Christmas

Holiday Office Party

Brianne Bilyeu, , 850 Comments

Hi everybody!

drnick

 

The days and nights have been just packed. I’ve had no time for catching up on current events or really having much of a life, and so no blogging. It’s been a whirlwind of holiday cooking, shopping, wrapping, and decorating.

Today is the office holiday potluck! Last night I diced 10 tomatoes, eight limes, two onions, chopped two bunches of cilantro, smashed an entire bulb of garlic, and slow-cooked eight pounds of carnitas overnight. The house smelled really good this morning.

The four of us who share an office have decorated it to the nines for the cube decorating contest. Live tree and all, yo. People are really getting in to it this year. I spent an hour on Sunday making ornaments (images of our company’s products taped onto ornaments), my officemate made garland out of expired plastic labware over the weekend, we saw one of our coworkers carrying a surge protector to his cube, and another guy brought in a working electric train set. Unfortunately I can’t post photos of the cube decorations because there’s too much confidential paperwork in the background of all the shots, but believe me when I say that it is a fabulously festive office environment this year.

I can share this photo:

Ugly Sweater Contest
My “Ugly Sweater Contest” entry. Once seen, it can never be unseen.

Happy holidays to those of you who celebrate!

Holiday Office Party
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Christmas Is Not Your Birthday

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , 1,048 Comments

Today’s photo was submitted by Louise Kellar.

In a message designed to speak out against the crass commercialism of the holiday season, Smith Valley United Methodist Church in Indiana would like to remind you that Christmas is not your birthday. It would have added an extra layer of meaningfulismness if they had written “Christmas is not your birthday”, but maybe they couldn’t find italicized sign letters. That’s cool. No judgment. We work with what we have, as I and Sigourney Weaver always say.

But if they had italicized “your”, they’d be implying that Christmas is Jesus’s birthday, which would, of course, be taking HUGE historical license because everyone knows that if Jesus existed he was not born on December 25th, which is – I’m going to assume – the date that Smith Valley United Methodist Church assigns to Christmas.

I do have two mortal, non-supernatural entity friends who were born on December 25th and who both bitch about having their birthdays on Christmas, so I hope they never see this sign because I’d hate for them to get confused.

Christmas Is Not Your Birthday

Cross-Country Connections: Together

Brianne Bilyeu, , 802 Comments

Cross-Country Connections is a Biodork weekly blog entry dedicated to telling stories in pictures of three family members – me, my sister and Mom – living in very different locations across the country. Every week we choose a different theme and then take or contribute a personal photo that fits the theme. This week’s theme is Together.

This week is a little bit different. First – it’s late. Last Friday the Hubby and I left on holiday and didn’t get home until Tuesday. I started editting photos yesterday, and finally have my #$%@ together for CCC today.

This year we drove down to Woodstock, Illinois for the third annual Christmas Gathering At Aunt Leigh’s House. Aunt Leigh has a beautiful house with lots of rooms – enough to put up 14 of us on our busiest night!

Second, Mom, Erin and I didn’t take photos. Instead, we had the Hubby take a group photo of the three of us. We brought the CCC gang to one living room in a completely new location.

From Mom, me and Erin in Woodstock, Illinois:

Mom, me and Erin in front of the Christmas tree in Aunt Leigh’s living room.

And one more bonus shot. I was pleased to have remembered my tripod (I’d be more pleased if I hadn’t forgotten it in Woodstock when we came home to Minneapolis). We were able to take a group shot of everyone who made it to Christmas this year.

First Row: Aunt Leigh, Cousin Haley, Uncle-in-Law Greg, Cousin Sidney, Aunt Diane, Grandma Betty, Mom
Second Row: Me, the Hubby Aaron, Brother-in-Law Ralph, Sister Erin

Leigh, Haley and Greg live in Woodstock. Sidney and Diane came up from Springfield, Illinois. Grandma Betty is from Vienna, Illinois. Mom is from Carbondale, Illinois. Me and the Hubby are from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ralph and Erin are from Bellingham, Washington.

Hooray for family, and for making these Cross-Country Connections in person.

Happy Holidays.

Cross-Country Connections: Together

Axial Tilt is the RFTS

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , 281 Comments

I saw this over at Le Cafe Witteveen and it gave me a good chuckle.

It’s a fun counter to “Let’s put Christ back in Christmas”.  Jeremy at Le Cafe also mentions “Put Saturn back in Saturday”, and on Facebook I saw a “Put Woden back in Wednesday”.

I’m all about celebrating a humanist Christmas – love your fellow man, give to charities, celebrate the season with friends and family.  But let’s remember the Solstice roots and history of this time we call Christmas, and maybe not get too uppity because some of us chose to not include little baby Jesus in our festivities.

Oh damn.  Little Baby Jesus.  Now I have to play this.

Axial Tilt is the RFTS