But a few years ago I found what I think is really the best place in Christmas.

It’s hidden. But I’ll share it with you.

This is it: the best place in Christmas

A little of it, anyway…

Merry Christmas, everybody! Hope you’re well. We all are, thank you very much.

Tonight as always on Christmas Eve I met my BFF Joe in Old Town to walk and gawk. It was delightful, as always. Though I was a bit disappointed that the crowds were the sparsest I’ve seen – far less than we got for the Christmas Tree Lighting. Still – there’s no place I’d rather spend Christmas Eve.

When we were done we went our separate ways. Mine took me around the block from my parking space on a residential street near Old Town (outside the usual Crush o’ Madness.) There on a little, tricky to find side street was the place I consider the very best in Christmas – yes, the one pictured above. While it’s got conventional light strands and luminarias – as you can see – it’s most remarkable characteristic is the rows and rows of colored glasses, red and blue (and a few yellow ones, this year, just for variety) with candles flickering in them. It’s beautiful and serene.

Sadly, my photographic skills are not yet up to doing it justice. I have a few more pictures I may post. But … that gives you an idea.

I’ve wanted to share it for years. I have, on a one-on-one basis, with just a few close friends. So now you get to share it too.

Just a little.

Speaking of serene and beautiful, I then drove to Los Altos, a little pocket development down by the corner of Coors and Bridge.  It consists of 30-odd adobe-style houses – fairly lovely at any time. But what sets it apart is that pretty much the only illumination on Christmas Eve consists of thousands and thousands of luminarias. And that’s the second best place in Christmas. (For a fuller account from a few years back, check here.)

In other news … sorry to have gone dark on the blog for a while. Got the flu and got behind on the current stage of the Seekrit Projekt. Better now.

Also tired. And sore. I just wanted to share a touch of my favorite Christmas place(s) with you. And as of now, I think the best place to be on Christmas is … my nice, warm bed.

And to all a good night!

Plazuela San Luis, with tree and sundry festive lights.

I’ve gone to it every year for something like 15 years. It’s a favorite event for me, since it truly kicks off my very favorite time of the year: Christmas!

This year, for the first time, I went with my friend – and fellow Christmas junkie – Pat Rogers. And also for the first time took the camera Rich Zellich and Michelle Tenney kindly sent me as a get-well present this spring.

Which, as you’ll see once you check out my photo set of the occasion on Flickr, I’m not real adept at using yet. But I try to make up with enthusiasm what I lack in skill. Granted, that takes a lot of enthusiasm.

The first thing we saw, before we even got to Old Town proper, was something I’d never seen at the Holiday Stroll before…

Could it be ... aliens?

The eyes, dear Lord - THE EYES!

And in the end, they've gone to the dogs.

Well, actually, they looked more like this:

Much better.

To get the full impact of the horror, be sure to click on the blurreal shots above! (And also the one that doesn’t suck. As much.)

Weirdly enough, when I took pictures in Stabilization mode, they got more blurry. But I couldn’t resist saving the first set of shots because they’re so danged surreal.

So what they really were, were three 8-foot tall costumes: center, an angel; right, a dog; and on the left … well either a reindeer or a jackalope. Or maybe a mutant mouse. (We went around and around trying to work out which.)

They were in fact striking and extremely cool. Could they be a new trend?

Otherwise, we saw … all kindsa good stuff. Be sure to hit my photoset and see for yourself.

Many thanks to Patricia for driving me and accompanying me! She’s always delightful company. Afterwards we went and had a great dinner at Sadie’s, and talked about archaeology. That was fun too.

So now the holidays have officially begun. Yay!

Have good ones, everybody!

Pictured: sheep

Oh, you do, do you?

Of course, I know the real lyric was “Oh we, like sheep” – punctuation matters! But I heard it the other way.

I wanted to. It was much funnier that way. And in all fairness, it did sound as if they were singing that they liked sheep.

I had a very good Christmas; hope you did too.

Dinner was great – turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, the works. John’s mother and aunt were there, as well as their friend Lynn Kaczor, who was supposed to be off visiting family. As I understand it, weather happened.

After dinner John’s mom and aunt took off. We watched the Alistair Sim A Christmas Carol, which wasn’t bad (the story’s not my favorite.)

The highlight of the afternoon was when Gail gave their cat Archie some of the home-grown catnip Lynn brought. Archie gobbled it right down. Then he dove in and rolled in it, getting big chunks all over his fur. Then he rolled on his back and rubbed it all over his big round face with his paws.

He looked like a 1980′s waterbed magnate who’d spilled his cocaine. It was great.

After the movie I went over to Steve and Kathy Kubica’s. ASFS stalwart Bill McClellan was there when I arrived. We were later joined by Craig Chrissinger and Jessica Coyle, then Kennard and Kristen Wilson – giving us the two co-chairs for Bubonicon 42 together in the room at the same time, a clear security risk. Lucky for us no provocateurs staged a terror attack.

We watched Castle, some Muppet shorts from the Web, and opened presents. Then we watched a Rifftrax of some old Christmas short films. All of which was mightily enjoyable.

So: good day, good food, good fun, good people. I got back to my animals and my “tree” – a foot-tall conical rosemary bush in a pot – just before midnight. An excellent Christmas Day, I’d say.

Hope you had a good one, too.

I really love and appreciate my friends, both human and animal. Thanks for being there for me. That really is my best Christmas present, always.

A Christmas filled with peace and harmony.

And a happy, healthy, and prosperous new Year.

You thought I was kidding, didn't you? Again.

It was brought to our Christmas meeting tonight by the incomparable Patricia Rogers – if you know her, that’s an of course – who had found it in a bargain bin in Target, of all places. Patricia has a great many gifts. An infallible affinity for the weird is definitely among them.

As well as the usual suspects, Melinda Snodgrass fell by for a few minutes at the beginning of the meeting. As always it was fun hanging with her.

Along with showing various short Christmas films (the rest were Rifftrax) tonight’s meeting was the occasion of our Annual Dessert Cook-Off. The “challenge ingredient” this year was coffee.

There were a number of wonderful goodies, both with coffee and without. I thought of adding some coffee to my red chile pumpkin soup, but desisted on the strong suspicion it would be vomitous. Despite containing brown sugar the soup’s not really a dessert; I brought it because, well, people kept asking me to. Which was quite flattering.

Unfortunately, and despite the fact that Randi Tinkham was kind and generous enough to lug her crock-pot all the way down from  Santa Fe for me to warm the soup in, the stuff stayed ice-cold throughout most of the meeting. Some brave souls ate it cold. It’s not bad that way; it’s just better hot.

I didn’t win anything – as I dolefully predicted halfway through the meeting, the soup indeed got hot just about the time to wrap thigns up – but I didn’t really expect to. Under the circumstances more than I expected got eaten

When I was transferring the soup back to my kettle from the crock-pot I somehow managed to slop some onto the counter and onto me. Wonderful. Fortunately it wasn’t hot enough to napalm my legs.

However, on the way home I had to stop off to buy cat food at Wally World. As I went hit the bright lights inside I realized to my horror that I totally looked as if I had yarped all over my lower pants legs and shoes.

Then I consoled myself with the realization I was almost certainly not the only person in Wal-Mart at 10:30 on Friday night who looked as if they’d thrown up on their shoes. But I was the only one who looked that way and hadn’t.

We now conclude this evening’s presentation of TMI Theater…

Update: Snapshot of tonight’s SF club meeting:

Woman: Did you just say, “Shit, I’m a banana,” in German?

Me: Yes. Yes, I did.

Oh, the weather outside is balmy/Killing terrorists is all that'll calm me...

Only the very prototype (and pinnacle) of the modern action film. Yes, Die Hard. What else could it be?

The best of the rest:

2. A Christmas Story – also read the book from which it came, In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash.

3. Lethal Weapon – but any Lethal Weapon movie with a numeral is on my least faves list.

4. The Nightmare Before Christmas – my favorite part is the opening “This Is Halloween” number, to the tune of “Here Comes Santa Claus,” no less.

Seems to me there were more, but I draw blank here. I may add some in updates if I recall.

So – what’re your favorite Christmas movies of all time? Drop a comment and let me know!

PS – remember the mouseovers! There’re always mouseovers.

Of course, given that we’ll be lucky if it gets above freezing at all today, we’ll be lucky, I’d have to be crazy to go.

Big tree for big fun.

And of course, I’m nothing if not crazy. I haven’t missed one of these puppies yet. I don’t intend to start now.

Besides, if you love Christmas like I love Christmas, it’s a wonderful time indeed, with lights and music and festive shops and happy crowds. I look forward to it the whole year.

Be there or be … warm!