'Twas the night before Christmas, the hair metal bangin', and cocoa with boozy and mint notes a-slangin'

This is not festive chocolate booze-ahol.
This is yerba mate, because I took this pic at 9 am. The cocoa is for after I post this.

Amazingly, the December holiday season is much more festive when you're not roiled by very recent trauma - who knew?

Last week, we made thoughtful, relaxing gifts for the people on our list. On Friday, we hit the Naughty or Nice Bar Crawl thrown by The Darkness Underground. J.L.'s full-fur Krampus costume got us all of the attention, and even some free drinks.

David and I went considerably more half-assed in attire, because we were tired and we had family things early the next day. My red sweater, black velvet slip dress, fishnets, and black glitter bat-wing headband pulled together into a passable succubus costume, and I thought David's coat made him look a little like a Cenobite. Much fun was had. I definitely hope this becomes an annual event. Now with two successful events under their belt and more plans in progress, The Darkness Underground is one collective to keep following.


I also made a fun punk, hair metal, EDM, and new wave tinged Christmas playlist to keep on shuffle:



We've also been watching some of the best, and worst, Christmas movies. Last night (after we drove around looking at Christmas lights when we were kids) we watched Krampus. Today was Santa Claus Conquers The Martians. A girl could get used to this whole concept of actually relaxing on Christmas eve. Tomorrow we do Christmas in Chicago with David's family, and then it's back to the work grind.

I'm just so very, very thankful. The ability to relax and enjoy Christmas with relatively little lingering PTSD after last year is the only present I'd possibly need, and I got to have it.

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