MadMup.com

There’s a Rose in Bethlehem
With a beauty quite divine
Perfect in this world of sin
On this silent, holy night

There’s a fragrance much like hope
That it sends upon the wind
Reaching out to every soul
From a lowly manger’s crib

Oh, Rose of Bethlehem
How lovely, pure and sweet
Born to glorify the Father
Born to wear the thorns for me

There’s a Rose in Bethlehem
Colored red like mercy’s blood
Tis the flower of our faith
Tis the blossom of God’s love

Though its bloom is fresh with youth
Surely what will be He knows
For a tear of morning dew
Is rolling down the Rose

There’s a Rose in Bethlehem
With a beauty quite divine
Perfect in this world of sin
On this silent, holy night

Merry Christmas, friends.

My dad’s favorite thing to do at Christmas is to obfuscate wrapped packages. Some of his more famous wrapping have included chains and logs, for example. Square packages end up rhomboid, the original present might have something else inside it — mysteries wrapped in enigmas wrapped in conundrums.

We had our family Christmas this past weekend, and for some reason, dad’s history never crossed my mind. Well, it actually did cross my mind when I saw a package with my name on it and I hadn’t the slightest idea what it could possibly be. I figured there was creative wrapping going on and didn’t put too much more brain power to it.

When it came to to open presents, Mom said, “You kids all need to open your presents at the same time.” (Kids = me, my brother, and his wife) Dad added, “And open them carefully.”

We knew something up, but we didn’t know what. So we all started tearing off the wrapping paper… to find another different layer of wrapping underneath with a card taped to it that said, “This present actually belongs to _______.” We swapped and opened to find things we’d all wanted.

Pretty sneaky. We all agreed this one’ll go down in the archives as one of his best efforts.

I think my next-door neighbors have moved out. This is weird for a couple of reasons.

First, we would converse frequently when we saw each other outside – no, I couldn’t tell you any of their names, but we would talk, at least – so it seems like they might have told me. In fact, the last time I talked to the fellow, he said they were planning to move to San Francisco in the summer, which tells me they’ve got a few months left around here.

Second, the neighbors on the other side of me moved out a long time ago. Like maybe six months. Rumor has it (from the more-recently-departed neighbors) that while I was gone one weekend, they’d had some sort of too-raucous party and had been … asked to leave. The place has been empty since. (Frankly, it was kind of nice when they left, as the teenage son used to play some kind of music really loud in the afternoons. I could only hear the bass – more “feel” than “hear,” really – and it actually nauseated me. That got old pretty quick.)

So now I’m in this row of townhouse-type apartments with no one to either side. Please understand: I’m not complaining. The newly-gone folks had three very loud young children and a dog. I was glad we were on friendly terms, but I do not miss the yelling. It’s just… weird.

On top of all that, I’ve started hearing some sort of scrabbling, scratching sounds occasionally in the ceiling/floor between the upstairs and the downstairs, so now I’m thinking of mice, which makes me think of rats because everyone’s leaving and rats always abandon a sinking ship, which makes me think there might be a Kraken gonna swallow the whole place up and I don’t even really like pirates so I’m not sure what I’m going to do because it freaks the cats out, too, and what kind of rotten thing is it to be eaten by a Kraken and is there something I can do to fend it off and maybe should I be leaving, too, or maybe play some music to soothe the thing and what kind of music does a Kraken like, anyway?

Hrm.

I’m sure my current situation will have no affect on me nor cause me to go stark raving mad, so I guess things will be fine.