Christmas Booty
I'm sorry to disappoint you with a subject like that and an un-sexy-filtered post. Under the cut is a description of what I've done/am doing for the holidays as well as a bit about the gifts I gave and received. Also, teaser: I smoked pot with parental units before dinner!
The 24th, I hung out at home and got some stuff done. I went grocery shopping for the things I needed to make a salad for today and then cleaned my room. Mom and Ira stopped by after a party they went to to give me my Christmas Eve gift. It is a new pair of pajamas every year. This year's are incredibly comfy. She also gave me some socks that she knitted. They're a little big, but they work as slippers. It was the first time that Mom and Ira had been to my place, so I gave them a tour and they offered to give me furniture (I am still ridiculously furniture-less because I've been too lazy/busy to find some on Free Cycle). After they left, I got an overnight bag together and went over to my dad's house so I would be there in the morning.
I did laundry last night while I cut out some paper snowflakes to put on the envelopes of the cards I gave to people. The only person I actually had a gift for was Rosie, but I gave some written promises of gifts to come. However, I think everyone understands, as Sam calls it, Brokemas and good wishes can be enough gift even if they aren't very exciting. Plus I made some intricate paper snowflakes for the fronts of the envelopes and drew a wreath, a candy cane, a tennenbaum, a Santa hat, some holly, and a stocking with coal in it for Sam (because he's a naughty boy!) on the backs. I watched O Brother Where Art Thou? as I did this, then went to sleep.
I woke up at 9:45 on Christmas morning and went upstairs in my pajamas (plus a bra) to open stockings and gifts. My dad and I hung out for a few minutes before Rosie got up, and then Mom showed up a little later. Dad had stuffed Rosie's and my stockings pretty full, and mom had stocking stuffers for us in small gift bags as well.
Skimmable stocking stuffer list: I got various kinds of candy, a bunch of stuff from Celestial Seasonings (tea, honey sticks, mints and, inexplicably, a nail file and a little metal puzzle [the ring in the spring), a pair of nice socks, some lilac soap, some Bath and Body Works anti-bacterial waterless hand foam, a partridge ornament (my mom's side is the Partridge family), a pair of earrings that have little batteries in them so they light up in changing colors, some henna-esque temporary tattoos of dragonflies, a pocket-sized composition notebook, a metal, camping spork, a decorated pen with little bells on it, and a Pez dispenser shaped like Will Turner from Pirates of the Carribbean. It almost looks like Orlando Bloom. Rosie got the Captain Jack Sparrow one and I'm envious.
After stockings, we had some hot, cinnamon-y pastry with frosting on it. Then we opened gifts. For Rosie, I got a t-shirt that says 'pi mp' on it, except that 'pi' is the irrational number's symbol. She found it amusing. Together, Rosie and I gave mom a little box spa kit (like the kind you find in line at borders) and a "certificate" for a spa treatment at the spa of her choice. I gave my dad a card that said that his gifts are on the way because I had to wait for a paycheck and didn't beat the Christmas rush. I'm planning to get him a DVD of the Italian version of Fantasia, Allegro non Troppo. Dad gave the dog a new hedgehog chew toy, which was really cute.
Skimmable gift list: from Dad, I got a new digital camera with a Gorillapod (yay! now I can have new pictures again!), a board game called Loaded Questions, Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix the authorized Hendrix family edition, a box of Russel Stover chocolate (family tradition), and the piece de resistance: the Graveyard Gothic Garden terrarium. It is so random, and so awesome. However, the box I got didn't have the tombstone plant markers, so Dad's gonna ask at the store if they have another, complete one.
Rosie gave me a copy of Garden State, and a 10' long black scarf. I wanted a Doctor Who scarf, but since I don't wear those colors, I asked for just a really long, black scarf. So, Mom commissioned and Rosie crocheted one for me.
Mom also got a couple of ridiculous things at Steve and Barry's when they were going out of business. She gave me a "Highway 420" visor, which I will never wear. I gave it to refusedparty. Since we were going to Mom's in the afternoon, she saved the rest of her presents till then.
Rosie got a really sweet version of Monopoly. Monopoly Here and Now: World Edition. Instead of paper money, every player gets a credit card and there's a little adding machine that keeps track of the balances. The properties are world cities instead of city blocks. The tokens are various symbols from around the world, like Rosie played with the Chinese dragon, Dad was the Canadian Mounty, and I was the kangaroo. The weird thing about the board was that the cities were unevenly distributed throughout the world. There were no South American cities, only one from the U.S., four from Canada, several from Europe, only one from Australia, a couple from Asia and maybe two from Africa. However, the houses came in five shapes, one for each continent, and so did the hotels. Altogether though, a cute game. We played that till Rosie and I needed to head over to Mom's.
At Mom's and Ira's, we opened a few more gifts. I got a nifty, folding, scrap-booking, journal-type thing with dragonflies on it, a hemp purse (huzzah! now my purse matches my wallet), a promise to take me shopping for warmer clothes, and the collector's edition Sephora ultimate blockbuster palette. I would never buy it for myself, but I love having lots of make-up to play with even though I don't wear it every day. Also, it came in a really sweet, red, satin bag, which is totally reusable.
After gifts, I prepared my salad for Christmas dinner at my godmother, Janet's house. Dinner was Southwest-inspired, so I went for a cilantro lime vinaigrette that Janet found on Epicurious with Bibb lettuce, raw red peppers, orange slices and pomegranate seeds. The pomegranate seeds were my idea, and they were totally worth the process of taking it apart. I recently found instructions for taking apart a pomegranate in a bowl of warm water (the rind floats to the top) that made it go a lot faster than normal.
We got to Janet's around 4. The people there were: Janet, her husband Larry and their daughter, Morgan, my mom and Ira, Mom's and Janet's friend Mark, who is a single gay man who knows a lot about wine, me, Rosie, and Janet's friends Lee and Michelle (a lesbian couple) and their two daughters, Lucy and Desiree (Desi for short). Desi and Lucy (yes, they're aware of the classic TV reference) are two beautiful, happy, mixed-race children who needed to be adopted.
Twenty minutes after we got there, Janet was like, "would anyone like to celebrate 4:20 with me on the balcony?" By 4:30, Janet, Ira, Lee, Mom, Mark, Rosie and I were smoking weed out of a dugout, or "one hitter" as Janet called it. It was pretty good weed. It's interesting that the older generation has different slang for things, like 'spent' instead of 'cashed'. I have never smoked weed with my mom before. It was pretty awesome. She gets funnier and more sarcastic when she's high. I can really see that she was the kind of person I'd hang out with when she was younger.
Dinner was awesomely delicious. It was potluck-style, but in a very foodie way. Mom made white sangria (white wine + lemon soda + lemon, lime and orange slices), and there were margaritas as well. For the kids, there was sparkling cider. For appetizers, there was ceviche (Lee), salsa (store-bought), and guacamole (Mark) with corn chips. The turkey (Larry) was roasted and served with an optional mole sauce. The other dishes were chipotle mashed sweet potatoes (Michelle), vegetarian tamales (Mom), and a cooked veggie side (not sure). My salad, which most people ate Euro-style after the meal, was a big hit. Janet said it served the perfect counterpoint to the rest of the meal. Everything would have been awesome no matter what, but some of us were still high, so that made it even better.
After dinner, we sat around chatting for a while. I love that my family is the kind in which a conversation about nationalized health care happens at the dinner table in a really thoughtful, intelligent way. I'm glad these people raised me. I also talked to Lee (whose job I'm not sure of) who suggested that I apply for work at Public Health on campus. Community health, preventative care, and patient advocacy are more like what I want to do with nursing than hospital work is, so I think I'll look into it. I would keep the Summertree job, though, because of the possible tuition reimbursement for nursing school even though I'm not getting enough hours there.
Janet is a master baker. Before opening gifts, we had some cookies that she baked. There were sugar cookies, gingerbread, macaroons, pizzelle-type things, and cranberry shortbread.
Short gift list: Lee and Michelle game me and Rosie some cute photo albums (though really, who uses photo albums anymore? ...maybe I'll re-gift it to Siren for baby photos), Mark gave me a wall calendar with beautiful, professional photos of gorgeous natural places in it, and Janet and Larry gave me a beautiful, bohemian angel ornament that says on it, "I feel there is an angel within me that I am constantly shocking. -Jean Cocteau". Look at the link. It's really pretty and art-y.
I gave Janet, Larry and Morgan a card, and Mark a card. I didn't have enough cards for Lee and Michelle, and since I only see them once a year and they know I'm poor, it's not a big deal. The photo albums are pretty impersonal. They did, however, give us hanging mobiles with clips from which to hang stuff of your own choosing last year. Mine's pretty boring right now, but I just got some ornaments today, so I shall spice it up.
After gifts, we went back to the table for almond-crescent biscocitos and Mexican chocolate mousse (meaning chocolate with a hint of cinnamon). It was delicious, but I was so full and it was so rich that I couldn't finish it.
Fairly soon after that, Rosie and I went back to Dad's and we finished our game of Monopoly. I won because I got the two monopolies on either side of free parking, so they both ended up landing on my properties a lot. Which meant that I could afford houses. I owned, among others, Sydney, New York, and London. The cities aren't even organized by size or geographically. However, there are pictures from other places around the world on the board, and the chance and community chest cards make references to other places and have trivia about them. The transports are rail, air, cruise (as in boat) and space. The utilities are wind power and solar power. The board game I got is not nearly as cool.
Dad and Rosie went to bed, and I went to the 24 hour ATM to deposit my Christmas money from my grandparents. Most of which goes toward utilities for next month. But I'll pretend that I'm saving some for my trip to Wicked Faire. Now I'm home and I should be asleep, but my bed is covered in booty and writing this entry took a long time.
Tomorrow evening, I'm going to get nice Chinese food with Dad to take to the minigolf to eat with Rosie while she works. Dad pretty much hung out by himself with the animals all day. He recently started doing home dialysis, so getting used to that makes a lot of his focus this month (it'll get easier after that). After dinner, I'm going back to Boulder to hang out with Sam. He surprised me on Christmas Eve by telling me that he has a gift for me. I tend to assume that my friends won't get me gifts since I can't afford to get any for them usually. I don't have a gift for him, but I stole some cookies from Mom's and I made him a card. Plus you know, I'll give him the other kind of booty.
I'm in town this weekend and mostly free. I'm doing movie writing with Huff on Sunday (oh yeah! Huff and I are writing a movie). Monday afternoon, I'm getting brunch with Mom, Ira, Miguel and Rosie, then I'm going to the poly meeting in the evening. Tuesday morning, I'm driving down to Albuquerque to hang out with doomfrog and theratsmeow for New Year's Eve. Next weekend, I'll be in Santa Fe with the grandparents, and on Sunday I'll drive with Rosie back to CO.
Okay, I think I'm done. Phew. I'll be impressed if anyone reads that.
Happy New Year, y'all!
The 24th, I hung out at home and got some stuff done. I went grocery shopping for the things I needed to make a salad for today and then cleaned my room. Mom and Ira stopped by after a party they went to to give me my Christmas Eve gift. It is a new pair of pajamas every year. This year's are incredibly comfy. She also gave me some socks that she knitted. They're a little big, but they work as slippers. It was the first time that Mom and Ira had been to my place, so I gave them a tour and they offered to give me furniture (I am still ridiculously furniture-less because I've been too lazy/busy to find some on Free Cycle). After they left, I got an overnight bag together and went over to my dad's house so I would be there in the morning.
I did laundry last night while I cut out some paper snowflakes to put on the envelopes of the cards I gave to people. The only person I actually had a gift for was Rosie, but I gave some written promises of gifts to come. However, I think everyone understands, as Sam calls it, Brokemas and good wishes can be enough gift even if they aren't very exciting. Plus I made some intricate paper snowflakes for the fronts of the envelopes and drew a wreath, a candy cane, a tennenbaum, a Santa hat, some holly, and a stocking with coal in it for Sam (because he's a naughty boy!) on the backs. I watched O Brother Where Art Thou? as I did this, then went to sleep.
I woke up at 9:45 on Christmas morning and went upstairs in my pajamas (plus a bra) to open stockings and gifts. My dad and I hung out for a few minutes before Rosie got up, and then Mom showed up a little later. Dad had stuffed Rosie's and my stockings pretty full, and mom had stocking stuffers for us in small gift bags as well.
Skimmable stocking stuffer list: I got various kinds of candy, a bunch of stuff from Celestial Seasonings (tea, honey sticks, mints and, inexplicably, a nail file and a little metal puzzle [the ring in the spring), a pair of nice socks, some lilac soap, some Bath and Body Works anti-bacterial waterless hand foam, a partridge ornament (my mom's side is the Partridge family), a pair of earrings that have little batteries in them so they light up in changing colors, some henna-esque temporary tattoos of dragonflies, a pocket-sized composition notebook, a metal, camping spork, a decorated pen with little bells on it, and a Pez dispenser shaped like Will Turner from Pirates of the Carribbean. It almost looks like Orlando Bloom. Rosie got the Captain Jack Sparrow one and I'm envious.
After stockings, we had some hot, cinnamon-y pastry with frosting on it. Then we opened gifts. For Rosie, I got a t-shirt that says 'pi mp' on it, except that 'pi' is the irrational number's symbol. She found it amusing. Together, Rosie and I gave mom a little box spa kit (like the kind you find in line at borders) and a "certificate" for a spa treatment at the spa of her choice. I gave my dad a card that said that his gifts are on the way because I had to wait for a paycheck and didn't beat the Christmas rush. I'm planning to get him a DVD of the Italian version of Fantasia, Allegro non Troppo. Dad gave the dog a new hedgehog chew toy, which was really cute.
Skimmable gift list: from Dad, I got a new digital camera with a Gorillapod (yay! now I can have new pictures again!), a board game called Loaded Questions, Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix the authorized Hendrix family edition, a box of Russel Stover chocolate (family tradition), and the piece de resistance: the Graveyard Gothic Garden terrarium. It is so random, and so awesome. However, the box I got didn't have the tombstone plant markers, so Dad's gonna ask at the store if they have another, complete one.
Rosie gave me a copy of Garden State, and a 10' long black scarf. I wanted a Doctor Who scarf, but since I don't wear those colors, I asked for just a really long, black scarf. So, Mom commissioned and Rosie crocheted one for me.
Mom also got a couple of ridiculous things at Steve and Barry's when they were going out of business. She gave me a "Highway 420" visor, which I will never wear. I gave it to refusedparty. Since we were going to Mom's in the afternoon, she saved the rest of her presents till then.
Rosie got a really sweet version of Monopoly. Monopoly Here and Now: World Edition. Instead of paper money, every player gets a credit card and there's a little adding machine that keeps track of the balances. The properties are world cities instead of city blocks. The tokens are various symbols from around the world, like Rosie played with the Chinese dragon, Dad was the Canadian Mounty, and I was the kangaroo. The weird thing about the board was that the cities were unevenly distributed throughout the world. There were no South American cities, only one from the U.S., four from Canada, several from Europe, only one from Australia, a couple from Asia and maybe two from Africa. However, the houses came in five shapes, one for each continent, and so did the hotels. Altogether though, a cute game. We played that till Rosie and I needed to head over to Mom's.
At Mom's and Ira's, we opened a few more gifts. I got a nifty, folding, scrap-booking, journal-type thing with dragonflies on it, a hemp purse (huzzah! now my purse matches my wallet), a promise to take me shopping for warmer clothes, and the collector's edition Sephora ultimate blockbuster palette. I would never buy it for myself, but I love having lots of make-up to play with even though I don't wear it every day. Also, it came in a really sweet, red, satin bag, which is totally reusable.
After gifts, I prepared my salad for Christmas dinner at my godmother, Janet's house. Dinner was Southwest-inspired, so I went for a cilantro lime vinaigrette that Janet found on Epicurious with Bibb lettuce, raw red peppers, orange slices and pomegranate seeds. The pomegranate seeds were my idea, and they were totally worth the process of taking it apart. I recently found instructions for taking apart a pomegranate in a bowl of warm water (the rind floats to the top) that made it go a lot faster than normal.
We got to Janet's around 4. The people there were: Janet, her husband Larry and their daughter, Morgan, my mom and Ira, Mom's and Janet's friend Mark, who is a single gay man who knows a lot about wine, me, Rosie, and Janet's friends Lee and Michelle (a lesbian couple) and their two daughters, Lucy and Desiree (Desi for short). Desi and Lucy (yes, they're aware of the classic TV reference) are two beautiful, happy, mixed-race children who needed to be adopted.
Twenty minutes after we got there, Janet was like, "would anyone like to celebrate 4:20 with me on the balcony?" By 4:30, Janet, Ira, Lee, Mom, Mark, Rosie and I were smoking weed out of a dugout, or "one hitter" as Janet called it. It was pretty good weed. It's interesting that the older generation has different slang for things, like 'spent' instead of 'cashed'. I have never smoked weed with my mom before. It was pretty awesome. She gets funnier and more sarcastic when she's high. I can really see that she was the kind of person I'd hang out with when she was younger.
Dinner was awesomely delicious. It was potluck-style, but in a very foodie way. Mom made white sangria (white wine + lemon soda + lemon, lime and orange slices), and there were margaritas as well. For the kids, there was sparkling cider. For appetizers, there was ceviche (Lee), salsa (store-bought), and guacamole (Mark) with corn chips. The turkey (Larry) was roasted and served with an optional mole sauce. The other dishes were chipotle mashed sweet potatoes (Michelle), vegetarian tamales (Mom), and a cooked veggie side (not sure). My salad, which most people ate Euro-style after the meal, was a big hit. Janet said it served the perfect counterpoint to the rest of the meal. Everything would have been awesome no matter what, but some of us were still high, so that made it even better.
After dinner, we sat around chatting for a while. I love that my family is the kind in which a conversation about nationalized health care happens at the dinner table in a really thoughtful, intelligent way. I'm glad these people raised me. I also talked to Lee (whose job I'm not sure of) who suggested that I apply for work at Public Health on campus. Community health, preventative care, and patient advocacy are more like what I want to do with nursing than hospital work is, so I think I'll look into it. I would keep the Summertree job, though, because of the possible tuition reimbursement for nursing school even though I'm not getting enough hours there.
Janet is a master baker. Before opening gifts, we had some cookies that she baked. There were sugar cookies, gingerbread, macaroons, pizzelle-type things, and cranberry shortbread.
Short gift list: Lee and Michelle game me and Rosie some cute photo albums (though really, who uses photo albums anymore? ...maybe I'll re-gift it to Siren for baby photos), Mark gave me a wall calendar with beautiful, professional photos of gorgeous natural places in it, and Janet and Larry gave me a beautiful, bohemian angel ornament that says on it, "I feel there is an angel within me that I am constantly shocking. -Jean Cocteau". Look at the link. It's really pretty and art-y.
I gave Janet, Larry and Morgan a card, and Mark a card. I didn't have enough cards for Lee and Michelle, and since I only see them once a year and they know I'm poor, it's not a big deal. The photo albums are pretty impersonal. They did, however, give us hanging mobiles with clips from which to hang stuff of your own choosing last year. Mine's pretty boring right now, but I just got some ornaments today, so I shall spice it up.
After gifts, we went back to the table for almond-crescent biscocitos and Mexican chocolate mousse (meaning chocolate with a hint of cinnamon). It was delicious, but I was so full and it was so rich that I couldn't finish it.
Fairly soon after that, Rosie and I went back to Dad's and we finished our game of Monopoly. I won because I got the two monopolies on either side of free parking, so they both ended up landing on my properties a lot. Which meant that I could afford houses. I owned, among others, Sydney, New York, and London. The cities aren't even organized by size or geographically. However, there are pictures from other places around the world on the board, and the chance and community chest cards make references to other places and have trivia about them. The transports are rail, air, cruise (as in boat) and space. The utilities are wind power and solar power. The board game I got is not nearly as cool.
Dad and Rosie went to bed, and I went to the 24 hour ATM to deposit my Christmas money from my grandparents. Most of which goes toward utilities for next month. But I'll pretend that I'm saving some for my trip to Wicked Faire. Now I'm home and I should be asleep, but my bed is covered in booty and writing this entry took a long time.
Tomorrow evening, I'm going to get nice Chinese food with Dad to take to the minigolf to eat with Rosie while she works. Dad pretty much hung out by himself with the animals all day. He recently started doing home dialysis, so getting used to that makes a lot of his focus this month (it'll get easier after that). After dinner, I'm going back to Boulder to hang out with Sam. He surprised me on Christmas Eve by telling me that he has a gift for me. I tend to assume that my friends won't get me gifts since I can't afford to get any for them usually. I don't have a gift for him, but I stole some cookies from Mom's and I made him a card. Plus you know, I'll give him the other kind of booty.
I'm in town this weekend and mostly free. I'm doing movie writing with Huff on Sunday (oh yeah! Huff and I are writing a movie). Monday afternoon, I'm getting brunch with Mom, Ira, Miguel and Rosie, then I'm going to the poly meeting in the evening. Tuesday morning, I'm driving down to Albuquerque to hang out with doomfrog and theratsmeow for New Year's Eve. Next weekend, I'll be in Santa Fe with the grandparents, and on Sunday I'll drive with Rosie back to CO.
Okay, I think I'm done. Phew. I'll be impressed if anyone reads that.
Happy New Year, y'all!