As I write this, I'm sitting by the glow of my computer monitor, printing up copies of my festive yet mostly fictitious holiday newsletter. Tango the Wonder Kitty is perched in front of the printer, waiting for the paper to come out so he can play with it. Mother is in the other room with stacks of Christmas cards yet to be addressed and mailed. The Christmas tree is in the living room, awaiting decorations and lights. It's been waiting for three days inside the house, and two weeks outside. All the presents have been purchased (which lefts us more broke than usual), but most have yet to be wrapped. We're supposed to go to my oldest brother's house for Christmas Eve but he's not speaking to us right now (there may have been a reason, but I'm not recalling it just now), so who knows what will happen there.

Yes, friends, it's the holiday season. It wouldn't be Christmas if it were any other way. Isn't it like that for everyone? I wouldn't know how to act or what to think if things were so-called normal. This is my normal. It wouldn't be right if there weren't at least one major disagreement in the family this time of year. The song "Merry Christmas From the Family" by Jill Sobule (or various other artists -- check out the lyrics here) is the reality of Christmas... and that's okay.

So, to get in the spirit, I'm listening to the funny Ray Stevens' "Christmas - Through a Different Window" CD, which has all kinds of appropriate songs... in fact, I put the lyrics to "Xerox Christmas Letter" on the backs of our own holiday newsletter. You should read the lyrics. You'll know why I keep mine fictional. Reality would be too boring to write, let alone send to others to read.

Oh, hey... while I'm here, I'd like you to read a poem I wrote. It's a heartfelt tribute to Christmas, drawing on the depths of my very soul. Or not. It is...

A Christmas Dilemma

May it fill you with a strong sense of... um... well, something.

In other news, last night, both the rottweiler and the chow ended up underneath the Christmas tree at various times. I'm not sure how either managed to fit under there. The rottweiler, Shasta, went under there because one of my cats, Pesha, was under there, and Shasta is obsessed with the cat. I don't know why. Shasta follows Pesha around constantly and just looks at her. Pesha, for her part, finds great joy in engaging in what amounts to a show speed chase, just because she can. She walks across the room in her typical slow manner, and Shasta follows right behind her, fascinated. The cats like to get underneath the couch via the velcro closures on the back, and when Pesha's under there, Shasta sits in front of the couch, with her nose shoved under the edge. She can stay there for quite a long time, just doing nothing, waiting for Pesha to come out. They have an interesting relationship.

Tai, the chow, probably has no idea why he went under the tree. He's not exactly a bright dog. He regularly walks to the back door like he wants out, but when I open the door for him, he looks up at me as if to say, "What do I do now?" Then he walks away and lays down. Or, he'll be sound asleep when all of the sudden just jump straight up like he hears something, takes a look around, and then he'll go right back to sleep. He's a sweetie, but he's not very bright.

On a happy holiday note, Shasta received a nice Christmas present yesterday from her previous family. They sent her a Christmas stocking filled with dog toys, and signed it from the dog Shasta grew up with, a much bigger rottweiler named Zeus. Shasta wasn't all that interested in the toys, but Tango did find the ball quite fun to play with. He picked it up in his mouth and took off with it. So I took a picture of Shasta almost wearing a Santa hat and put it in a frame which says 'woof' on it and mailed it off today.

In Christmas presents news, I decided to give each of my nieces and nephews (of which I have five) picture slide show music videos for Christmas. I'm obviously stupid. I ended up scanning roughly 200 pictures, not to mention all the digital photos I culled. And then I had to crop and touch up all of them, not to mention find appropriate music... and then create the gosh forsaken videos. I have exactly one almost finished. It's encoding as I ramble. And, since not all of my siblings have DVD players, I'm doing them in two formats... regular VHS tapes and VCDs (video compact discs) to play on compatible DVD players. Why did I decide to do all this? I'm obviously stupid.

I know why -- it snowed last month, and I put the video I took and some pictures of it on my computer and made a silly little vide out of it. My mother saw it and thought how great that would be to do for the grandkids. Not that she's the one doing it, of course. Nope, it's all me. Poor, poor me. It's a good thing all my nieces and nephews are cute, 'cause I'm sure seeing a lot of them via all these pictures.

Well, it's bedtime, so I best be off. Strangest thing has been happening lately... I've actually been sleeping. At night. So I should get in bed and do it again. I've also started liking pepper.... I have no idea why. Anyway, take care all, and should I not ramble between now and whatever holiday you celebrate next, have a happy one.