December 26: The Sugar Plum Penguin
Today’s illustration from Mary is a chubby penguin in a tutu dancing in the snow among gobs of brightly colored candies. (It looks to me like she already had a few too many sugar plums on Christmas Eve.) Doesn’t it seem like the day after Christmas should be a respite from food? Maybe she is one of the several million beings on planet earth who are eating everything in sight because on January 1 food will be forbidden; sort of the “Eat now, Diet later” concept. But not everyone spends the day eating. If we could peer into other post-Christmas homes we might see:
Susie: Susie is up early gathering receipts and packing up all the gifts she intends to return today. It isn’t that she doesn’t like her presents, it’s just that her return on returns will multiply her final take thanks to after-Christmas sales.
Retail Stores: The stores are bracing for the “returns” that cut into their holiday sales total. Though some are wishing they had a no-return policy, most put on a brave face for this, the second busiest shopping day after Black Friday. They open early and close late, in hopes that the shoppers will replace their returns with new purchases that will boost their bottom line.
Parents: After nearly a week of hyper family togetherness Mom and Dad decided this morning that today should be a day of rest. Oh, they dress it up nicely as a movie or bowling, but in reality it is just a rouse to get those pesky kids out of their hair for a little while. Ah, three hours of bliss. This short break will get them through the three days, 21 hours and 35 minutes until school starts again.
Jimmy: Jimmy got a remote control helicopter for Christmas and he has spent every intervening hour buzzing the dinner table, rescuing peas from the drink, aka, the bathtub, and waking his sleeping sister by landing the thing on her face. The only hope for restored peace is if this gift, made in China, breaks as quickly as does most everything they export. Awwww… Black Hawk Down
Amanda: Amanda has played with her new Brush-My-Hair Barbie so much that the doll has lost her head. After listening to her sob in disappointment for several endless hours, Dad finally taped Barbie’s head to her body with a thick wad of silver duct tape. Mom suggests that Amanda dress Barbie in her pink stripped turtleneck until another, more long-term, fix is attempted. Amanda follows her Mom’s advice but also announces to Ken and others that Barbie has the mumps.
Socks the Cat: Now that Christmas is over and all Socks got in his stocking was a skinny catnip mouse, it all comes down to this; fun and games with low hanging ornaments on the tree. If the tree gets trashed as a result, well, maybe next year they will get him that three level scratching post he deserves.
Santa: 
After another grueling Christmas Eve I bet Santa sleeps for 24 hours, postponing the Claus’s Christmas celebration for one full day. So on the day after Christmas I like to think of Santa as sprawled on the couch, stuffed from Christmas dinner, watching a Hallmark movie, and enjoying the satisfaction of a job well done. After Mrs. Claus opens her small box from Tiffany’s, Santa gets to open his gifts. What do you get a man who has with everything? (Including a charge card from Tiffany’s) We will never truly know but I suspect that among his gifts are a bigger belt, an upgraded satellite dish package, and a Day Runner refill complete with daily calendar pages and a thick pad of TO DO page blanks.
Uh, Gee thanks…
This is my first sight of a cat sticking it’s tongue out. This is the first I’ve heard of Brush-My-Hair Barbie (too funny). This is not the first I’ve heard of a boy landing a helicopter on his sleeping sister’s face (funny but not nice). Susie, is she really old enough to drive? Parents: don’t return after that bowling game, just keep on driving… Susie’s got it covered.