learnin from the oldies.

the local "oldies" station has transitioned to "all xmas-holiday music all the time" as a format for today.

listening to that, i discovered santa outsourcing i hadn't previously been aware of. apparently, the reindeer are incapable of traversing the mountains in italy, leading to "dominic the christmas donkey" filling in when santa visits his paisans.

i had no idea.

my xmas day

since i'm still laid up, i didn't go anywhere today, and part of my family came to me. the day started out pleasantly -- i taped saran wrap all over the dressing area and then showered. afterwards, i made breakfast and then lit a bunch of candles all over the house and settled down for some quality loafing with a cat in my lap and a blanket over me settled down in a comfy chair.

one of my brothers came over in the late afternoon, quickly followed by my parents (my stepmother hadn't seen the place before, and both were impressed by the holiday display across the street). they brought tasty leftover christmas dinner including ham, potato, and an unusual sausage thing described as a "south african kielbasa" (lamb-based, with some unusual spices - maybe something like cardamom and other things i couldn't quite identify) that was all good. i plied them all with the tasty bread a friend brought over yesterday.

we all hung out and my dad snoozed on my couch and then they headed out and i curled up to loaf some more, then made the big hike up the stairs to settle in front of the tv and watched "the road to perdition" with dessert.

life is good. yes, indeed.