Thursday, December 24, 2009

Dunk Us All in Bowls of Barley


Above is this year's drawing for our family Christmas card, featuring, as it has for 21 straight years, my twin girls. The cards make a real neat family history all strung together on a knotted ribbon across our living room wall.

Below is a bit of poetic whimsy that's been a ritual on my blog each Christmas Eve since waaay back in 2005. Every beloved tradition starts small. My best wishes to you, thanks for reading my stuff.

Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., an' Kalamazoo!
Nora's freezin' on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!
Don't we know archaic barrel,
Lullaby Lilla boy, Louisville Lou?
Trolley Molly don't love Harold,
Boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo!

Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Polly wolly cracker n' too-da-loo!
Hunky Dory's pop is lolly
gaggin' on the wagon,
Willy, folly go through!
Donkey Bonny brays a carol,
Antelope Cantaloup, 'lope with you!
Chollie's collie barks at Barrow,
Harum scarum five alarum bung-a-loo!

--Walt Kelly

6 comments:

sligo said...

the only way those lyrics could be any more touching and sweet is if they were sung after a few glasses of fortifying, eighty-proof eggnog.

happy holidays to you and your family.

ronnie said...

Excellent card again this year! Looks like Amber is taking full advantage of the whipped cream accessibility.

Thanks for "Deck the Halls with Boston Charlie" - the season would not be complete without it.

Merry, merry Christmas to you and yours and best wishes for 2010.

ronnie

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Thanks for sharing your card picture on the blog. I like how each character is engaged in something.

I heard the music from "Deck the Halls" earlier today and caught myself mentally filling in the lyrics with that crazy Pogo version...
...which is an improvement over the original!

Merry Christmas.

Sherwood Harrington said...

Thank you, Brian and Walt! Such a treat.

Unknown said...

I have post a comment on your other site. I hope you get back to me.

Brian Fies said...

Thank YOU, all.

Natasha, I can't find your comment and didn't receive the usual e-mail notifying me of it. Feel free to leave it here or write me directly: brianfies [at] comcast [dot] net.