I Blame the M&Ms

[hummingwolf]

I was thinking this morning about how little deep thinking I've done lately. You'd think with all the stresses in my life and the approach of a new year that I might have some soul-searching to do, but I haven't felt inclined to do so lately. I wondered if maybe I was on my way to Egypt again. Then I thought about other symptoms I've been exhibiting lately, and wondered if I should be worried. You see, I have been full of goodwill toward men, listening to Christmas music (voluntarily!), and feeling an urge to decorate the house with sparkly things.

Dang. I've contracted the dreaded Christmas Spirit early this year. This scares me. It'll go away soon, right? Right?! A lasting infection could be dangerous. Good thing I don't have access to any tinsel.

I really really wish I had a tree and some sparkly things to decorate it with right now. Gah.

A few years ago a housemate thought my tales of Holiday Mint M&Ms sounded lovely, but he thought mint M&Ms were a myth. Since he was nominally Jewish and I had money in those days, I picked the first day of Hanukkah to prove him wrong, and gave him some of his favorite kind of Pop Tarts too just for the heck of it. His girlfriend was somewhat dismayed--she hadn't even realized he had a holiday coming up soon. She'd grown up in the Soviet Union and was bewildered by the religious-based holidays of the people around here, though she had belonged to some supposedly Christian group for a while in college. (She let me have some of her old religious books since she was an atheist by the time she moved here and knew I was a Christian. I read one of those books and mentioned that though I didn't believe in book-burning, I might make an exception for that one. She was shocked. She'd thought her group had been made of True Christians--that's what they always told her, after all. My feeling was and still is that it's far better to be an atheist than to believe in the kind of God they talked about in that book. She couldn't believe a Christian would have that attitude.)

Anyway, the girlfriend ended up buying the boyfriend some Hanukkah presents too. At this point, it was probably inevitable that the boy ended up buying little Christmas presents for everyone else in the house, which prompted everyone else to buy presents so they wouldn't look too Grinchlike. The Christmas Spirit spread through the entire house, and it was all my fault! That was fun.

I really want some tinsel.



Take the quiz: "What Historic Woman Are You?"

Katherine of Aragon
Daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, Katherine married Henry VIII of England in 1509 and, after 20 years of marriage and only a daughter to show for it, was displaced by Henry for a younger woman. She refused to grant him a divorce, even when he made her live in a shack with no funds or medical care. To her dying breath she refused to acknowledge that she was not the Queen. She was stubborn, brilliant, pious, and beautiful. Read more about her: http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/STUDENTS/Bracewell/Kofa.htm



You're a forest elf. you live on your own and enjoy
the beauty of nature. you're happy and other
people always enjoy being around you because of
your loveable personality. you can often be
found somewhere outside in the forest with all
the animals. Green fits you best


what kind of elf are you? {with pics}
brought to you by Quizilla



Noble High Elf


What kind of Elf are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

42% of people had this result.
Ah yes, all of them the cream of their kind. ::snort::

My Egyptian Name is Anippe (daughter of the Nile).
Take The Egyptian Name Generator today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

I wonder how much Egypt's Ministry of Tourism pays its employees these days?

Comments

[dcjensen.livejournal.com]

What kind of tinsel? The kind you fling, or the Garland stringed kind?

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

There's a kind of tinsel that gets flung?

[dcjensen.livejournal.com]

[feels old]

AKA "icicle tinsel" basically foot long strips of tinsel that you take out of the package and fling randomly at the tree. The more anal fastidious carefully placed it about the tree. Originally it was aluminum/metal strips, but for safety it was later replaced with silvered plastic and still later mylar. It is still sold in tall narrow packages. Not recommended for houses with cats.

Roped or garland tinsel has really taken over the tree in the last 30 years.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Not recommended for houses with cats.

Ah, that would explain why I don't remember it!

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Actually, I do remember thin silvery strips being called "icicles." They weren't called "tinsel" as far as I know, though.

[dcjensen.livejournal.com]

From "A history of the Christmas tree":

>Tinsel was invented in Germany around 1610. At that time real silver was used, and machines were invented which pulled the silver out into wafer-thin strips. Silver was durable, but tarnished quickly, especially with candlelight. Attempts were made to use a mixture of lead and tin, but this was heavy and tended to break under its own weight so was not so practical. So silver was used for tinsel right up to the mid-20th century.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, "tinsel" always referred to the garland type. Maybe it's a regional thing, or just a family thing. Now that we've got this sorted--you actually *flung* icicles on trees? How did that look? I really can't see that working out well in a house of cats.