I was in the school chorus for many years.  One of my very favorite songs was this one:

The Twelve Days After Christmas

(Frederick Silver)

(Not sung to the same tune as the other song!)

The first day after Christmas, my true love and I had a fight.
And so I chopped the pear tree down and burned it just for spite.
Then, with a single cartridge, I shot that blasted partridge,
That my true love, my true love gave to me.

The second day after Christmas, I pulled on the old rubber gloves
And very gently wrung the necks of both the turtle doves,
My true love, my true love, my true love gave to me.

The third day after Christmas, my mother caught the croup;
I had to use the three French hens to make some chicken soup.
The four calling birds were a big mistake,
For their language was obsence .
The five gold rings were completely fake
And they turned my fingers gree.

The sixth day after Christmas, the six laying geese wouldn't lay:
I gave the whole darn gaggle to the ASPCA.


On the seventh day what a mess I found:
All seven of the swimming swans had drowned,
My true love, my true love, my true love gave to me.

The eighth day after Christmas, before they could suspect,
I bundled up the . . .
Eight maids a-milking,
Nine pipers piping,
Ten ladies dancing,
'Leven lords a-leaping,
Twelve drummers drumming


(spoken) Well, actually I kept one of the drummers(girls)


Well, actually I kept one of the maids a-milking(boys)


And sent them back collect.
I wrote my true love, "We are through, love"
And I said in so many words,
"Furthermore your Christmas gifts were for the birds!"


I loved this song and it came to mind as I was sitting to write this post.  It's the first day after Christmas (the words, not the sentiment brought the song to mind!) and the tree is softly glowing and the house is quiet.

We had a lovely day yesterday.  I left the camera upstairs and promised Em it would be a "no picture" holiday since she hates it so much.  She was suitably grateful.  Em and Jim spent the night Christmas Eve after helping us to decorate our tree.  Much punch was consumed and sandwiches and keilbasa and cheese and cookies and eggnog and beer.  In between eating, the tree got dressed and the presents were put underneath and the stockings were filled.  Pk and I were in bed and asleep (!) by 11 pm.  That's how we know we're really old.

We got up early and Kate and Patrick came in around 7:30.  We had hot chocolate and babka and opened presents and exclamations of surprise and joy filled the room.  Em was pleased with her Easy Bake oven (something she has wanted FOREVER and since she mentioned it again at Thanksgiving, I gave in and got her one.  She's only 23 after all) and El was thrilled with her new mp3 player and Kate and Patrick are already planning what to cook in their new wok.

Pk got a bench grinder which he put together and can't wait for the rain to stop so he can go outside to "guyville" (otherwise known as the garage) and play.  There's an inch of rain on the floor out there today.  I got some much needed shirts and some roving and some really great books (a new Sookie Stackhouse and the new D. Gabaldon outlander book). 

We had omelets and then Jim and Em went home to cook dinner for Jim's parents and Pk, El and I had a quiet dinner here. 

All in all, pretty near a perfect day.  And then it rained last night and most of today.  All 2 feet of the snow is gone.  It's unbelievable how fast it melted with the warm day and the rain.  We've been running the pump in the crawlspace all day and the water still got into the rec room.  This usually doesn't happen unless we get inordinate amounts of rain.  But all than snow had to go somewhere.  And it chose the path of least resistance and ran right down into our house (and probably my neighbors, too).  Ah, well, at least there's no more ice on the roads......

Tomorrow we'll clean up the mess (it's not really that bad, we've set up the rec room so that if it floods, nothing gets ruined) and then spend the day playing with our Christmas toys.  I got some mohair roving and I look forward to spinning some of it.   And hopefully, guyville will be dry enough for Pk to get out there.   I started his sweater today and am making some cozies for woodworking tools.  He wants to send them to his swap partner as part of his Galoot-a-clause package.  I chose a chunky wool and I'll just make a tube and put a drawstring in it.  I'm not good at visualizing things like this so we'll see.  I'll take a photo when it's done.

I hope you all had some peace and joy and holiday cheer.