tabular_rasa | Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (Reply)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Grama and Winston were able to make it to Christmas this year, which was great, considering that Winston had just been in the hospital with an unexplainable uncontrollably fast heart rate. I was really worried about him! He seems a little more tired and slow now, but he's still recovering, but at least he's okay!

Last night was lots of fun; the traditional family Christmas Eve gathering at Papa and Jana's. Well, it was a little bit different, because it was just our branch of the family (instead of the second cousins and all) but then it was more intimate and close-knit, more casual, that way, I guess . . .

Jana had a "brown-out"-- "senior" moment, I guess you could call it, considering her age, lol-- and started introducing me to my own maternal grandmother who had come along with me and my family. That was almost as good (if not better) than the paper-layed pecan pie of Thanksgiving a few years ago, lol . . .

Everyone said I looked thin and slender and surprisingly so after being at college for a semester. I was happily surprised and so now I feel good about myself, lol . . .

My aunt also said I looked like Snow White. I like that ^_^

I got to sit at the "grown-up table" for the first time, since I'm a big college kid, now, lol . . . it was . . . exciting?

We played Pictionary, to make a long story short. Funniest pictures: James's "doctor" and Mom's "honeymoon," and Papa's "curvacious" (shortest guessing-period time EVER, lol . . . ahh, to play Team Pictionary Boys vs. Girls).

Tory and I each one Christmas-themed photo albums for winning at Pictionary and being the MVPs of the Girls' team, lol . . . I also got an ornament, a brush and comb set, a mini-puzzle, a Slinky, and a bunch of candy in my stocking from Papa and Jana.

Oh-- and I am now a cousin-once-removed (well, I always was)-- or, whatever the heck relation Sirius or Regulus Black is to Nymphadora Tonks or Draco Malfoy (lol, leave it to me to make that relation). My cousin Stephanie just had a baby girl, Madelyn Marie, on the 17th-- so she showed up for about an hour or so, and Madelyn slept basically through the whole time, but we got some four-generation pictures, which hasn't happened since Great-Grama Nina was still with us. Hmm, if only she had stayed around for two more years . . .

Then we rode home in the dark, in the eerie mist. Yes-- it had gotten so warm, it was starting to rain. The mist was unsettling; we couldn't see at all. We drove very slowly home, through the eerie, dark, still-snowy mist of slow, with the lights barely to be seen.

I didn't sleep hardly at all last night, though. I took a shower and got into bed about 11:00 pm (10:00 pm St. Louis time, which I'm still pretty much on . . . ) and woke up around 2:00, and then never properly really got back to sleep. So I'm sort of in a bizarre, unfeeling haze. Ahh, the magic of Christmas . . .

Anyway, Christmas has been good. In a few hours (well, more like one, actually . . . ) Papa and Jana are coming over to our house, and we're having Eggs a la Goldenrod, Dad's traditional Christmas breakfast from when he was growing up, only prepared by him, instead of Great-Grama Nina. We're going to use my new Hello Kitty toaster for the making of the toast to go with it ^_^

Yes, my new Hello Kitty toaster. I got a Hello Kitty toaster-- the kind that leaves untoasted imprints of Hello Kitty's face on the toast-- for Christmas ^_^ I'll have to check to see if they're allowed in the dorms, and, if they are, you St. Louis people can count on me bringing that back, lol . . .

I also got basically the equivalent of Lisa's present I got for her: Wicked soundtrack and crazy, fluffy, striped socks. We can match, Lisa! Lol . . .

I also got a book on Shakespeare's life that Dad had heard good reviews on (even though it was from *Santa,* honestly, they get worse and worse at diguising that every year, lol . . . Mom had to even go back up to the closet and get more gifts that she had forgotten after we had gone through just about all of them out in the open, lol . . . ), a book on Japanese home cooking ("Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat"-- I'd seen it before, and it made me laugh, lol . . . ), Wicked (the novel-- along with my Wicked soundtrack ^_^), the 1776 soundtrack on CD (because CDs are always better than tapes, lol . . . ), two pairs of pajamas, and the obligatory underwear, razors, and fantastic amounts of chocolate and peppermints.

Tory gave me the Mulan soundtrack on CD, which I have missed every since I lost my tape of it in about 7th grade (she got me the special-features re-release DVD last year, lol . . . ), and Grama gave me a Borders gift card, and this adorable reindeer purse thing (it's a stuffed animal, whose back opens up! Lol . . . ) filled with mints, lol . . .

Dad is nuts over his "The Gods Must Be Crazy I & II" boxed set (I knew he would be; we all are ^_^), Tory loves her (a little retarded and sort of drunk) "Happy Bird" (yeah, he's happy, and he's drunk) Drinky-Drinky Bird, Hulu Dancing Girl, and Hypochondriac's Wheel (Mom particularly loves that, one, too), Mom says she feels weird wearing a "Wash U Mom" shirt instead of an "I Go To Wash U" or "Wash U Alumna" shirt, but I think she likes it anyway . . . and Neil can't get his IQ Game box open, lol . . .

Edit (1:09 pm): I finished a whole glass (well, maybe it wasn't full to begin with) of champagne at brunch, along with a glass of milk and some of Tory's raspberry/vanilla-flavored syrup/club soda water drink. I'm so weird, lol . . .

Now all the guests have gone home. What to do, what to do . . . Nichole, Kristina, are you guys available at all to meet up? I want to catch you two both together, if that's possible . . .