— listening to Cashel babble at me about Buster Keaton and why Buster Keaton is so funny. (He got a couple of Buster Keaton movies for Christmas). “Auntie, Sheila, he never shows any expression on his face. He is always like this.” Cashel did a poker face. “But then sometimes, he goes like this.” Cashel made a huge shocked face, with a wide-open mouth.<\/p>\n
— watching Cashel make Christmas cards for all of us. We each got a different one – and he tailored each one to our personality. That’s a lot of work for an 8 year old boy. Mine came in the form of a military broadcast – which I just think is so hysterical (and appropriate – seeing as I had Imperial Grunts<\/i> in my bookbag at that very moment). He said to me, “Yours is kind of military, Auntie Sheila.” “Oh, wow. That’s so cool.” I said. Here is what it said (I will re-create his spelling – he is a very good speller, but you know, nobody’s perfect):<\/p>\n
News Brodcast:
\nShhhkk. “Is that radio on? Okay, this is Lehsac Yellamo and there’s a sleigh raid approaching O’Malley Ville! And here comes Auntie Sheila’s batch !!!!<\/p>\n
Merry Xmas
\nFrom Cash, Bren and Mel.<\/p>\n
This is the best Christmas card I have ever received.<\/p>\n
“Lehsac Yellamo” is obviously backwards-speak, an O’Malley tradition brought to new heights by my brother Nadnerb. Nadnerb has clearly passed on this talent to his son Lehsac.<\/p>\n
— For Jean’s card, because Jean is a teacher, Cashel purposefully misspelled every word. As he was writing the card, sitting at the table (Jean and Pat hadn’t arrived yet), he literally shook with laughter, like a little bowlful of jelly. It began: “Deer Onty Jeen …” and it kind of just went from there. The card ended with: “Pee Ess. Sennd mee aye tootr.” Cashel, man – you know what? That’s pretty damn funny.<\/p>\n
— For Pat’s card, Cashel made every other word be “dude”. hahahahaha<\/p>\n
— Siobhan’s card referenced the “Christmas Hannuka Kwanzaa express”<\/p>\n
etc. The cards were genius.<\/p>\n
— Jean sat with Cashel reading out loud to him from the big Calvin & Hobbes book she gave him for Christmas. She did all the voices. Cashel’s laughter – his true spontaneous laugh – is the best sound in the world.<\/p>\n
— It was so great to be all together. Melody’s apartment is adorable – but we sure were all just crammed in there. A constant reshuffling had to occur – chairs moved into rooms, chairs to be moved if someone had to step out … etc. But her place is adorable, and it made me want to move into Manhattan proper. Maybe next year.<\/p>\n
— Cashel looks so different with his big-boy teeth.<\/p>\n
— I got to see the blow-up R2D2 chair. It is the coolest thing ever.<\/p>\n
— We ordered pizza. Mum heated up the lasagna she brought. Bren and Dad went out and got a couple bottles of wine. We sat around in Melody’s kitchen and just feasted. It was beautiful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
— listening to Cashel babble at me about Buster Keaton and why Buster Keaton is so funny. (He got a couple of Buster Keaton movies for Christmas). “Auntie, Sheila, he never shows any expression on his face. He is always … Continue reading