So this is Christmas...
I am a grinch. I am a grinch whether it is a holiday or not. I am basically a Bah-Humbug-Cranky McGrumpster all year round. Some may attribute this to the fact that my mom died, but I'm pretty sure I've been like this since I turned...ten? Maybe before. One day I'll be a cranky old lady chasing littles off with a broom. It is my destiny.
But I did get to see many of my tiny friends on Christmas and Christmas eve.
We open up presents from family and friends on Xmas Eve, and then prezzies from Santa on Christmas Day.
These two were there:

Playing nicely. Sitting on the stairs, eating apple slices. One of them might have been in time out at the start of it...I don't always pay attention.
The Bear was there:

I made Loch this green lantern shirt that the parchment paper kind of...ruined. But he still liked it. I fretted and fretted over it because I lame-o waited until the last minute to make them and at twelve o'clock on Tuesday night, I burned the back or something...but he asked to put it on right away! A greater compliment was never paid!

Aunt Gee got everyone Detective kits, with a Sherlock Holmes hat, magnifying glasses and a pipe! When we were getting ready for my Pop's party a month ago, the kids started poking at my mini lemon meringues and I was like "Get out of here..." and Loch said "We're inmestigatin'" and I said " Go inmestigate Aunt Gee's belly. She's got something in there." Next thing I know, I hear " What are you doing?" and "Feather told us to..." You can draw your own conclusion about the events that occured. So, Aunt Gee got them the Detective kits, although Carter thinks they are Protectives.


A couple of hours later, everyone was exhausted...

Christmas Day brought us the Christmas train:

Conducted by this guy:

Assisted by Beanie:

Tickets taken by Grandpa/Peepah, who would take your ticket and then make you cough up money for a new one...

Cass's mom, Sanya, joined us! And Joe had picked up a little something special for her!\

It's a hat that says "Jesus is my boss". She said the ladies at the nun house were going to love it!
Peepah got suckered by Seanie Bear and gave him a gazillion marshmellows...

which Seanie put into his mouth all at once.
By this time next year, we'll have a couple of new babies at Christmas:

Gail and Joe's first-Baby Noodles--Superfly Noodles, by their account. And he's a boy baby!
Cass and Rich are having another girl baby!

Don't worry! That's not a real pipe!
Later that day, me and Pop joined Gail and Joe at the Feehan's for dinner and it was delicious. Two kinds of potatoes! My kind of dinner!
And Inez entertained us with some tricks!

So, bah humbug. Merry merry.
The library has no running water today, so all anyone can think about is going to the bathroom--as soon as someone tells you that you can't go, you gotta go...right?

Happy Birthday to my Gail!
Now, this blog is somewhat picture-intensive (as I am somewhat picture-intensive), but I love almost all pictures of my Gail, from little to big, and so I will be posting MORE picture than usual.
My sister Gail is going to be somebody's mother, which is completely weird and completely cool. I like being an aunt. I'm good at being an aunt. Gail is going to be great at being a mom (and Joe will be a great dad).
I spend a lot of time with my Gail, which is why I have so many pictures of her. She'll tell you she's shy, and she is, but she's also a ham. She totally can't help it. Every single person in my family is a ham. My brothers' kids are all hams. It is part of being a Meagher. It is part of our charm.
For anyone who doesn't know my sister, I will tell you these things (pictures may or may not be related to Gail-facts):

1) She sings wonderful harmony, and has a high quality musical ear.

2) Her favorite song is Zippity Doo Dah.

3) She is brilliant, but her best skills lie in her ability to do gigantic tasks that no one else can even forsee completing.

4) She is very pretty, but will wear some terribly terrible clothes if they are comfortable and/or warm. It is baffling, and yet it is what it is.

5) She is very funny. One of the funniest people I know.

6) She is very kind.

7) When we were kids, she was scared of most animals. Now, though she is not necessarily fond of animals, they flock to her like she's Dr. Doolittle. Seriously. If you have a meanie cat or a standoffish dog, they'll follow Gail around and she'll just ignore them. It's totally weird. Like she was touched by God or something.

8) She wants your food. Not all of it. Just some to try. But if it's yours, and you look happy eating it, she'll want to try it. So if you don't like to share, look a little miserable while eating.

9) She loves birthdays! She loves presents! A bracelet out of the vending machine is as beautiful as a new pair of shoes...she just loves to get presents. Joe understands this about her.


10) Gail and Joe are happy together, and that makes me happy together with them. Yes, I am their third wheel. But I like it. We're a tricycle!

11)If you call her a fishwife, you are in trouble! She will correct you! "I am a shrew."

12) She likes to fix your problems.

13) She is the boss. She is the boss of me. She is the boss of Joe. And guess what? She's the boss of you! You just don't know it. You'd fight it if you knew. But you don't. And she's still the boss of you.


14) She can be very mean, and I like that a lot. We are mean together, against the world--hardly ever mean against each other.


15) She's my favorite person in the whole wide world.

Introducing...
(cue the music) Doo doo doo doo...

Baby Paul Lynch! (a.k.a Lynchboy, Baby Paulie, Petit Bebe, and My New Friend)
I can't tell you how big he is. I can't tell you how much he weighs. But here's another picture:

And a little closer up:

He is very cute. And very smart. And everybody's doing well. I went over there last night to take xmas pics, and Theresa said "Heather! Heather! Come meet our new baby!"
And she was psyched to hold him in the Christmas picture.
I have chosen an example that you will not be getting in the mail:

Those girls are happy with that baby! He is a lucky baby to be blessed with such nice sisters, and a nice big family in general!
So, welcome Baby Paulie! May you stay the eating and sleeping machine that you are! And congrats Lynch family! New babies are a lot of fun!

Can't Skate without "Kate"!
It's Katie's 30th Birthday month, and for the occasion she wanted an old fashioned Hot Skates Party!!!
But Hot Skates was closed...so we had a (new-fashioned) roller skating party at United Skates of America, which was different than Hot Skates, but had the essence of it...(yes, same rollerskatey smell). Colleen had declared the night to be 80s inspired, so we worked hard on our costumes. More than once I heard that our costumes resembled that of prostitutes, but to paraphrase Colleen :"I'd make a lot more money in a different outfit".
Here we are in our finery:

Mr. and Mrs. O came to hang, with Mrs. O skating, and Mr. O taking awesome pictures with my camera. I was not a great skater, so I definitely couldn't skate and take pictures.
Some of the ladies:

We are on skates here:

Photo Montage:

Afterward, we went out. It snowed. More than one person may have put on adult diapers over their clothes. There may have been a travelling private party. Kate's mom may have tried to hook us up with some young men. We definitely acquired some free beer cozies. People drifted in, people drifted out. A lot of people couldn't or didn't come. Some were sick. Some were too cozy in their houses.
We drank.
Kate danced on her chair for a little while. Journey was on the radio. Just a smalltown girl...

The bouncer came for her, though. She said to him, "I was expecting you."

And then everybody went home. Except the dirty stay-outs.
Kate, Colleen and I were left. We walked over to the diner.



All in all, a wonderful time!
Sunday, we went to the new outlets in Deer Park. Kate, Colleen, Alicia and I shoppyshopshopped at some outlet stores. I personally messed up the front display table at Ann Taylor where the ladies who worked there were more than a little snotty. We tried on hats. I tried to wear a moose sweater. We went to the Christmas Tree Shop, which I wish was a Shoppe. We ate at Ruby Tuesdays, where they convinced me to put my faith in them again. And, the man at Zales took out a bunch of diamond rings for us to look at. He said we could put them on, but Alicia said it's bad luck. I didn't put it on because my hands are like little sausage rolls. One of my friends says they are like the guy from that movie Willow. But the man put on one of the rings. It made his hairy knuckles look downright elegant. I don't really like jewelry. I think jewelry stores are boring. But I wish he had tried on a necklace and tiara to go with the ring. Anyway, it was fun. We had fun. I bought a lot.
So, to sum up:
To my friend Kate, who is one of the kindest, most generous people I know: I loveys you, friend. Happy Birthday! I will go roller skating every day! It is a wonderful form of exercise and ever so much fun!
And if you are bored, you should check out your local Christmas Tree Shop! You will not regret it, I assure you...

Almost two months later, we celebrate!

Well, for Pop's birthday, we threw him a party.

Actually, Gee said "So, what? You want a party or what?"

And Dad said, "Oh, no. A party is too much trouble..."

And Gail said, "Okay. So who do you want to invite?"

Then Baby Noodles in Gail's belly said she couldn't work on the party because she was just. not. feeling. good. And Baby Noodles in Gail's belly said she just. better. concentrate. on. growing. a. baby.

So, instead of Gail handling everything...she handled just most things.

I was in charge of

1. invitations (which I messed up--sorry lady at the wrong phone number who got plenty of RSVPs for my Dad's party)

2. decorations - ABSOLUTELY NO BALLOONS "But Heather," you may say, as others did before you, "children love balloons. Children and grownups! Love balloons! Balloons are festive!"

NO! I say. No balloons. Balloons are lame-o! Balloons ruin the world! Balloons are dangerous and I hate them! There's never enough to make a real statement and I cringe while looking at children playing with them, waiting for the balloon to pop, waiting for that loud sound while they grab the balloon too tight...I hate balloons. And it's stupidly spelled. So, we made tissue paper pompoms and garland ourselves and it was fine. My cake plates, however, fell apart. Before transport. And maybe I cried a little bit, but it's because I loved them so... So, I'm 0 for 2.

3. Some desserts - Cupcakes and mini lemon meringue pies. Done. Good. Except the cupcakes weren't iced right...and I forgot the blue dye for them...so I'm 0 for 3.

4. Some party favors! I did that okay, but really I just ordered them, Gail found 'em.

5. Pictures! I did that a-okay!

As you can see, one of the party "activities" was a photo op with my Pops! While wearing spectacularly big glasses (just like his!)

For more pictures, view the set on Flickr of Dad's 70th Celebration Spectacular!
We had a great time! Gail did a great powerpoint, John and Rich kept all the kiddies occupied (an admirable job, including "pin the glasses on Peepah!). And...my poor little cakeplates!

Thanksgiving also gave way to this picture:

Introducing: The Professor! Things that make you go "HMMM".

I'll leave off with a couple of pictures of my other friends:
Miss Carter!

Mr. Seanie Bear Meagher!

I also convinced my friends to make a second Thanksgiving dinner in January. Yum. Turkey stuffing and cranberry sauce...all over again.