Every year since 2010 I’ve done a series of December diaries (which you can find via the #seasonal tag) focusing on a variety of seasonal topics ranging from music to food to ugly sweaters. Full disclosure: I did ONE Seasonal diary in 2008, and 2009 was the first December K2 was with us so I was a little distracted :-). I can’t believe we landed in the United States with him twelve years ago yesterday!
It’s 2021 and everything is back to normal we’re still lead actors in the Greek (letter) Tragedy known as Pandemic, but let’s get seasonal anyway! Don’t worry if Christmas isn’t your thing- while my personal December perspective is primarily secular but culturally Christian-based with a vibrant dose of earth-centered Winter Solstice mixed in thanks to almost a quarter century of Unitarian Universalism, these diaries are for everyone! In other words, if there’s a holiday this time of year that makes you happy, that you mark differently than all the other days, that involves negotiating about who brings what food and whether or not everyone did their rapid-antigen test… or even if there isn’t... this is a place for you!
Last week I gave us a look at least-liked holiday songs via some talk on the LDB Challenge. This week’s theme was sparked by my needing to wrap and mail my youngest nephews’ presents to Texas. I went to where we keep our wrapping paper — our Attic also multasking as Mr. Brillig’s Office — and brought down our supply. You can see from the photo above that we’ve got enough to wrap all the presents being gifted in our neighborhood.
Why, brillig? Why do you have at least twenty rolls of new/partially used/almost but not quite gone paper? I’m glad you asked! There’s reasons:
1. Some people are traditional pattern paper… like that green one in the middle of my photo. Other people are penguins, or llamas in sweaters. As a matter of fact, my two nephews each got penguin paper, one in red and one in blue. You gotta have a variety to match the individual. You also need to have heavy duty paper for wrapping weird-shaped things, the kind that doesn’t rip through the minute you’re wrapping something not box-shaped.
2. Mr. Brillig doesn’t label any of his presents with gift tags that anyone else understands. He began doing this when his youngest sister would try to guess what was in her presents. Some years it’s coded by wrapping paper, meaning a lot of patterns are needed. Other years each present has a letter on it, which never is related to our names. It’s always a surprise finding out which presents go to whom!
3. We can’t remember when we go to Target whether we have enough paper. Yes, I KNOW the answer should always be yes, but what if we run out on Christmas Eve and can’t get more??! Besides, there’s always some new pattern (or old pattern we forgot about that’s having a resurgence) and what can getting Just One More Roll hurt?
4. Casa Brillig historically has been a “everyone wraps their presents at the last minute” family. This explains why we also have 8 rolls of tape and four pairs of scissors. At some point on December 24th, we all nonchalantly disappear in our rooms and eventually, presents end up under the tree. You can imagine that sharing the paper just does not happen!
5 Back before the kids joined the Adult Conspiracy, we had one roll of paper that never, ever left our bedroom. It was used ONLY to wrap the Santa Presents. It always looked NOTHING like any other roll we had. I found one of those rolls last time I deep-cleaned the wayback of our closet and it made me wistful for those days.
This year I’m going to try to get my wrapping done early. I think I say this every year, so let this diary come back to remind me next year. I’m not super creative about wrapping, unlike both Mr. Brillig and K1, who last year totally exceeded expectations. One present was shaped like palm trees!
What kind of a wrapper are you? Do you get it all done as presents are purchased, or do you have one giant wrapping day to get it all finished? Do you love getting it done perfectly, or is “they can’t see what it is” the only criteria? Do you even use wrapping paper, or are you a gift bag afficianado? Or, do you have everything wrapped by someone else? Let’s talk about how we get our gifts all wrapped up, once you peruse tonight’s trio of Tops!
Here at Top Comments we welcome longtime as well as brand new Daily Kos readers to join us at 10pm Eastern. We strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!
TOP COMMENTS
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down. Please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
From elenacarlena:
Greetings! UnionJok started this hilarious thread. It's classic DKos. I'm only surprised BMScott hasn't joined in (yet). Enjoy!
From MikeTheLiberal:
I nominate the following message from thread House Resolution to hold Mark Meadows in contempt includes some telling indictors of what's sought for today’s Top Comments, specifically for the following line: “And Hilary never sent out how-to manuals to overthrow the government from her private email account”.
Just drop the mic.
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, December 12th 2021, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
TOP PICTURES
Top Pictures for yesterday, December 12 2021. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you to the wonderful dKos staff who made it possible to continue this feature in memory of jotter!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
churchylafemme, your image perms are set so we cannot include your photo here
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Appy, your image permissions do not allow us to include your phbto here
|
|
|
|