No Title Except That It's Keithmas Once Again

Well, don't say I didn't decorate this year because obviously I have. I even had to buy AA batteries to fuel the lights on the tree and I went out of my way to get the lights themselves at the Walgreens which had them on sale for $3.50 a string. 

Ho-motherfucking-ho. 

Today was almost as good as yesterday was bad. First off, Owen got out of school early because of exams and he offered to pick up his mama to go to lunch and asked her to invite anyone who could come. That turned out to be Jessie and me and we had such a good time. Well, Jessie and Lily and I did. Owen probably not as much. The poor kid had to listen to us cackling like hens over our Pho as we discussed various things that sixteen-year old boys do not necessarily want to hear but he's used to it. We are not your typical family. He's such a good boy to tolerate us. 
Here are the after pictures. 

That Moon gene is a powerful thing, isn't it? 

Lily likes to get pictures of Owen and me because I make him look so very tall. As if he actually wasn't. 
I just love to smoosh up next to Owen. He makes me feel so loved. 

I went to Costco after that to get Maggie's Christmas present and at this point, I have almost finished the gift shopping except that I have nothing yet for Glen. What in the world do you give a man who literally buys everything he might want himself? A new paint roller? A box of shotgun shells? Hearing aids?

Oh yeah. We already got those. 
I'll probably do what I always do which is to go to Bass Pro Shop and get him some things that he can take back and exchange for the things he really wants. 

But I feel so very good, having gotten the children's and grandchildren's gifts taken care of although there is still the wrapping to do and I am just the worst wrapper. I take no joy or pride in it. Are you shocked? I actually paid two dollars apiece to the WhirleyPop company to have those things wrapped. I guess Glen's getting the one I bought for us as a present. Does that count? Sure. He's the one who eats all the popcorn. 

After Costco...off to the bank. Ms. Cynthia helped me and she got 'er done. At least in theory. I believe her. It was so confusing but she just powered through it all, telling those people on the other end of the phone line what was what and she knew all the right words and codes and EVERYTHING! Of course I felt like an ass, not even being able to find my credit union's app on my own phone. I needed that for purposes I do not need to mention here but she found the app on my own phone and then I went to open it and of course I had no idea what my password is and then I found it but by that time, we were way past that and TA-DAH! it was done. 
I thanked her fifty times and wished her the happiest, merriest, most love-filled, holy Christmas ever and got in my car and drove away. 
Here are the hives I developed as I sat on the other side of her desk, not being able to find an app on my own phone.

Eh. I get those all the time. These disappeared quickly. 

And now I'm home and I am going to cook some tofu although I'm not sure what I'm going to cook with it. Cabbage, I think, because I have some of that. I'm pretty excited. 

But of course, the big news of today is that it is Keith Richards 82nd birthday and as I said, the other day, the 42nd anniversary of his marriage to Patti Hansen. 

For any of you who have no idea why I am so enamored with Keith Richards, I won't even try to explain. I have written so many posts about this strange and true obsession but here, I think, is the very beginning of how it happened. It all started fifteen years ago when I bought Keith's memoir, Life, and although perhaps the embers have cooled a tiny bit, the fire is still strong within me. 
Go ahead, roll those eyes. I do not care. 
There are days when the most positive thing I can think of is that Keith Richards is still alive and still playing guitar and is still there for his wife, his children, his grandchildren and that he has never given up. 
No matter how bad it got for him, he held on to his guitar, his music, his band, his mates. 
And there has never been another like him and there never will be. 

There are rumors going around on the internet about Keith's health but I am not going to address them. Partially because rumors are just that- rumors, and partially because the man has defied death too many times to count, and mostly because as I told Lily once when she asked me how I'd be if he died, I will not be okay. 

He just played at a benefit to raise funds for research on Frontotemporal Degeneration and that is reassuring. 

Anyway, here's a video the Stones posted at least eleven years ago on Keith's birthday and I'll never not love it. 

Happy birthday, Keith Richards. 

Gold rings on ya. And whatever combination of genes and love and music and magic you have used to stay here with us, keep on using it as long as you can. 

Love...Ms. Moon