A Christmas Tradition

For the past 10 (or so) years, I have purchased daily calendars for JoAnna, Andy and Eddie. I guess you could call them stocking-stuffers, except for the fact that the Christmas stockings hanging off the fireplace mantel are that stretch-y.

For Andy, the selection usually boils down to sports vs. TV. TV won out for the 2009 calendar year.

I have to admit I'm not particularly fond of Family Guy. I've yet to sit through an entire episosde. Every time I pause to take in a torrent of wisecracks, though, I bring up the following analogy.....

Alice Kramden:Wilma Flintstone::Kitty Forman:Lois Griffin.

...only to be derisively hooted down every time.

I'm not backin' off, though.

Eddie, a big fan of the comics and graphic novels, eagerly shares some of his favorites with me. This year I rewarded him for his persistence.

I used to be a regular reader of the comics page. I have fond memories of my roommates and I reading and analyzing B.C. during our freshman year of college (a reminiscence worthy of its own post) and being a disciple of Doonesbury through the 1970s and early 1980s. (Still have the well-worn anthologies to prove it.) Then I just fell out of the habit. Until a year ago, only This Modern World was required reading.

Then Eddie suggested a certain strip found on the Wisconsin State Journal's "funny pages". (Does anyone even use this term anymore?)

'You'll like it," he insisted. "It has your kind of humor."

And so it does.
For JoAnna, I tend to use her French heritage as a buying guide, but how many Manet calendars can one person buy in a decade? This year I decided I'd get something that both of us can enjoy!

The calendar's format is to present a recipe and then follow it up for 2 or 3 days with variations on a theme. I've tried the first 2 recipes (triple chocolate and Scottish shortbread) with great results.