That Holiday Sweatshirt Again

It is fair to say that I might have overdone it last night. Overdone it with the imbibing. We had the Hamiltons over for what was supposed to be low-key pizza and Scrabble. Then, around midnight, my brother and sister-in-law turned up, having made it out of DC and driven south at probably the last minute anyone could leave the city before it became a total whiteout. They were heading for the mountain house, but they heard it was unreachable, so they came to Atlanta. Their account of the roads between Richmond and Charlotte was scary--cars all over the sides of the interstate, stuck. If you are up there in that storm, my heart goes out to you. Stay safe at home! So they came in and the low-key gathering kinda got a second wind, and some pitchers of cosmos were consumed, and we played Cranium, which Matt and I both remembered that we hadn't played since New Year's Eve of 1999. So we partied like we did in 1999, and the next thing I know it is 4:30 in the morning and we're standing in the kitchen eating crackers and griping about the Senate.

I'm not feeling too steady today.

Seeing Dave reminded me of his famously awesome Christmas sweatshirt. Which if you weren't reading me last December (where in hecks were you?) you may have missed. It made its debut in this post, excerpted below. Please enjoy it while I go sip some diet pepsi.

A few years ago, while they were still in college, my brother Dave and his roommate decided to make a Christmas sweatshirt. I don't really know what area of human knowledge we can draw on to help us understand that. Just two dudes, creating festive holiday garb. Their particular brand of college hipster culture was so complex that it can't really be known how sincere their efforts were. They certainly weren't snarky about it, but were they making the sweatshirt or quoting the sweatshirt? I think that, perhaps, postmodern irony really has given way to The New Sincerity. Maybe. It's possible that there are young twenty-somethings all over the country who are lovingly crafting that Tampon Turkey centerpiece. But here is the sweatshirt.

Lest you think that this was the half-assed work of a moment, I refer you to the 3D tiny wrapped packages under the felt Christmas tree, which they have decorated with little lightbulbs. My favorite part has to be the cheery and vague "Holidays!" leading up to the pom-pom poinsettias on the shoulder. This thing wants a wider audience. Surrender to its cheeriness. Holidays!