So this is Christmas?
Another Christmas at the ambersnake household. This one wasn't any better than the previous ones but a bit different. My grandmother has been so unwell (mentally) that we decided not to have her with us this year. She's so completely out of touch with reality that it wouldn't have worked.
This was also N's and my first Christmas living together and we weren't quite sure how to work things out. In the end we both spent the day with our families and the evening together at our place.
I arrived at my parent's apartment around eleven to start preparing the food. My father was supposed to be out, picking up mother but I found him in the living room with a beer in hand and he informed me that mother was on her way in a taxi. That pretty much defined the day for us.
Mother eventually arrived, father kept drinking and I talked and talked, trying to keep up some pretence of normalcy. Why, I really have no idea. Mostly for mother's sake, I guess. She doesn't really understand what's changed and doesn't deserve any of this.
We ate, opened up our presents and probably all counted the hours until it would end. This year we didn't have a Christmas tree and there wasn't even a hint of snow, so things seemed even bleaker than in previous years.
I got a gift certificate to a bookstore from father and some knickknacks from mother. Among them was a Nemi calendar, which totally blew me away. Nemi is one of my favourite comic strips and I had absolutely no idea that she knew it. My mother is usually completely out of touch with the present (if you asked her, she'd tell me I was sixteen and still living at home) but every now and then she'll cling onto a little detail and even be able to hold onto it. It seems entirely random and always takes me by surprise.
Some of mother's friends still insist on giving me gifts every year. Some of them are very straightforward about it and I get stuff that I actually like, such as Terry Pratchett's newest book. Others show absolutely zero knowledge of the person I am, and get me white (have they ever even met me? I'm the poster child of not-white) sheets with hearts (yuck!) on them. I also got dessert bowls that ended up in the back of our walk-in closed due to abundance of kitchen ware. I appreciate the thought, I really do, but mostly it goes to waste.
After maybe four hours we deemed the day to have served its purpose (portraying us as a normal family once a year) and I drove mother back to her residence. Then I dropped off father at a cemetery (I don't want to know) and drove straight to N's parents' where I actually had fun.
N's mother served us a nice meal that I only nibbled on after the previous one, then it was time for presents. We got a tea brewing pot for home, and I got a gift certificate to a day spa! It was totally unexpected and I'm really excited. Sure, I visit this particular day spa at least once a month but that's to undergo a painful operation for removing hair from sensitive places. Now I can go there and actually enjoy myself. There are so many possibilities that I don't know what to choose. Facial, massage, pedicure, manicure... The possibilities seem endless and all equally tempting.
The few hours spent at N's parents' considerably brightened my mood and I was almost happy by the time we got home. There we opened the gifts from our friends and exchanged our own. L gave me a small wooden snake figurine, N a very scary gothic-style back-scratcher in the shape of a bony hand and for the both of us a Gary Larson calendar. S gave us sponge cake and cookies because I'm always hoping someone would come over bake for us too ^^ .
From N I got three small Aalto vases in smoky colours. His other present to me was a surprise and he left it to me to find it. N was worried that I might not spot it but I almost immediately sat down on my computer, and there it was! A Bejeweled 2 shortcut on my desktop! I played the trial version of that game many years ago and it made such an impression that I've been singing its praises ever since. It is just as enjoyable and addictive as I remembered, and I've been playing almost non-stop. A perfect gift. And am very fond of the vases as well, even if they didn't produce quite the same amount of squee. It's just that they're too dignified for that sort of response ;)
So while the day both sucked and blew, the evening ended on a happy note.
This was also N's and my first Christmas living together and we weren't quite sure how to work things out. In the end we both spent the day with our families and the evening together at our place.
I arrived at my parent's apartment around eleven to start preparing the food. My father was supposed to be out, picking up mother but I found him in the living room with a beer in hand and he informed me that mother was on her way in a taxi. That pretty much defined the day for us.
Mother eventually arrived, father kept drinking and I talked and talked, trying to keep up some pretence of normalcy. Why, I really have no idea. Mostly for mother's sake, I guess. She doesn't really understand what's changed and doesn't deserve any of this.
We ate, opened up our presents and probably all counted the hours until it would end. This year we didn't have a Christmas tree and there wasn't even a hint of snow, so things seemed even bleaker than in previous years.
I got a gift certificate to a bookstore from father and some knickknacks from mother. Among them was a Nemi calendar, which totally blew me away. Nemi is one of my favourite comic strips and I had absolutely no idea that she knew it. My mother is usually completely out of touch with the present (if you asked her, she'd tell me I was sixteen and still living at home) but every now and then she'll cling onto a little detail and even be able to hold onto it. It seems entirely random and always takes me by surprise.
Some of mother's friends still insist on giving me gifts every year. Some of them are very straightforward about it and I get stuff that I actually like, such as Terry Pratchett's newest book. Others show absolutely zero knowledge of the person I am, and get me white (have they ever even met me? I'm the poster child of not-white) sheets with hearts (yuck!) on them. I also got dessert bowls that ended up in the back of our walk-in closed due to abundance of kitchen ware. I appreciate the thought, I really do, but mostly it goes to waste.
After maybe four hours we deemed the day to have served its purpose (portraying us as a normal family once a year) and I drove mother back to her residence. Then I dropped off father at a cemetery (I don't want to know) and drove straight to N's parents' where I actually had fun.
N's mother served us a nice meal that I only nibbled on after the previous one, then it was time for presents. We got a tea brewing pot for home, and I got a gift certificate to a day spa! It was totally unexpected and I'm really excited. Sure, I visit this particular day spa at least once a month but that's to undergo a painful operation for removing hair from sensitive places. Now I can go there and actually enjoy myself. There are so many possibilities that I don't know what to choose. Facial, massage, pedicure, manicure... The possibilities seem endless and all equally tempting.
The few hours spent at N's parents' considerably brightened my mood and I was almost happy by the time we got home. There we opened the gifts from our friends and exchanged our own. L gave me a small wooden snake figurine, N a very scary gothic-style back-scratcher in the shape of a bony hand and for the both of us a Gary Larson calendar. S gave us sponge cake and cookies because I'm always hoping someone would come over bake for us too ^^ .
From N I got three small Aalto vases in smoky colours. His other present to me was a surprise and he left it to me to find it. N was worried that I might not spot it but I almost immediately sat down on my computer, and there it was! A Bejeweled 2 shortcut on my desktop! I played the trial version of that game many years ago and it made such an impression that I've been singing its praises ever since. It is just as enjoyable and addictive as I remembered, and I've been playing almost non-stop. A perfect gift. And am very fond of the vases as well, even if they didn't produce quite the same amount of squee. It's just that they're too dignified for that sort of response ;)
So while the day both sucked and blew, the evening ended on a happy note.