As I always do, I spent Christmas with my sister’s family near Baltimore. However, my sister’s daughter-in-law—my middle nephew’s wife—was with us for the first time. She shared one of her family’s traditions with us. Her grandmother was from Wales, and there’s a Christmas tradition in the UK called crackers. There are not small wafers on which you put cheese. These are cylinders that two people pull on from either side, as in a tug-of-war. The cylinder breaks (sometimes with a loud bang, hence the “cracker”), and fun stuff falls out. Among these items are the paper crowns that the British wear on Christmas (and I’d seen these in movies). In addition, these crackers had long, skinny balloons in them—the kind you build balloon animals out of. There were also directions on how to make particular animals out of balloons, though, frankly, these were kind of telegraphic. Nonetheless, we managed. Here’s a photo of our day’s work at animal construction:
It was interesting and fun to explore another family’s traditions for Christmas. It’s certainly the first time I’ve ever constructed balloon animals. (Maybe a new career is ahead of me? Probably not.) Given that my nephew and his wife are probably going to alternate families for the holidays (and hers lives in Utah—quite a distance from Baltimore), we may not see them next year, but next time she comes, we will probably do this again.
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From Tamar:
Crashing Vor makes this perfect comment summing up a big part of the Trump-Putin connection. From Dartagnan’s recommended post on the Democrats’ threatened minority report on the Trump-Russia investigation.
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This comment by gardnerhill with a dead-o description of Republican voters and the strategy GOP politicians use to placate them. From Mark Sumner’s front page post on stupid chaos behind the scenes at the White House.
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