Elvis Lives

Final chapter in the skull ring story.

I wrote recently about Tony Creed.

Today, after being assured that I wasn’t going to get a ring for xmas, this showed up in a small black box under my tree:

Tony Creed rules. Take a look at what it says under the eye sockets in the skull. That’s right, Elvis Lives. Tony did that because he wanted to, because he liked my name and wanted to make a ring that said “Elvis”. We didn’t know that’s what we were getting; we just ordered the 13.

I’d buy more jewelry from Tony in a minute. The dude’s just cool. The ring is beautiful. Exactly what I wanted.

It was a good christmas. Ok, so it wasn’t a pagan orgy, but I’ve gotten used to that. But it was relaxed and quiet; the more annoying family members were not there this year, we had very close friends around, christmas eve and morning, and much love was shared all ’round. We also ate way too much but that’s part of the season.

My kids got through the day with very, very little fighting. They did wake me up at 6am (After — um — santa was up til 1:30am putting together a small flotilla of Playmobile ships), but all things considered it wasn’t bad. No one got a real stinker of a gift, and I managed to mostly avoid pissing people off.

Now, I’m looking forward to sleeping my way though Boxing Day.

We’re planning to change the family party next year. My generation all sort of agree; the party we’ve been having for thirty-some years needs an update. Food with a little more life, a less rigidly organized entertainment portion of the evening, maybe add a little wine to the menu. Anything to un-stiffen the evening while keeping the core traditions alive. They’re obviously not letting me plan anything, because I’d make it “food, drink, entertainment, and a sit-down orgy for forty”, but whatever we do, it should make for a celebration more in keeping with the makeup of the family today.

Ok, maybe they’ll let me bring my own dancing girl.

Another christmas survived. Now I’m looking forward to a little time off, and if I’m lucky, I might even get some writing done.