I just don't have it in me to sit down and type My Christmas Story, but I promise I will, for anyone who cares.  It was a good one, and I'm typing this on my awesome new notebook that Dave put under the tree for me.

Samantha and I exchanged gifts when she stopped by yesterday.  I gave her a candle and an ornament and a rosemary plant that surely won't die because I've kept it alive for quite some time now and she gave me a hobnail milkglass decanter and a half a bottle of rum.

Both fit snugly right behind my sink, which is one of my favorite spots in the house.
The decanter goes perfectly with my planter, and Mary bellied up to the rum as soon as she saw it.

She's funny like that.  I don't know if you know this about her, but Mary is a drinker.

Sure, she's all like "I swear to my son that I've never had a drop".  Something about how she never lets sinful liquid pass her lips (then she makes a horrid joke about "either set" and I just ignore her because I think that's SO gross and immature.)  But she gets so boozy all the time and when you call her out on it she's all "God musta made me miraculously intoxicated by putting the blood of my son in my veins via divine angelic intervention.  The only "spirit" I know of is the Holy Spirit".

Mary is a lot of things. 
Unfortunately, billshutting boozehound is one of them.

Whatever.

Anyway, if you like dark spiced rum (I do, I usually drink Black Seal) you should try the Kracken.  The bottle is so awesome that I want to buy taper candles and let them burn down all around the label and save it forever and ever.  I just might. 
Sam and I tried it with Diet Coke and Ginger Ale.  Both were good.   I picked up some Reed's Ginger Beer (which actually has ginger listed on the lable, unlike Canada Dry or Seagrams, which just list "natural flavors", FYI) at Trader Joe's, and maybe I'll mix that up for New Year's tomorrow.  Champagne and I aren't friends.

What are you doing for New Years? 
We are headed down the street to Kat Kat's (Jake's favorite great-aunt) and spending it with the fam and then going to bed shortly after the ball drops. 
I'm not really a fan of the holiday.  Maybe if I lived somewhere warmer I would be.  And if it all happened at about 8.30 rather than midnite.  I keep saying that I'm going to spend a New Year's Eve on a boat somewhere in the Caribbean but so far it's been all talk.  Wouldn't that be great?  A huge dome of starry sky and fireworks all along the coast?  Wearing something breezy and drinking something freezy and tasting strawberries and limes and salt on everyone's lips when you kiss them for luck?  The cold drips off the glasses would soothe your sunburned back when when people wrapped their cocktail-laden arms around you to give you a big old hug while remembering auld lang syne?

Maybe 2011.
Let me know if you're in.  We're gonna have to start planning now.

I'm hoping to do a post tomorrow, but if not, I wish you a safe and happy tomorrow night!