HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year, Jolly Ramadan! Here it is, that time of year again (no one has to tell you what "that time of year" is). Tis the season to be dealt with, as I like to say, and we're doing fairly well, although I don't have any holiday shopping done yet. I'm just proud that the tree is up. Also, I baked two dozen cookies for Steve to take to his holiday potluck at work, so I've done the holiday kitchen thing, as well. Don't even ask what we're having for Christmas dinner. I haven't thought that far ahead.

Mom (see octogenarian entry below) e-mailed saying she missed the blog entries. So have I. I've been struggling to get back onto this blog site in order to update. I think I've finally figured it out, at least from here at home. I will spare you the technical details, but I hope it means more regular entries.

Let's start with the weekend with sister Kittie and her husband Dave. They came down the first week in December, just in time to go out for dinner at Panda Inn, a really nice Chinese restaurant here in Pasadena. Lots of rich food. Really great time.

We came back home and, after a little libation, I chucked up my dinner. Doesn't happen often. This is the second time this millenium. Felt much better afterwards. Once I convinced everyone I was feeling much better, we went to sleep.

Saturday we headed out to the Reyne Cafe up on Lake Avenue, which is our traditional weekend breakfast place. Everyone there was delighted to meet some of my relatives and said awful things about me, which touched my heart. Breakfast was lovely, and it stayed down with no problem. Then, after parting wisecracks, we were off to the Magic Kingdom and California Adventure.

I have access to four free passes a year, being a member of the press, so this was kind of my gift to Kittie and Dave (at least it explains why I didn't get them anything else for Christmas).

After picking up our passes at Guest Relations (no standing in long lines for us...just yet), we headed into Disneyland and decided upon the Pirates of the Carribean ride as our first Disney holiday experience. The park was incredibly crowded, and we cursed the hostile parents who use their children's strollers as battering rams to attack the crowds of brain-dead people standing right in the middle of everything, not quite sure of where they are. The line at Pirates wasn't too long, and after about 30 minutes, we were at the head of the line...and the ride stopped.

They kept us there for about 15 minutes, and then announced that the ride was closed. Not an auspicious beginning, but we were undaunted and headed for the Haunted House. You can see from the picture that the line was infinite. The little sign at the entry said the wait was only 45 minutes. An hour and a half later, we figured out that the sign had lied.

It was interesting that I ran into a former coworker from the Daily Journal while in line. What a flash from the past.

The Haunted House has been totally rebranded with "The Nightmare Before Christmas," and it's much lamer than the original ride. Kind of a letdown after all that waiting.

Here the day becomes a blur for me. I recall getting FastPasses for the Indiana Jones ride and spending time trying to find something worth buying as a souvenir (hopefully with a holiday theme that we could put on the tree). The general memory of the day is crowds, crowds and more crowds. And Disney-style crowd control with underpaid "cast members" waving glowing flashlight wands and preventing anyone from getting where they wanted to go.

We spent time in California Adventure, I recall. We went on Soaring Over California during the parade, so there were no lines and we got right through. Then Steve bought a Disney homey cap (wool cap to the white people out there) to keep his head warm, since the night was getting chilly.

We got there about noon and headed back home about nine o'clock. We could hear the fireworks going off in the park as we loaded ourselves into the car in the parking structure and headed home. We had all walked plenty, eaten the requisite amount of unnecessary food and had a really good time.