Vixen Chronicles

      All of my Christmas Shopping is done without out me setting foot in a mall. Everything is wrapped, in coordinating paper and placed under the Christmas Tree. All of the kids know the rules; they must avert their eyes as if nothing is there. This is how Black Santa works.      He is magical.      The boxes are actually empty until the stroke of Midnight of Christmas Eve, when the presents materialize inside their wrappings. If you open them early, you will only find coal or air. The offspring understand this, though I did catch Midime checking out a few boxes this week. The stockings were disturbed,too. It's hard to get away with that stuff, even if you try really hard to return the boxes back to the exact spot they were in before you meddled with them when you have a mother who studies behavior and watches people for a living.      Yesterday, new gifts started appearing under the tree, very easy to spot because the...

 Y'all know that I wanted a Apple Watch, but when my Luvster told me it was not on the plan for my holiday, I was good with it. I certainly didn't need a new device and I absolutely have everything that I could ever want. I was resigned to the idea that I was not going to get an Apple Watch as a gift, left to contemplate buying one myself, when about 6 days before Christmas, I get a bank alert that someone spent an Apple Watch amount at the Apple Store.      This posed an interesting dilemma, did I say something and make sure that no one was making merry with our money and possibly spoil my surprise (even though he knows I get these alerts since every time he buys burgers and fries without me, I send him a "nice Nina-gram" to gently remind him to make better dietary choices), or did I keep silent and risk eating 500 bills?  I decided to take the latter route, kept a poker face and then pushed the whole thing to the back of my mind.    ...

Got this is an email, thought I would share... There is one Christmas Carol that has always baffled me. What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas? This week, I found out. From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember. -The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ. -Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments. -Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love. -The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. -The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Tes...

Merry Christmas! Feliz Cumpleanos, Habari Gani, ya know! Trying something new this time. Check out The Vixen Chronicles Podcast here http://web.mac.com/ninafoxx/iWeb/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html . Click Listen. It will take you to another page to hear my attempt at podcasting. I welcome your feedback. I was playing with the toys that Santa sent me.

My kids sent letters to Santa. Yes, I said letters, as in more than one. This is something we started at any early age. Since I am The catalog queen, I give them catalogs and let them go at it. We generally do this in several iterations. On the first pass, then go through and check or circle the things that they want. Of course the five year old circles everything, and then I give them the crushing news. They can only pick five things, and there is no guarantee that they will get all or any of those five things. You see, Santa has to make some decisions to make sure there is enough to go around, and which items Santa chooses of course depends on if she thinks they will be any fun for her or not. The youngest cries and whines at this news, still not understanding why she can’t possibly have everything that she wants. The Oldest, she says nothing. She is teetering on the cusp of understanding the real deal. Mommy is really Santa Clause and if you piss Mommy off, you get lumps of coal in ...