A chicken with her head cut off

While that does describe a bit of the Christmas meltdown I had yesterday evening, the title is actually in reference to what I got my aunt, the bestest of my loves, for Christmas. When I bought it, the lady at the store told me to be careful because they were having problems with people buying it and then the head breaking off. Aparently I did not fully heed her warning, as I took the bag out of the car and found this. A chicken with her head cut off. I told my aunt about it, and told her that I was still going to give it to her, so on Christmas morning she's going to open her chicken up and we will all laugh. And because my aunt is a lot like me, she's going to take it home and put it out and perch the head ever-so-precariously on it, and then pretend to flip out when people accidentally knock it off. We're hilarious. You just can't wait to see us together in action, can you?

As for the meltdown, it wasn't one of my better ones, but more of an internal brooding. But everything Christmas-y came apart in a very short time span yesterady. See, this Christmas, I decided to make a few presents. I made something for my aunt, and then in the touch-up process I ruined it. Or, at least in my head I ruined it. I put it in the same bag as the chicken with the head cut off. And I made a gift for someone else, and as I was cleaning the glass of the picture frame, it broke in my hands. Just like that. It's as if the Spirit of Christmas Present is saying "forget homemade thought and effort...just go buy them something!" Which is pretty much what I did....

But one thing did come out flawlessly, and I'm definitely going to explore it a little more next year. My aunt's birthday is so close to Christmas (it was last week) that it's hard to get her a present that doesn't have some sort of angel or santa on it. So, when she mentioned that she'd never been to the Melting Pot, I said I'd arrange it for her birthday. I emailed her friends, got them all on board, and made the reservations. I even expertly made the reservation for plus-one, and wouldn't you know it about two hours before the event another friend could make it.

We got there at 5pm and barely made it out the door before 10pm. It was the best gift because it was five hours of friends getting together and visiting and sharing food and though it wasn't intentional, it was very holy. Celebrating by spending time together. It doesn't get any better than that.

P.S. Only in the land of my aunt and I and blogs would I greet her this evening with "Don't look at my blog until after you open your Christmas presents." I don't want her to see her chicken before it's time.