Happy Holidays (okay those who wish to boycott reading this because it says "Holidays" can kiss my freakin' yule log)

Happy Holidays. Greetings, salutations, merry cheese eating, binge boozing and all that. The holiday gathering in St. Louis went truly well and a good time was had by all. Yours truly cooked again, and while we took a break from the macrobiotic eating (which I am now paying for), it was scrummy and fab. We had a gathering on Christmas eve that involved a tamale making party – okay, that was delicious. The people were fabulous, some old friendships and conflicts were resolved in the name of my sister, and of the holiday, for which I’m grateful.

Christmas day was typical of our family, in that it involved a couple of interesting excursions - the first of which was visiting Tennessee Williams grave. We brought him a poinsettia.
















I must admit to still being in shock and feel somewhat violated by the “Our Lady of the Sorrow” WAY OF LIGHTS display. I can’t help but feel that Catholic charity and aiding the poor did not actually mean a multi-million dollar light display/passion play of the birth of Christ (“Angel, angel, what do you see? I see a camel smiling at me. . . .”) that one must drive through a la the wild animal park in San Diego. Behold, a picture of Jerusalem. That only took up about 40 feet – and it went on. And on. And on.




















Okay, and here is a picture of the Gateway to the West – the St. Louis Arch at night. Pretty.
















There is a truly awesome fun thing to do, which is to visit the City Museum, which is essentially a huge interactive sculpture created out of architectural salvage and requires a lot of climbing, crawling and general hands on touching type stuff . . .














With an aquarium.





That has a ferret one can hold. I’m not sure how the ferret fits into the scheme of things where sea creatures are concerned, but it was friendly. The turtle that I bonded with, however, desperately wished to leave.


There is a bar for the weary museum goers – that seems like a cross between stepping into Diagon Alley from Harry Potter and the fun house in the film “The Machinist.” Weird is simply not a descriptive enough word. A fun time was had by all risk takers.

I hope that each and everyone had a good time with family, loved ones; that no one got so liquored up that it was beyond embarrassing; I hope no one was arrested, and that everyone got a little something that they were hoping for this year.