barbie and her pets

here are barbie and her pets.

christmas has come and gone, leaving behind several bags of garbage and many new battery operated toys.

looking at the mound of wrapped gifts for the kids last night i had a minor panic attack. how can we raise a generation of responsible people when we keep buying them so. much. stuff. how can i teach my kids not to want so. much. stuff? waah, waah, the fate of the earth is in our hands. i actually felt nauseous looking at the piles.

this morning, however, the presents were ripped through by 6:56 and everyone seemed pretty happy. the unsustainable lifestyle panic over, we enjoyed a dungeness crab, fancy cheese from rainbow grocery, and endive salad feast with my mom and stepdad, topped off with a viewing of elf, many lifesavers, many beyblade battles, some sentimental emails and phone calls, and a little more of that endive salad.

a little sad feeling for loved ones far away but not too too bad.

there will be time to try and correct all our many many many many parenting mistakes (disasters might not be too far off, if you know us pretty well) , or at least try, right? there are worse things than getting too many presents from your mom and dad.

now i need to study my urban rebounder dvd- my christmas trampoline is waiting for me at the foot of the bed. good night.

peace and love

fantastic cookie party

i made the mistake of peeking at facebook again. aaaahhhhh. seems so easy for most folks, but for me it is a fascinating yet creepy excursion into what my life could be, or isn't, and how other people seem so good at condensing their wonderful lives into easy to digest and respond to sentences and phrases. i really don't know what the heck it is, but it makes me feel kind of agro, and a little depressed. like a nice whiskey might help.
anyway, the holidays are upon us. miles had a greedy tantrum today about how this xmas would be stupid, and all presents are boring except for the nintendo DS i don't want to get him. poor brainwashed little consumer victim. luckily, right after his tirade against my cruelty we went to rebecca's cookie party, and got a glimpse of some fun that does not come in the shape of a handheld electronic device or a ball. rebecca's 4 downstairs neighbor kids were there, and they all kind of congealed and made cookies and got very silly, and then we were down in the basement and these 4 cool kids (7, almost 9, almost 12, and 14) were playing ramones, sex pistols and rolling stones covers on their very own instruments in the most awesome way possible. maya fell in love with the almost 9 year old girl and invited her to her birthday party. later emily played crazy beats and samples on her yamaha keyboard and everyone was dancing around like a freak. i guess eating lots of cookies added to the hysteria. but who needs a DS to have fun?

i will try to hang on and make it through this season of giving--and wanting to get lots of stuff--and painful old memories, and comparisons with oh so rosy facebook existences. at the end of it all i think there will be a reward--new year's in a wood stove heated hot tub up in the damp green green woods of point arena. clear skies and cold air and stars above.

oh the possibilities.