A Happy Christmas and Very Merry Hannukah to You

Hello my marshmellow friends!

I hope that you are having a wonderful holiday season! Here are some tips to make things better all around:

1. At the Annual Family Poker Tourney, let your mom win a hand without berating her for limping with AK in the cutoff.

2. Compliment your mom for the lovely holiday meal - tell her the yams were your very favorite and ask her what her secret was.

3. Don't let her see the yams as you sneak them from your plate to your napkin to your purse.

4. Replace your gleeful screams of "SHIP IT!" every time you win a hand at the AFPT , maybe replacing the exclamation with "HO HO HO BITCHES!"

5. Got hard-to-please surly teens on your list? Everybody loves iTunes!

6. Go pick up a clever Trophy for the winner of the AFPT instead of making everyone buy in for $100 - everyone will be more relaxed when they aren't playing for their Holiday Savings. Then you can clean up on side bets!

7. Your mom wants a Spa Gift Certificate.

8. Lookout... your 19 year old nephew read a couple of poker books this year. He is trapping your TPTK with a set.

9. Don't drink too much! Especially since your 19 year old nephew is 420 with the scrumph.

10. Stop overthinking it all. Find one thing to love about as many members of your family as you can and write them down. One day you will look back and be glad you had good thoughts about your family. Or you will have something to rip up and burn in a cleansing bonfire ceremony.


I leave you with this exchange between fh and myself:


[14:03] husband: happy christmas
[14:03] husband: :)
[14:03] factgirl: why thank you Happy Kwanza to you
[14:03] husband: internet purchase complete!
[14:03] factgirl: you just got me something?
[14:03] factgirl: :D
[14:03] husband: hope it gets posted in time
[14:04] husband: if not, you'll just have to trust me
[14:04] factgirl: not a problem - I wont be able to drive it until after the new year anyway
[14:04] husband: how'd you know i got you a broom?

New Little Blogging Bird

So hellcat has a blog - she writes it, I help her edit and spellcheck - but otherwise its all her.

http://thegreenbirdy.blogspot.com/

Check it out - though it is even lighter than mine on the poker content.

Things to learn from the Irish:

Feeling myspacey? visit my new myspace thingy.

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Things to Learn from the Irish

Charity: I used to think of charity as making cash donations or buying candy from the kids to benefit sports teams. Here, charity is a way of life - nearly all the Christmas cards people send benefit a worthy cause. Every week I get more than one visit from someone collecting for the sick, the disabled, or people living in poverty. There are stickers delivered to put on bags of clothes that are sent to impoverished nations. The local church supports an orphanage in Africa. People here think of helping others every single day. The only other person I have ever met who does this much good every day is Miss Cheri!

Environmental Awareness: They go out of their way to recycle - driving (or, just as often, walking) their glass bottles to the local collection point, turning off not just the on/off switches, but the pilot lights of appliances, and warming themselves with sweaters (jumpers) and using the heating systems only when necessary.

Conversation: Though I think this one may be disappearing a bit with the influx of immigrants, the Irish are nearly always ready to stop what they are doing and have a good chat. There is a easy way about the people here, they are genuinely pleased to meet you.

Nurturing Children: My observation the other day after seeing the kids schools was that the Irish schools seem to challenge the kids academically, but nurture them socially. For instance, my daughter's class is learning "joined up letters" (handwriting), but each morning there is play dough set out for them. In California, the play dough was out in kindergarten, but they wont be starting handwriting until third grade.

Calling Boys Lads: My son played soccer with the lads this morning at school. Hy husband went drinking with the lads last weekend. (they each have their own set of lads.)

Try some of these and see how grand it is to do Irish stuff.