"I have to kill Cubey!?"
I love Christmas. Not just for the presents (although those are certainly nice), but just the way it feels. The family around me, the tree, the music, the food, the tradition and familiarity of it all is just amazingly comforting to me, and makes me happy in a way no other holiday does.
I woke up early (like I usually do) -- not intentionally, but it was all right, I just lay in bed reading comics until the rest of the family started waking up. We gathered around the tree to open our presents -- stocking-stuffers first, then under-the-tree gifts -- and it made me happy to see that everyone seemed to like what I got them. And I got some great stuff, too: new Dane Cook CD and nifty Spider-Man poster from my brothers, some nice bath tea (bath tea!) and the Ratatouille DVD from my mom, silver earrings and a sofa blanket from my grandmother, and a Borders gift card and the RahXephon box set from my dad! And, since I didn't get the Utena or the Genshiken box sets, I immediately snagged them on half.com as a gift to myself. All for about $70, even! Very good deal. ^^
After presents was breakfast, which is one of my favorite things about Christmas, actually, because we so rarely all sit down to a nice hot breakfast, and we always do on Christmas. We had bacon, and scrambled eggs with the Cougar Mountain cheese coramegan gave us when she visited, and English muffins and banana bread. I even tried a crumpet. Didn't much care for it, but now I can say I've tried it!
About this time on Christmas we always have a bit of down time, to take walks or enjoy our new presents, so I took a rather much-needed nap. And then finally got dressed. XD And then our guests arrived: my aunt and uncle from San Francisco, who I don't see nearly enough anymore, and my mom's best friend (who's an honorary aunt anyway) and her husband and daughter. So it was a fairly small group -- only 11 of us, small enough for us all to sit at one table for dinner. Yummy dinner, roast beef and ham and potatoes and beans and salad. And it was so nice to just sit and talk and joke with people.
We also did something new this Christmas: my honorary aunt brought her flute, and her husband brought his guitar, and with my dad on drums we had a sort of impromptu caroling session, which was really a lot of fun. I stayed home from the Christmas Eve service, which I was mostly okay with, but I did miss singing the carols. So that was nice.
And of course I installed the Orange Box, which was my gift to my brothers (and also kind of for me, too), so I got to see their faces while they played Portal (and got to hear quotes like the one in the subject line!). Tomorrow I hope to see them play the ending. That'll be fantastic.
So yeah. In conclusion: still one of the best days of the year.
And the rest of the week is looking to be great as well: Thursday is my dad's birthday, for which we're going to see Walking with Dinosaurs, which looks like it'll be really cool. And next week will be New Year's, I'll be seeing my friends down here for that, and I've still got a ton of comics to read... I'm just generally feeling good about the world right now. ^^ That's a feeling I'd like to hand onto.
I woke up early (like I usually do) -- not intentionally, but it was all right, I just lay in bed reading comics until the rest of the family started waking up. We gathered around the tree to open our presents -- stocking-stuffers first, then under-the-tree gifts -- and it made me happy to see that everyone seemed to like what I got them. And I got some great stuff, too: new Dane Cook CD and nifty Spider-Man poster from my brothers, some nice bath tea (bath tea!) and the Ratatouille DVD from my mom, silver earrings and a sofa blanket from my grandmother, and a Borders gift card and the RahXephon box set from my dad! And, since I didn't get the Utena or the Genshiken box sets, I immediately snagged them on half.com as a gift to myself. All for about $70, even! Very good deal. ^^
After presents was breakfast, which is one of my favorite things about Christmas, actually, because we so rarely all sit down to a nice hot breakfast, and we always do on Christmas. We had bacon, and scrambled eggs with the Cougar Mountain cheese coramegan gave us when she visited, and English muffins and banana bread. I even tried a crumpet. Didn't much care for it, but now I can say I've tried it!
About this time on Christmas we always have a bit of down time, to take walks or enjoy our new presents, so I took a rather much-needed nap. And then finally got dressed. XD And then our guests arrived: my aunt and uncle from San Francisco, who I don't see nearly enough anymore, and my mom's best friend (who's an honorary aunt anyway) and her husband and daughter. So it was a fairly small group -- only 11 of us, small enough for us all to sit at one table for dinner. Yummy dinner, roast beef and ham and potatoes and beans and salad. And it was so nice to just sit and talk and joke with people.
We also did something new this Christmas: my honorary aunt brought her flute, and her husband brought his guitar, and with my dad on drums we had a sort of impromptu caroling session, which was really a lot of fun. I stayed home from the Christmas Eve service, which I was mostly okay with, but I did miss singing the carols. So that was nice.
And of course I installed the Orange Box, which was my gift to my brothers (and also kind of for me, too), so I got to see their faces while they played Portal (and got to hear quotes like the one in the subject line!). Tomorrow I hope to see them play the ending. That'll be fantastic.
So yeah. In conclusion: still one of the best days of the year.
And the rest of the week is looking to be great as well: Thursday is my dad's birthday, for which we're going to see Walking with Dinosaurs, which looks like it'll be really cool. And next week will be New Year's, I'll be seeing my friends down here for that, and I've still got a ton of comics to read... I'm just generally feeling good about the world right now. ^^ That's a feeling I'd like to hand onto.