Welcome to the Holiday Drinking Season

Had the first celebrations/libations of the 2009 Holiday Drinking Season last night. And let me tell you, I was a giant pantywaist. My in laws are what I like to call "wine reliable" -- they know what's tasty and they keep in stock. Their laundry room is something of a wine cellar.

(Sidebar: Once, when the husband I were just dating about six or seven years ago, we were house sitting for my in laws. We were told to help ourselves to anything we wanted. So we picked out a bottle of desert wine and drank it. From plastic cups. Needless to say, we did not let the bottle "breathe." So the in laws come home and we head back home. After a while, they discovered the discarded wine bottle in the trash. My mother in law was proud her son actually drank something besides beer, so she grabbed the bottle out to see what kind he'd partaken. Oh, it was just the $500 super special bottle of anniversary wine! OOPS.)

So last night, the good stuff was flowing and usually I can be counted on to do my part of bottle emptying. Except that I've come down with my Annual Christmas Disease. It varies year-to-year. Last Christmas it was highly contagious intestinal fang-toothed worms. Okay, not worms, but that's what it felt like. I have never been so sick in my entire effing life. (Hi sisses, y'all are so welcome I gave you that! Merry Christmas 2008!) This year it has manifested itself as some sort of sinus funk complete with crippling eye pain, swollen throat and headache. And SNOT. Oh the mucus! Granted, its not nearly as miserable because, you know, I'm not pooping my way up the eastern seaboard like last year. Yeah, did I not mention that part? Last year, when I got sick, I was in the car traveling. Nothing like stopping at every public restroom between Mississippi and Virginia!

I was sick for five days. Violently ill. But suddenly, the day of Christmas I was miraculously healed. Praise the baby Jesus, a Christmas miracle! And then, as soon as I was all YES, I AM CURED! My sisters -- one of which was eight months pregnant -- start blowing it out both ends. Yes, I just gave them an parasite. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

So, this snot thing is totally okay with me. I'm feel privileged to have it, like YES, I DID SOMETHING RIGHT THIS YEAR. I feel like I won the lottery. And not just the scratch off. Sinus funk is the power ball. True story, yall.

Snowing

Yes, its snowing like a mofo in downtown Houston, Texas.

They're predicting up to five inches. It started at about 8 a.m. and hasn't slowed up. The flakes keep getting bigger.