2023 Christmas Shenanigans

Fri, 29 Dec 2023 12:07:00 -0600

Every year, I create a big photo book from our activities over the year. It's mostly of the kids, with some other family portrait or maybe one pet picture. I print off three copies, and those get given as gifts to both of the grandmothers and to Mrs. theskinnyonbenny.

Christmas night, 2023. Photo unrelated to this story for the most part...
It's a painstaking task. I arrow-down one by one through about 10,000 pictures we take over the course of a year, and pick the best few hundred to include. I let the web site arrange them, but then I have to go in and move things around, group them more logically, and give more prominence to better pictures. I'm usually doing this at 2:00 in the morning.

One of the pictures I selected from after my Dec. 2022 cutoff date as a picture that my whole family took at my dad's graduation. He had finished up his PHD in music composition. Either by going with the auto-generated placement or by accidentally doing a small drag with the mouse, I absolutely botched the placement of this one.

I cut my dad (the graduate) out of the picture, but left in his advisor, who is just a total random stranger to all of the rest of us.

That's Dad's graduation robe, over to the left.

The week before Christmas, I baked some Christmas cookies. One of my favorites has been a fig cookie, where I make a filling of mixed figs, raisons, brandy, sugar, chopped nuts, and spices, roll it into a tube, surround that with cookie dough, slice into pieces, and bake.

I don't know what I did wrong on this one, but my dough was very close to being a batter instead. I ended up having trouble shaping the cookies, and then for some reason, I had a lot of leftover filling.

I found that I could roll the filling into the size and shape of one of Rosie's turds, and it would look 100% authentic. Then, I spent two days where everyone who would come over would have to see me swear about the dog turd on the floor, followed by me picking it up bare-handed and finally taking a bite.

I didn't take a picture, and I don't even deserve to have a web site any more.

The best reaction I got was from V, whose eyes went wide with shock when I picked up the fake turd. Once I took a bite, he laughed and called me a jerk. The bite really gave up the prank. I should have tossed it in the trash and then absent-mindedly licked my fingers.

Listen to some of my dad's music:
Selected Compositions by Dan Schultz
I'll add that you should listen more than once. It can be tough to digest at first, but it grows on you as you get more familiar with it. The track "Currents" made my "Best of 2023" playlist.