Shama and I made a holiday card for all of our friends.  Enjoy.

Maybe it’s because I finally got around to seeing Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas (Thanks, Trevor), but I’ve had otters on my mind lately.   Silly otters.

Unable to pry them loose, I ended up painting my brother and his girlfriend otters for hanukah.  Here they are:

Looking at them together, the colors are a little early nineties.  I almost expect Fido Dido to make an appearance.  Ah well.  Here’s Emmet:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

One of my grandmother’s oldest friends, Clara, moved to Durham a few years ago to be closer to her daughter.  I’ve known Clara as long as I can remember, and my grandmother has known her longer than that.  We used to go over to her house to break the fast after Yom Kippur with a big vat of borscht.

Since we were going to be in North Carolina for Thanksgiving, Clara’s daughter and my mom arranged for the two of them to meet up in Asheville.  I can’t remember seeing my grandma happier.  (“I didn’t think I’d ever see her again.”)

GRAM: Clara, you look great!
CLARA: You look great!
GRAM: Good!  We’re both lying!

There is a long list of things I don’t understand about Christmas.  (What’s Myrrh?)  Add to that list the creepy robots currently residing in the Marshall Fields windows.  Goo!