I'll hang some stockings. (With care even.)
But do NOT expect me to triple my electricity bill just to impress the people who live on my street.
So obviously I LOVE this guy's response.
(H/T to Andrew Sullivan.)
Saturday, December 24, 2011
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Wah, I don't wanna triple my electric bill, wah, Christmas is so commercial, wah, wah, wah.
ReplyDeleteThere are entirely too many Grinchy McScrooge's on this blog. I love to decorate my front yard to the hilt for Christmas, and I do it all myself, since my husband works insane hours. I do the lights, lawn ornaments, inflatables, the tackler the better. Every year I add a few new items, as the older ones cease working. Most of my neighbors love it, and if they don't, they can f off. I love when cars slow up to admire my work, and kids make their parents walk by on nice evenings to take a look.
It's once a year, and I don't care if it costs an extra hundred bucks or so for the month of December . I am gradually changing all my lights over to LED's , and I buy after Christmas to get great decorations for the next year. It's my gift to the neighborhood and my kids.
So Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah , and Happy Solstice from a chronic over decorator.
Happiest of Holidays to you and yours, Gryphen! Thanks so much for the facts, the laughs, and for your relentless pursuit of Sarah and all her "cronies". It's been a great year!
ReplyDeleteFun!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.doozycards.com/ecards/christmas/funny/holiday-obama-rap
awwwwwww
ReplyDeletehttp://www.doozycards.com/ecards/christmas/cute/white-house-puppy-xmas
Actually, really going all out with Christmas lights is on my list of things to do one day. I wouldn't do it to impress people, so much as to give them something to enjoy, especially children. We certainly enjoy looking at the various displays people put up.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, the picture is hilarious! And I bet people driving about looking at all the lights got a big kick out of it, too.
My Friends on IM:
ReplyDeleteI discovered this interesting quote from no less than President Reagan over at Malia Litman's site in one of the comments:
Quote by Ronald Reagan:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/RR10_26_84.html
“We establish no religion in this country, we command no worship,
we mandate no belief. Nor will we ever.
Church and state are, and
must remain, separate. All are free to believe or not believe, all
are free to practice a faith or not, and those who believe are free
and should be free, to speak of and act on their belief.
At the same time as our constitution prohibits state religion, establishment of it protects the free exercise of all religions.
And walking this fine line requires government to be strictly
neutral.”
President Reagan sounds a note of what sounds eminently moderate and tolerant. I think we can all use some of that perspective these days.
As Americans of every belief, religion, and background take stock of their life and times,
I wish you all a very fine and happy solstice season, Christmans, Hannukah, Festivus, Kwanzzaa, or whatever else makes you happy.
I love this.
ReplyDeleteThe curse of sarah palin continues.
Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos get blown out by a lowly Buffalo Bills team, 40-14.
Tebow throws 4 interceptions, and the Broncos are 0-2 since palin 'blessed' Tim Tebow with her love.
No wonder every Republican refuses to answer the phone when she calls, asking if they would like her to endorse them for President.
I've seen that cute picture a lot this week and I decided to track it down. Turns out it's neighbors in a Chicago suburb - friendly fellows - who have the two houses. Here's a link to the UK Daily Mail with an article on it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1233485/DITTO-When-compete-neighbours-Christmas-lights-just-best-thing-.html
With the new generation of LED light etc. you won't even notice a rise in your electric bill, cheapskate.
ReplyDeleteLove it.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hanuka, Happy Kwanza,
Happy Something or other, ....
Oh to heck with it,
Happy Holiday to each and everyone.
Peace and love to all.
Happy Holidays to all the commenters here! Gryphen thanks for all that you do...You big "Hater" You!
ReplyDeleteThis is circling around on Facebook so I thought I would post it here today!
18 types of people on Facebook
We all have at least one of each of these types of friends on our list:
1.The “Lurker” – Never posts anything or comments on any post, but reads everything, and might make reference to your status if they ever see you in public.
2.The “Hyena” – Doesn’t ever really say anything, just “LOLs” and “LMAOs” at everything.
... ...
3.“Mr/Ms Popular” – Has 4367 friends for No reason.....
4. The “Gamer” – Plays “Words with Friends”, “Mafia Wars”, Bakes virtual cakes and stuff etc....ALL DAY
5.The “False Prophet” – Every Post makes reference to God or Jesus yet they do the opposite
6.The “Thief” – Steals status updates ...and will probably steal this one.
7.The “Cynic” – Hates their life, and everything in it, as evidenced by all the sombre tone in ALL of their status updates.
8.The “Collector” – Never posts anything either , but joins every group, and become fans of the most random stuff.
9.The “Promoter” – Always sends event invitations to things that you ultimately delete or ignore.
10.The “Liker” – Never actually says anything , but always clicks the “ like” button.
11.The “Hater” – Every post revolves around someone hating on them , they swear people are trying to ruin their life.
12.The “Anti-proofreader” – This person would benefit greatly from Spellcheck, and sometimes you feel bad for them because you don’t know if they were typing fast or really CAN’T spell.
13.“Drama Queen/King” – This person always posts stuff like “I can’t believe this!”, or “ They gonna make me snap today!”, in the hopes that you will ask what happened, or what’s wrong...but then they never finish telling the story.
14.“Womp Womp” – This person consistently tries to be funny....but NEVER is.
15.The “News” – Always updates you on what they are doing and who they are doing it with, no matter how arbitrary.
16.The “Rooster” - Feels that it is their job to tell Facebook “Good Morning”, “Good Night” Everyday...
17.The “Fronter/Faker” – Pretends everything in their life is so grand but deep down inside they are falling apart! Only tries to convince you they are better and we all know it isn’t true. There are also the fakers who would also post really nice comments like “hot!, “burrifful”, “lovely” about not-so-nice pictures and laugh behind their computers.
18.The “Ghost” – They come on Facebook once a year as if they were asked to pay annual rent when they signed up...
LOL! I'm "The Thief"...which one are you?
OT: My hometown team, The Buffalo Bills just beat up the Broncos 40-14. Four of Tebow's were intercepted. The Sarah Curse lives on!
ReplyDeleteBah Humbug Gryphen..I love all the Christmas lights on my street...Put them on a 4 hr timer and save some money while enjoying the season.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas & Happy Holidays to everyone, even Little Mi$$ $arah Quittypant$.
OT, Broncos lose big to Buffalo. Guess that Palin endorsement turns something else to shit.
ReplyDeleteBriliant!
ReplyDeleteNow I know that I just wished everybody a merry Christmas whether they wanted it or not. And I spent a lot of time talking about how the baby Jesus is a symbol of hope and peace and goodwill and stuff. But have you SEEN the Obamas' holiday card? OH MY GOD WORST THING EVER AMIRITE???
ReplyDeleteOkay so first of all it's a "holiday card," whatever the heck that is, and not a Christmas card. WAR ON CHRISTMAS. I don't care if people say they are calling it a "holiday card" because they want to be inclusive and respectful of people of all faiths. We all know that only Christians are true Americans. Or at least, the only ones that matter. I don't give a rip about people who call themselves Americans but who are not Christian, or at least willing to keep their mouths shut about it.
(Except the Jews, but I forget why. My advisors just tell me to suck up to Israel a lot, and wish people a happy Hanukah. No, I don't know why they didn't say I should wish people a happy Ramadan or whatever. I guess I would if they told me to. Whatever. Who can keep track?)
Second of all, I don't see anything about our foundational values! There is a reason they call those values "foundational"! I'm sure of it! And I'm pretty sure that "foundational" is a word! Because I said so, that's why!
Instead of depicting peace and Christian values like family, faith, and freedom, they have their dog, and a poinsettia, and some presents, and a crackling fire, and festive red and green bunting on the hearth. HOW DARE THEY SERIOUSLY IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY.
Now some people might say that "freedom" means "the freedom to celebrate the season however you want," or "the freedom to understand that not all Americans are Christian, and to respect people's faith." SOME PEOPLE. By which I mean, filthy hippies and terrorists. You and I both know, the only freedom in America is the freedom to worship Jesus Christ in as ostentatious a fashion as possible. That's why I joined a charismatic Pentecostal splinter church in the first place: because there's nothing as ostentatiously faith-y as speaking in tongues!
But hey, they do things differently in the White House. You and I know it. COUGH MUSLIM COUGH oh excuse me, I think I got some holiday cheer stuck in my throat!
http://secretdiaryofsarahpalin.com/news/that-dang-obama-holiday-card
Ha, took the picture on trash pick-up day. Had to print it to bring to my Christmas Eve family gathering.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
the lights are for the kids, they love it, they like christmas, it's not for yourself
ReplyDeleteAfter my divorce I was able to buy a small house on a street with friendly neighbors (compared to my former life unwillingly lived in the middle of nowhere). Decorated houses to the right of me and to the left of me, so I decorated to "fit in". For one year. I was paying for lights outside where I couldn't even see them just because everyone else did. I wish I'd thought of "ditto", but I just gave all the lighting crap away.
ReplyDeleteYa gotta see Brooklyn. I'll bet all the electric meters are spinning so fast they're sparking.
ReplyDeleteUs? No decorations--we have any one of three cats sitting in the front window at any one time, and we're very happy for that!
Holiday cheer to all my friends at IM--heck, even the trolls.
2012 should be a very innnnteresting year!
Gryph, just taking a break from running my butt off (we're hosting) to stop by to wish you & your family a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year :)
ReplyDelete~Canuck~ :)
Sarah Palin’s ‘Blood Libel’
ReplyDeleteThere are more than a few expressions that should stay out of politics, and in January, Sarah Palin made headlines when she used one of them. In the wake of Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting, the former Alaska governor fielded accusations that her polarizing rhetoric encouraged violence. Palin’s response—which might have been more controversial than her 2012 presidential guessing game—proved the point that her rhetoric was at least contentious, when she compared the accusations to the persecution Jews faced in Europe.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/12/14/the-biggest-political-blunders-of-2011-watch-video.html
What Christmas was like before it was "domesticated by the Victorians":
ReplyDeleteChristmas was for many centuries a very politically charged season, defined by inversions of the normal social order. Clement Clarke Moore’s famous 1822 Christmas poem “The night before Christmas” includes the line “out on the lawn there arose such a clatter/I sprang from bed to see what was the matter.” At the time the poem was written, disturbance on the lawn on Christmas Eve would have been not magical, but threatening, likely caused by drunken youths roaming the neighborhood, demanding gifts from respectable householders. This was an echo of older traditions, also subversive, which saw tenants and serfs demanding gifts and being given law-like powers in this “season of misrule.”
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/12/the-peoples-history-of-christmas.html
runor has it Sarah and Todd have a single red lamp illuminated outside their house. This can mean three things... 1: Sarah is once again locked inside her room not wanting anything to do with her family and the light is a warning for Santa to stay away. 2: Todd is running his prostitution business out of the the airplane hanger below Sarah's room and the girls are getting cranky.. or 3: Bristol is in heat again and the red light is to call any lonely moose upon her!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas and happy holidays to you, Gryphen !
ReplyDelete(and to the community here at IM)
Thanks for your insightful, informative, and funny posts...and for being my "home page."
Peace, and the love of good friends and family, to all.
SunnyVee
As a star gazer and amateur astronomer I feel the fewer lights the better. Not really a big fan of extra lighting messing up a perfectly dark viewing experience.
ReplyDeletewell if nobody put up christmas lights it would be pretty boring wouldn't it?
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas Gryphen and all the other Sarah "haters" out there. And what the heck, Merry Christmas to the Palins as well.
ReplyDeletePhoto (on Sullivan's blog) is from HappyPlace.com: http://www.happyplace.com/12596/laziest-lighting-job-in-christmas-history
ReplyDeleteThey have a lot of funny pics there.
I like Christmas lights; but not on my house. In the trees, baby; in the trees.
LOL I agree!
ReplyDeleteAnd those hideous blow up lighted action ornaments, that look like roadkill during the day and a psychotrpic drug enduced addicts dream by night be outlawed. In what universe do these look "Tasteful" or "festive"?
I don't understand the hostility from those who put up the decorations against those who don't.
ReplyDeleteWhen my kids were young, I couldn't afford a tree and presents. I chose to spend my money on food and clothes for the kids and maybe a toy because that was my priority.
Now that I have money - I still chose not to spend ANY of it on decorations made in China. No tree, wreaths, lights, Santas, tinsel, none of it!
I don't buy tons of gifts to give to every acquaintance.
There are so many people buying cheap junk just so they can give someone something (why not give of yourself in a relationship, spending time together, being a good listener?)
You have people driving around in bad weather, frantically searching for presents to give to all - then the day after Christmas, they stand in lines to exchange it.
My home is open to our family and their friends - we eat, play games and have conversations.
We have no gift wrap to throw away. When I buy a gift, I do so because I want to, not because a calendar instructs me this is what I should do.
To those who decorate your homes - please keep in mind to not create a fire hazzard and burn my house down with yours. Please don't have your blinking neon lights shining into my bedroom all night long.
You might believe that your home is a joy for everyone else, but the likelyhood is that while some love it - some couldn't care less if you decorated or not, and others are annoyed by the increased in traffic and exhaust fumes as drivers pass by. You don't need to play your Christmas carols for the heavens to hear.
Think about being a good neighbor -how would you feel if your neighbor erected lawn decorations that you didn't share an interest in (politically, religious, sexual, hunting, animal rights...) There are so many ways that you can get under the skin of others - so consider the reason for your decorating)
If it is about peace on earth and goodwill towards men - then you get more mileage from your interactions with others rather than what you purchase.
Every year, I hear people complain about the chore of getting a tree, decorating it, taking it down, the expense of it all.... then when they hear that I don't do that, they act as if I am the worse criminal.
My husband's former wife died from cancer. While she was alive, she was all about decorating for Christmas - lights, inflatables for the lawn and multiple decorated trees inside the house. After she died, we couldn't give any of the decorations to any of the adult children. I thought that these objects would be fond memories for the children, but none of them wanted any of it.
ReplyDeleteShe thought she was doing it all for the kids. I thought that was really sad. It's been 10 years since their mother died, and none of them decorate their homes for the holidays. They simply were not into it as much as their mother was.
Gryphen, I don't think you'd be so flippant about this if you'd actually bother to read the Scriptural references to Xmas decorations. It's all there if you'd just open your eyes. In god's own words he tells you how you can and cannot decorate your house. (hint: Clark Griswald is going to hell for sure). So you tempt gods wrath if you want to, but I'm going outside right now to staple some camel hides to the side of the house and secure MY eternal fate in heaven!
ReplyDeleteDitto, Anon2:41am.
ReplyDeleteLot's of Scrooge's on here, looking especially at 2:41am.
ReplyDeleteAnon 2:41, congratulations. Your anti-Christmas post is just as nauseatingly sanctimonious as Sarah Palin's Christmas message.
ReplyDeletebtw, some of you here might appreciate my neighbor's lawn..which is empty, except for the
ReplyDeleteGiant inflatable Homer Simpson in a Santa Claus suit!
Not kidding - this thing is, like, 8-10 ft tall.
I do not like it. Except, maybe, for Halloween?