Nerd Alert, AKA That Post About My Brother's Tree

So my mom is nuts about Christmas. Specifically, about decorating for Christmas.

As my two younger brothers and I grew up, one of the Christmas traditions she had was to purchase each of us a new ornament each year. The thought was that we would take those ornaments with us to our own homes when we moved out of hers. And if you know anything about the price of ornaments, this is a very generous gesture (I mean, those suckers are not even close to cheap).

Now, if you look back at the ornaments that made up my personal collection, you'd see an array of things: a ceramic Big Bird here, a Clara from "The Nutcracker" there, and an eclectic assortment of items representing different countries, funny situations, movies, and, like, Elvis collectibles (I went through a phase). I would say that my youngest brother Steven's ornaments are much the same.

My brother David's collection, however, took a quite different turn.

Dave, you see, was a true 1980's kid who watched a taped-off-the-TV version of "Return of the Jedi" on our VCR on repeat pretty much every day after school for a good year or two. (20 minutes of the flick "Time Bandits" would play after ROTJ was over, but the tape cut off then, so he'd just rewind and start again.) He was super into Star Wars, and after that, Star Trek, and my mother--and Hallmark--were thrilled about this.

Hallmark, as you may or may not know, has been creating Star Wars and Star Trek ornaments for forever now, and if that ornament beeped, blurted, lit up, swooshed, burped, or declared that it was someone's father, my mom added it to Dave's pile of yearly ornaments. And as time went by, that pile became ridiculously huge and totally ready to take over any galaxy nearby or far, far away.

Dave eventually moved out of our parents' home, and with him, took his pile. It didn't make an appearance again until several years later, when David met another woman who is nuts about Christmas--and who is also clearly nuts about him. You know how I know? Every year since, David has a special tree in their home dedicated soley to his personal collection of Star ornaments that, when the lights are plugged in, ferociously beeps, blurts, dazzles, swooshes, burps, and declares that it's your dad--all at one time.

It is truly an awesome sight. And here are the pics he just sent me of this year's tree. Blame it on the Force. And Hallmark. And also on the ladies who love him.

Friday Photo: Chained on Court Street

So while we're at it, here are some things I'm NOT thankful for (2011 edition)

Admittedly, this may not be the healthiest practice, but creating of list of things I am not thankful for each Thanksgiving is slowly becoming one of my favorite Turkey-Day traditions. (Get a load of my 2009 unthankful list here and the 2010 one right here.)

Enjoy yourself today! Have a happy one, and stop feeling guilty. Just have that second slice of pie already.

This year, I'm totally not thankful for: 

• Hang nails
• Improper turn-signal usage
• Stuck drawers
• That Whitney show
• Cold noses
• Cold toes
• The cold in general
• (Also, having a cold)
• Armpit stains
• Commissioned-based sales people who follow you around a store
• Stale chapstick
• The time right between haircuts when your bangs are just slightly.too.long
• Questionable drops of water that fall from the sky on sunny days
• Bad puns in otherwise good television shows
• Errant hairs
• Realizing that your chocolate-chip cookie is actually an oatmeal-raisin one
• Spotty cell-phone service
• Layovers
• Delayed flights
• 3-1-1 for carryons
• A burned tongue and/or roof of the mouth
• Unwanted stickiness
• Tootsie Rolls, or any candy trying to masquerade as chocolate (the jig is UP, Tootsie Rolls--just cool it!)

Black and White and Brooklyn

I've run one of these photos before (the parachuting police car, but who's counting?). But it fit so nicely in a miniseries of things that are black and white in my neighborhood. I especially like that random single Lego up top. What does that even mean?