My mother will have many rubies in her crown in heaven

My mom, bless her heart, is quite tolerant of the, er, quirkiness that her offspring display much of the time. This weekend, what with the rare convergence of all her descendants, has given her a run for her money.

A short, not even close to comprehensive list, of things we did that somehow made her laugh instead of smack us upside the head:

1. Various blasphemies, including:
And the Lord sent the angels unto them and did decree that from this day forward they shall commemorate the birth of our Lord Jesus with _______ (fill in the blank with a random action or item that is totally unrelated to the birth of Jesus, like "gifts of rubber ducks" or "copious drinking" or "chocolate fondue with marshmallows" or "gifts of miscellaneous electronics" and so on). That joke wore thin a couple of times, especially when the blank was filled with something patently offensive. But mostly she laughed.

2. Gift from Lil Bro's Hot Blonde Girlfriend to Susie: purple woolen dreads. But the best part? Matching dreads for Susie's American Girl doll. Because every little girl in the Great Depression really needed purple woolen dreadlocks.

3. Kids in Heelies in her kitchen. Nuff said.

4. I wore my pajamas to her house today for the opening of the gifts and Santa reveal.

5. Hangover? What hangover?

6. Did I mention that Susie's hair is pinkish-purple? Oh, and that The Boy has a mohawk? I thought so.

7. Many more inappropriate and frequently politically-incorrect comments about almost any topic.

I did remind her that she only has herself (and her husband, my darling father) to blame. After all, we're NOT adopted and they raised us.

Merry Christmas!

From Christmas Dec...