This year we’re trying something different, a leg of lamb; compromise with FirstBorn so we’ll have prime rib roast for New Year’s Day.  Both mashed and scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, niblets corn, mashed sweet potatoes and half of a Gateau Basque (the other half is being kept under tight supervision away from Squirmy who feels anything with almonds belongs to him.  Already threatened to throw a slipper at him – I think he just sneered and went outside. Lovely flowers courtesy of FirstBorn for my birthday on the 23rd.

In case you’re not sure how you rank on the societal scale of class, here’s a site (IDRlabs.com) that offers a ton of fun tests to take.  They don’t ask for any personal information; all ask questions and you move a slider bar that most accurately describes your feelings, etc.  I took the food test and found my tastes are all pretty much middle class (okay, I like potatoes and fish sticks and pass of caviar); I am also a very easy person to get along with (don’t you dare disagree or you’ll go on the list!).  Take the Sociopath Test and let us know the results 🙂

I had German measles, chicken pox and mumps growing up.  I remember being kept in a darkened room for mumps, because the light hurt my eyes; I don’t remember much more, except it hurt to swallow, so maybe a mild case and I was young.  Chicken pox as a preteen – oh, god, the itching and being told not to scratch when that would have been better than Christmas morning – I would have easily traded my brother for relief.  Wait, would that be a bad thing?  And chicken pox leaves scars, some deep, some shallow. So you can bet your ass my kids were vaccinated.  A story on six childhood nightmares in the New York Times that you can read for free as part of my subscription.  And no, I don’t agree with every vaccine currently being pushed, but these have withstood the test of time.