Quote of the day: "It's peace, just like you always wanted." - Lizzy to Grandma on presentation of Peace, the Beanie Baby

Journal of a Sabbatical

December 25, 1998

all we are saying is give peace a couch

Runner up for quote of the day: "Bobby's Christmas shopping must be the entire Gross Domestic Product of Bosnia".

Gift of the day: three Weebots, one for each of Lizzy, Andrea, and Kevin from Bobby. The Weebots purr if you stroke them, have minds of their own that sometimes override the controls, and dance. Andrea also got a remote control car with caterpillar treads from Kevin, which looked like a monster truck at a go kart track chasing the Weebots around.

Runner up for gift of the day: official SFOR coffee mugs

Honorable mention for gift of the day: Peace, a tie-dyed Beanie Baby with a peace symbol on its chest, shown here in a United Nations coffee mug.

I think the little stuffed couch Mom got was supposed to be one of those cute things to hide Kleenex boxes, but everybody assumed it was for Beanie Babies to sit on. And we burst into a rousing chorus of "All we are saying is give Peace a couch..." much to the puzzlement of the kids.

Erin and Princess don't have couches, but Peace does.

Every child needs moose in a Somebody in Bosnia Loves Me T-shirt, and a couple of land mine warning signs (obstacle courses for the Weebots?).

Lizzy was pleased with the Bobbsey Twins books as well as Ann of Avonlea, and was less interested but open to The Marvelous Land of Oz. Andrea liked Ann of Green Gables, hated Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, and was indifferent to the Bobbsey Twins even after I told her one of the books was even older than Grandma. She returned Dorothy and the Wizard to me, so I gave it to Lizzy to take home in case she'd like to read it or Andrea changes her mind. Andrea ordered me not to give her books for her birthday.

Thomas got me in the lottery and I got him. How symmetrical. He gave me New England Natives: A Celebration of People and Trees by Sheila Connor, and A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America by Donald Culross Peattie. The latter is a classic originally published in 1948 and beautifully written. I can't wait to curl up with a huge put of tea and the Peattie book. It was quite a book-filled Christmas. Mom gave me John Stilgoe's Alongshore.

Bobby gave the kids puzzle boxes that even he had trouble opening.

The Hungarian nativity I mentioned in yesterday's entry ended up on the radiator at the back of the living room. The angel is Hungarian too. I don't think the snowman is.