I was thinking....
about how cute squirrels are and the way they keep showing up in advertising. (I think these are computer aided squirrels because they are more talented than the ones in my backyard. Just this morning, there was the cutest ad with an attack squirrel protesting the installation of critter-proof gutters.

Then I saw this article about a vicious squirrel on a rampage in the UK. Oh, well, I still think they’re cute. And I believe I read somewhere that squirrels cannot acquire rabies, so they are relatively safe. Which is good, because once this story gets around squirrels everywhere may start getting an ‘attitude.’

We used to get the occassional squirrel in our old house. One of the doors to the porch would be left open to get the breeze off the lake and some confused squirrels would wander in. (Lured perhaps by the Cheerios and other assorted food dropped by wandering toddlers?) I once walked into the living room to find a squirrel staring back at me from a table. I’m not sure which of us was the more surprised. Luckily, the little guy remembered how he came in and beat a hasty retreat.

Perhaps at Christmas I will write about the year the squirrel came down the chimney of the gas fireplace in the ‘playroom’ and ran up the Christmas tree for shelter. This is really, honestly true. I have not confused my real life with some scene from a National Lampoon movie. (I do watch Christmas Vacation just for the animal in the tree scene. Ah, the memories.) Actually, I think our Christmas experience was funnier. Right, Em?

The Santa Clause 2
Just to prove that my husband and I can take anything and turn it in to an argument, we went at it the other night over the Santa Clause. We both think it looks like a cute movie. I liked the original, especially the minor story line about the Oscar Meyer Wiener Whistle. My mother confiscated mine, too.

I voiced my skepticism about the correctness of a plot which involves Santa finding a wife. We know that Santa was married, then divorced, in the first movie. So, I asked with all good intentions, is Santa really free to marry? I will assume the Santa is Catholic. Of course, he has to be Catholic. He loves all children of all faiths but he has to be Catholic. Right? So, does he get an annulment? If there really is a “Mrs. Clause,” shouldn’t they have been more careful with the choice of a new Santa? This just seems very confusing to me. Of course I’ll have to see the movie so I can know how this dilemma is handled. Rick’s position - Give it a rest. It’s a children’s movie. Can’t you just enjoy some fun?

But why muddle the little ones’ minds with bad ideas? (And we’re working here on the assumption that we’re OK with the Santa concept, which I know some people find to be a bad idea anyway.) I am comfortable with my children believing in Santa. I am not comfortable with children growing up believing in spousal fungibility. So this doesn’t have that much to do with my trouble with the willful suspension of disbelief. (And to those family members who think I can’t suspend my disbelief, I offer Brigadoon, one of my favorite musicals. If singing, dancing Scotsmen who sleep one hundred years at a stretch doesn’t require some suspension of disbelief, than no fiction does.)

Catalog Watch 2002 cont.
Williams-Sonoma can send me a fresh free range turkey for just $93 plus $15 shipping. Think we’ll pass.

The American Girl doll catalog has a variety of temptations, including a Native American Girl. She even has a teepee and little campfire. And they now have a series of smaller dolls from around the world. There is Isabel, from Elizabethan England, which I would love to get for my niece whose middle name is Isabel after my late mother.

This stuff is just so neat, I am better off without money. I could go berserk. Someday I should come up with the money to have Bridget’s Kirsten doll sent back for a head transplant. About ten years ago I bought her a Kirsten and some accessories (it had been a very good year and I was less than honest with Rick about how much the total cost was). So Bridget had an American Girl doll just like all of her friends. I neglected to tell her not to ‘play’ too vigorously with Kirsten and in the short time it took me to dress for Mass on Christmas morning the doll’s meticulous braids were undone and she never looked quite the same. Grandma has a Kirsten that she dresses up for various occassions and sets in an antique high chair. We are not allowed to touch Kirsten. That’s why she still looks good.