales]

Dude. Those lyrics are wrong. Just wrong.

[edda.livejournal.com]

My family is very WASPy about Christmas decorations and for years and years in both my grandmother's and mother's houses it was silver and white ornaments with clear lights--no red and green stuff or anything like that and at both houses the Trees Of Caucasian Repression ruled the decor. (To be fair, the effect really is pretty.)

Then my Mom followed some kind of trend that apparently hit people who shop at Christmas stores a lot (have you ever been dragged into a fricking holiday store in July to look at ornaments when it's NINETY DEGREES OUT!? There are times when you shouldn't have holly-scented room spray invading your nostrils, and that's Exhibit A) wherein burgundy and gold in this low-key antiquey way became All The Rage, because nothing says "Christmas with the family" like a color scheme that looks like it was lifted from Yuletide in a top-drawer bordello in Victorian London.

Still, though, it's nice to stand in the living room with all but the tree lights off, after everyone's in bed, and sort of bask in the glow, and feel the wondrous, ancient magic of the season.

Except I keep imagining a madam leaning over me, whispering in my ear, "We got a nice'un for you, dearie; don't keep 'im waiting or 'e'll be down to Whitechapel and less the money to you."

Also loved the icons.

[exiledprincess.livejournal.com]

*snags icons*

*friends cleo*

we're totally possessive of ornaments. i've got a precious moments one, this gorgeous mary that was on my grandma's tree until she got sick of me ogling it, all the things i made in elementary school, and of course, the angel. ooh, and the tinsel. that's always my job. and my mom gets crazy about the lights.

and mucus cookies = hilarious.

[t4-flirt.livejournal.com]

Oh isn't that always the cutest? Fighting over Christmas ornaments like the world will end if you DON'T hang your specific ornaments. ::looks around and then timidly raises a hand:: I'm guilty of it too. I always hang my miniature Nutcracker doll ornament, and these old-fashioned glass bulbs that have Christmas trees painted on them. Not to mention I have to hang at least half of the tacky ones I made as a kid in school(my mother hangs the ones I kinda wish weren't on there anymore). So I totally understand where you're coming from. I mean, it just ISN'T the same if someone else were to even THINK about touching YOUR ornament. ::raises a glass:: So here's to all the territorial decorators who just HAVE to do it their way. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Cheers! ::sips::
~~xoxo~~

[the_powerlines.livejournal.com]

Huh. My friend and I wrote some lyrics to the tune of "Music of the Night" once. But we were freshmen in high school, so our lyrics were both less well-written and much, much more perverted.