"Most of my friends have some version of the holiday blues, because they're not with family; we are the people who were invited out for dinner a few days ago, by people who spend Christmas with relatives, but wanted to have a "Christmas" with their friends before they had to leave for the real event. It's a nice gesture, but in the background is always the nagging fact that it's not real. There's really no fulfillment in being a glorified consolation prize. For me it's just a hassle, and a little forced." Dan Renzi.

Yeah... I relate.

We slept in till nearly 10, didn't open presents until about 12:30. Mom pretended to like the sweater I made her, but she hasn't tried it on in front of a mirror yet, so...yeah. I got my (already known about) laptop and an iTouch to replace my dying Palm, which is a big yay. Wish I could set it up here, but there's no wireless, so I'll have to wait until later to play with it. Otherwise I got sweats and bath stuff and whatever random (and I do mean random) DVD's she found around the house.

Then we watched On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, which reminded me of how much I am not fond of cheesy old movies, or a young and snotty Barbra. Dear lord, everyone in the movie is very unpleasant. On the other hand, I think it could have good potential for a remake someday.

And after that, we went over to Mom's friend Jan's. There were 20something people there, mostly relatives of one sort or another, it was kind of confusing to tell. Jan is remarried, she had one kid and her husband had four, and Grandma adopted a few more grandkids to boot...I lost track. Apparently I was in high school with her daughter, but it was mutual unrecognition on our parts for that. Her husband's mother (the aforementioned Grandma) is one of those old ladies who's determined to keep her mental shit together and was a lot of fun to hang out with. Can I be adopted by her too? :P I wish my grandmothers had done that.

It was pleasant enough, they're all generally friendlier than the people I'm related to. At one point Grandma and one of the grandkids were throwing chocolate coins at the dinner tables. I threw some back.

I did feel funny when they all went in to open gifts and take the family photo, though. I hid in another room.

I dunno how I felt about being "the intruder." I felt weird, but it probably wasn't all that much weirder than I felt at either of my aunt's houses, except that I was pretty sure everyone would stay in the room socializing and/or not making mean comments to you here. (Is this what a Traditional Functional Family Christmas is supposed to be like?!) Here I knew I wasn't family, there I'm "supposedly" family but not really. So I guess there isn't much of a difference.

Was it a pleasant night? Sure. Did I feel weird? Yup. Would I have had more fun in SF? Yes. But on the other hand, MOM DIDN'T CRY ONCE. There's your Christmas miracle right there. So there is that.

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