Hmmm, what do I say about the holiday...

On Christmas Eve Day, I hung out with Hill and fuddled around on the computer until my parents showed up, then tried playing Hill's Christmas CD for them. It was not a big hit. Big surprise.

I hardly saw my cousins that night- they were up wrapping presents, I was told. So I bummed around their living room, watching the big TV and kicking back on their lovely reclining couches. Dave called about three times to chat. During one of these chats I ended up giving away what his present from his parents was- unbeknownst to me, the one hint he talked me into giving ("You're going to want to go to my place right after you get it") corresponded with something he'd said to his dad ("I'm going to want to go to Jen's after getting something like that") when discussing the possibility of getting this gift (CD player/mp3 player). Oops. Perhaps we think alike a bit too much. He also received the broken car part from his brother. They went out Christmas Day to try to fix the car, but... predictably, the thing still won't run for longer than 15 minutes. So much for that.

There was a big debate at my aunt's about going to church. The annoying thing was everyone assuming that I would want to go. Mom and Dad weren't going (Dad can't), but "Oh, Jennie can go." I really didn't want to- I'm sorry, but I haven't been feeling the God love for quite some time, so going would be hypocritical. Meanwhile, Kristen, the family rebel who is *gasp!* going to a Presbyterian church with her friends instead of the Methodist church like everyone else in the family for all time, was disappointed when Aunt Susie refused to go to her church service because it was at 5 p.m. (this conversation came up at 4:30), whereas their church had one at 8. This whole church thing is very disturbing- then again, I wasn't one to look for religion at 15, in case you didn't guess, so it baffles me. Mom had some kind of conversation with Kristen about how everyone in the family for all time had been a Methodist, Uncle Bill was a Methodist minister, we were all written down in some book about this, etc. Meanwhile, I thought it was hilarious that Mom said this knowing that they'd had me baptized Catholic. Her explanation later was that she'd basically done it to shut up Dad's relatives and a baptism was a baptism, regardless of the religion (although Uncle Bill refused to rebaptize me again after the Catholic one, so uh, perhaps not).

While most of them were off at church, Mom realized that there were no cake pans in the house, and found one store that was still open. So we headed down there and were waited on by a guy wearing a cowboy hat and a green Santa hat (which looked like it was made out of sparkly dark Astroturf) on top of it. He also had a handlebar mustache. His nametag said? Cowboy. Hee.

Not much happened that night, so it was rather dull. After church, we all got to open one gift- in their house that's the "Mrs. Claus" gift- and Mrs. Claus likes reading. Ironically, Mom did NOT give me a book for this one- she gave me a beading kit. I missed doing most of the gifts Christmas Eve at home.

Then again, what I really missed was getting to SLEEP Christmas Day! Growing up, I was NOT allowed to get up early and open presents. I had to wait until M&D woke up, showered, got dressed, and found every camera in the house (in other words, wait an hour- why do you think they had me open some Christmas Eve?)... Here? I got woken up at seven a.m., which I wasn't too thrilled about since I'd had yet another coughing fit the night before.

I will never think I'm spoiled again, seeing all the presents they got. DAYUM, there was tons! (okay, for 3 kids, but still) They got some gifts I wanted, too. Alicia got an mp3 player, Kristen got a Cranium game, and Cassie got a stuffed Stitch that was SO CUTE! She had a Lilo and Stitch-themed Christmas, by far.

I didn't do badly myself. Remember how I didn't think I'd get any opal anything? I forgot that I'd been looking through one of Mom's catalogs at Thanksgiving- she got me opal earrings AND a ring. Beautiful. I kept staring at the ring all day in amazement. I also got a bullshitting-type board game, a new bathrobe (satin outside, soft inside, oooh), some other clothes, a Dave Barry book, and Buffy seasons 1 and 2 on DVD! I was amazed she did that since I don't have a DVD player (will have to borrow Hill's). Not to mention some cash and $50 in gift certificates to Borders. Yay!

Amazingly, I got no bath stuff this year. Though I am wondering about the four $5 gift certificates to Mrs. Fields that I got from R&L. (Mom was all "Oh, that's nice, with your father being diabetic and all." I'm all "Well, they were for me... but there aren't any Mrs. Fields around here.") As usual, the gifts I get from that side were just kinda bizarre.

I do have to wonder about what things are going to be like whenever the hell I do have to start spending holidays with Dave. They all get like 2 gifts apiece, whereas my family's all about the excess. That's going to be a mindfuck on both of us.

After that we mostly sat around watching people's new DVD's and other TV shows. Uncle Brad's relatives dropped by for awhile. Aunt Babs (a great-aunt of mine back East) called to say that she got on the NBC Nightly News for about 10 seconds and could we tape it? So after they spent hours slaving away on the holiday dinner, we ate for 20 minutes and then went off to watch her on TV.

I felt weird about leaving early to go back home. I nearly didn't get to, as everyone was trying to convince me to get up at the crack of dawn today to be driven to work. Uh, yeah. Everyone was still hanging out, and I had to leave to go to "work." This is the first time that I've not been home for Christmas or had two weeks off to spend with the family, and I felt all bad and wrong about it. Then I went home and had a big coughing fit again! Whee! Medication just does not work at all for this. I am going to have to go back to the doctor's next month.

It wasn't too bad, mind you... but I still felt strange. And now it's over.

Looks like the New Year's plans of going clubbing have changed, as Dave's underage friends now want to hang out with us. Okay, so it'll probably be a lot cheaper because we're not coughing up $40 apiece for tickets, but now I doubt we'll be able to do much of anything. Especially since one of them lives with The Nazi and The Nazi will probably decide to lock her in her room at 10 p.m. or something :P Sigh.

Dave will be coming in sometime this afternoon, so I probably won't be updating until next year. Happy New Year, y'all.

previous entry - next entry
archives - current entry