Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for November 29, 2018

Sounds like Leslie’s interpretation of “Christmas at Ground Zero” (by Alfred Yankovic).

Jewish foster families don’t do a big Christmas, but apparently they do epic battles.

He’s right you know, the beginning of the battle between good and evil.

Doggone It, Evans!!! NOW You’ve Done It! You actually got Me feeling S-S-S-S-S-S-Sorry for Les! (Jeeze, I can barely type it) Hopefully it’ll SOON pass like a case of indigestion.

Anyway, NOW We’re getting somewhere, with a little background on Mr. Knox. I can understand why a Jewish family didn’t celebrate Christmas, but why didn’t YOU. Al? No Holidays? Ever? Seriously? Maybe it’s a Good thing You did marry Irma. She and Gunther can teach you and your Nephew a thing or two about holidays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, 4th of July and My favorite October 1st International COFFEE Day!

Anyway, GREAT Job Al! And Greg and Karen, please Keep the information coming. Maybe one day, We’ll Learn more about Tiffany and her missing Mom……,

Traditionally the manger is left empty until midnight Christmas Eve.

Not everyone considers being surrounded by holiday decorations “a treat.” At least Irma waited until after ThNksgiving to put it all out.

Al should have done this kind of stuff for Les. If he took him in, he ought to at least give him a childhood he deserved. I don’t like his “I don’t do holidays.” He wouldn’t need to go overboard – just stick a tree in a corner and let Les decorate it or do it together. Stick a few gifts under the tree. He wouldn’t need to go the whole 9 yards of decorations, food, lawn ornaments, etc. Just a tree and some gifts. Geez. Now Irma….she is like my aunt in law. She rents a storage locker just for her Christmas decorations. She is older now and hires a professional decorator to hang up her stuff. My family and I go to her house every Christmas and her house is always too much. My husband complains about Christmas decorations and I say, “Aunt Peggy…” he shuts up. I am not even remotely anything like Aunt Peggy. The Irmas and Peggys of the world are represented in those sugary Christmas movies.

Oh, you don’t do holidays, Al? I never would’ve guessed that the guy who doesn’t do “more than one outfit” or “varied facial expressions” might also not do much in the way of memorable seasonal celebrations.

“The War of Christmas”

I can’t recall any guy over 12 years old that enjoyed placing a bunch of statuettes and other stuff into a traditional Christmas scene – although I’m sure some guys get paid to do holiday window displays in stores. It’s very sad that Gunther’s greatest joy seems to be recreating his childhood. I’m thinking Irma picked out Gunther’s turtleneck sweater – so that he doesn’t catch cold.

I thought originally that Al Gray took in Les because Ann had to go to Japan and couldn’t bring him. Now we hear that Les was in a foster home. Will we ever find out exactly what happened when Ann gave up her son?

What can Greg & Karen give Les for Christmas? Maybe the coupon book girl will wind up with extra tickets and invite Les to join her.

Take your battle field positions.

Where’s the T-Rex and the Dalek?

You wouldn’t believe how many hits there are on Google Images for “Star Wars nativity scene”.

Gunther: “Look, it is the North Star!”

.

Les: “No, idiot, that’s a SCUD missile. Incomingggg!!!”

I’m kind of with Les on this one. Have a nativity scene OR a snowman family scene OR a Santa scene. But not all together. Three separate scenes, set up in different places. Or what you wind up with is an epic battle.

Snoopy is going after the Red Baron…

Like South Park’s epic battle between Santa and Satan’s animal minions. Hmm, Santa/Satan, just saw that.

The mere mention of religiosity brings an “epic” battle among commenters. First of all Al did not say that Jewish families do epic battles, neither did he say anything about what Jewish families do to celebrate holidays. Point of fact: Greg, for good reason, tends to avoid religious references, for just the reason that people put anything about religion through, from their own filters on the cultural and religious divide. If you look carefully at the little display that Gunther has set up its far more secular than Christian religious anyway, what my 7th grade Sister of Mercy, Sister Mary Kevin would have called a celebration of Xmas. Commercial, not religious. The real takeaway should be, IMHO, that Les was raised in a family situation where the holidays were not celebrated, that he has been a foster child, and was taken in by an uncle who loved him, but was not equipped to be a really effective parent, although far better than the sociopathic Ann Eiffel. This explains a lot.

Ah, yes – Frosty the Showman riding shotgun for the Magi as Santa prepares for liftoff; the classic lawsuit-proof Nativity Scene.

Gunther needs facial hair. He looks too much like his mother without it.

Sheep in the fields. Snowmen. Baby in a manger. St. Nick about 300 years before his time. Les is right, this is giving me cognitive dissonance.

Speaking of epic battles…just read the comments. Yikes!

Les’ Jewish family didn’t have Christmas BUT, I’m pretty sure they DID have those 8 CRAZY nights…educational tip provided by the musical stylings of Adam Sandler.

If Anne Eiffel was Les’ real mother, why was he in a Foster Home?

@Various commenters I don’t think it too strange that Al, as a single man, didn’t “do” holidays. “Do” taken as decorate his digs with the season’s finery. The tradition of decoration for holidays (Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Hanukkah) seems to me to be related to family and passing on traditions (mostly religious) to ones children. That, or keeping the traditions of ones youth.

Maybe there is a heartwarming Christmas Story emerging where Les, who definitely has had a sterile childhood, will warm to the love shown by Irma and the warmth of a family Christmas. Maybe even Al will get out of his suit on Christmas Eve.

We may all be in for a big treat … Or not.

The correct sentence for Al is “I didn’t do holidays before”, not “I don’t do holidays”. Because he sure is going to be doing them now. Considering that he adores Irma, I think in his own calm and stoic way, he will go with the flow.

Whether the foster family was Jewish, Christian, Muslim, agnostic or Atheist or any where in between they would be obligated to insure the foster children are allowed to continue worshiping or attending any denomination they have in the past including celebrating holidays that they would in their biological home. Saying that – this is definitely an insight into Les’s past and provides some clues as to why he behaves as he does. Interesting dynamic being explored here.

No need for an epic battle. Plenty of room for everyone in my Christmas world.

7

Very nice to receive a bit of backstory today! Thoughts I have related to this information:

1. Foster care for a child is not typical unless there is a significant reason (abuse, neglect, Social Services determination of some other unfit aspect about the parent or home, etc).

2. It seems unlikely to me that Les ended up in foster care simply because Ann dropped him off at some social services agency for convenience for her life…. so I suspect there is even MORE backstory that could be very interesting to learn.

3. I also wonder how long Les was in foster care. The “feel” here is that he was in foster care for a fairly long time…. so… it has me wonder… did Al know Les was in foster care and left him for a long time, or did he perhaps not know about Les, nor his foster status, and when he learned of it, he immediately took him in?

If Les was with his foster family for a long time, he may be familiar with and comfortable with Hanukkah celebrations at this time of year. If so, it would be nice for Irma and Al to incorporate some of those aspects as well.

Gunther is drawn in the last panel in such a way that he looks facially more like he is a 10 year old pre-pubescent boy. And, his manner of dress in today’s last panel is fairly androgynous… so he actually has a feminine look as well. Since I do not think that was really the intended impression Greg has in drawing Gunther… I think he needs to revisit the idea of having Gunther look more “grown up” in some fashion… even if it is with the silly peach fuzz returning. I personally think it would be more useful for Greg to give Gunther a millennial “bearded hipster” look instead…. it is pretty common for a lot of the male engineering students at my school.

I missed something. I know Les’s mother is a terrible person, but why was he in foster care???

I’m starting to like Les more, more or less.

Panel 3: ‘Book-Smarts’ meets ‘Street-Smarts’!

You can actually buy a figurine of Santa kneeling to put next to your Nativity scene.

Which ones are the Orcs?

All your manger are belong to us!

Mlmontagne over at Acramax and Maxiesmom here, both made an intriguing point today: What if Ann had once gone to Jail? That would explain why Les was placed in Foster Care. Not because Ann didn’t want a child underfoot, but because she HAD to. Remember what Ann said last Spring about She and Al once working scams together? The whole Knox/Eiffel/Grey Clan are crooks, but Al is the only one “Good” at it and never gets caught. Maybe Ann and Al were involved in some crooked scheme but she was the only one that went to jail over it. That would explain her HATRED of Al.

But if Ann is indeed an Ex-Con, that bit of info COULD be “Ammunition” for Tiffany, in her efforts to separate Ms Eiffel from her dad.

The question is: Armed with that little bit info in this season of forgiveness, SHOULD Tiffany even Use it? Secondly, if that fact were revealed, would Tom even care at this point?

Peace on Earth, good will toward men.

It’s worth a shot.

Very telling. Les’ mom didn’t give him up to Mr. Gray, she gave him up to the authorities when he was little and he had to be put in foster care. Plus he was so young he has no memories of Christmas before that. I bet Tiffany’s dad doesn’t know about this!

There is a big clue here. Les in foster care? And why?

When will the dots connect, so that Tiffany can learn all of Ann Awful’s secrets (including her poor parenting) and save her father from this gold digger? People need to talk and share what they know. It will happen…

I liked Gunther better with the stubble. Now he looks too much like his mother.

I’m guessing that both Al and Ann didn’t have a happy (or even a) childhood. Al doesn’t look the type to find joy in anything. If Les was in a Jewish home while he was in foster care, that could mean one thing: that Les is actually Jewish, which means both Ann and Al are of the Jewish faith, also. I would think that foster care agencies would try to place children in homes with similar cultures, faiths, etc, but I could be wrong.

Interesting…perhaps this sheds a little light on why Les is the way he is. Perhaps a backstory is needed?

i think someone went a little wild with the airbrush in coloring those figurines.

An Irish/Jewish couple I was friends with used to put up & decorate a nice Chanukah Bush every year.

Some Jews do enjoy all the holidays just as Muslim ones because of all the bright lights and decorations. I like all that too, yet I am an Atheist.

so will Al hire someone to put up the outside decorations ( spreading holiday cheer to poor workers who need the money), or just have “the boys” do it?

Greg didn’t have to introduce ‘Jewishness’ into the equation but somehow he chose to, along with Al’s non-interest in holidays. Is it meant to go somewhere? or was it an off hand comment designed to emphasize that Les doesn’t know anything about Christmas traditions? Someone mentioned earlier that they thought Irma and Gunther were Jewish (they look Jewish). Lots of Jewish people ignore their ancestry and choose to embrace Christmas because it is so dominant in our culture. It would be interesting if this mention caused Irma to say that she (and Gunther) actually have some Jewish ancestry but that she just likes Christmas.

Leslie doesn’t know, or care, what he’s been missing, but don’t let him harsh your mellow, Gunny….

I’m waiting for Al to appear in a Santa suit.

Too many serious comments. That will teach Greg not to put even his little toe into politics or religion. I think that is what sunk Soup to Nutz. Fact is what I see is four creepy characters and the beginning of what could be a cute, seasonal diorama.

I agree with SDog and think that the primary reason Greg Evans even mentioned a Jewish foster family was to have a quick way of explaining why Les has very little experience with the Christmas holiday. And I’m more and more starting to think that this arc will be all about mellowing Les out by giving him a dose of Irma’s approach to the holiday. That said, I can’t resist (as a Jewish person) responding to the poster who suggested that Gunther and Irma ‘look Jewish’.

When I was a kid, people were always telling me I didn’t look Jewish, but then backing off when I asked what they meant by that. I’m guessing it had to do with the fact that I have a small nose, but that’s not my point. The thing is this: when I finally got to visit Israel as an archaeology student and got to see all the Jewish people who had ended up there, the amazing thing was how completely different they all looked. There were Jewish blue-eyed blondes, Jews from Africa with really dark black skin, Jews from Europe with red hair, Jews who had straight hair, Jews with curly hair, Jews with no hair.

All I can say about what Gunther and Irma look like is that they look like each other…

I side with Les on this. All that needs to be added is a shopping mall as the battle ground.

Why wouldn’t Les feel a little pang of jealousy? Every Christmas tv special/movie is about “family” — reuniting with your family or finding your family. I’m NOT saying his foster family wasn’t family or didn’t love him… I’m saying Les knew he was in foster care and he had a mom and a dad out there somewhere. And at Christmas while all the other kids were with their “mom and dad” – Les wasn’t. Isn’t that the plot detail (kid with no parents or separated from parents) most exploited by our favorite stories/novels/TV shows/movies???

Right. Because Jews don’t have holidays. meh

Awww Jesus and Santa in one display!!!