christmas cheer
sit tight, kids, this might be a long post. actually, i have broken up a once HUGE entry into 3 smaller ones: christmas, florida, and new years. wanna talk about it? like to hear it? here it goes! [free your mind!!] (ah - i love en vogue!)
well, i guess since i haven't updated at all since before christmas, i'll begin with a week before this last friday...
work was horrendously stressful right before i left to go on vacation. i'm not sure what was going on, but everything was just up in the air and with no resolutions in sight. finally right before i left, i was able to resolve a few things before heading out to finish up some last-minute christmas shopping. i got most of the shopping done with no problems at all. i headed to santana row and picked up gift cards for my cousin and marshall's sister. since i was thirsty and unwilling to spend $1.25 on a skimpy bottle of london tapwater ( i.e. dasani, which i hate anyway), i decided to stop by my mom's (who's about a mile away from where i was) and grab a bottle from the garage. i pulled up and realized she was home. i decided it would be rude to just run into the garage, grab a water and leave without saying hello, at least. yeah, i ended up staying until almost 5pm, which in all fairness was only about an hour and a half since i arrived. anyway, i stayed and chatted with my mom and played a little with carus and ian, who were staying at my mom's for the day. finally, i realized that my entire schedule had been blown out the window because i wanted to stay and chat with my mom, so i left and headed to target for 2 last gifts: a gift card for my other cousin and a fleece blanket for my grandma. finished that up and headed home. i felt bad because i still had so much to do and finish before the comedy show marshall got tickets for the day before. turns out we would have no time whatsoever to catch it, so instead, i finished up my veggie dip and cut-up veggies for christmas dinner, and we headed to maruichi, a fantastic ramen place in downtown mountain view. it was really good and i totally recommend it! after that we headed back home where i finished wrapping all the left-over gifts.
saturday morning was hectic, when i was really hoping for it to be relaxing. i was unable to finish my corrections for my friend's essay for applying to law school on friday, so i was frantically getting them squared away saturday morning. this, of course, totally blew what i had in mind for our own little christmas. marshall was basically left putting breakfast together. i was upset with myself for not getting everything needed to get done before saturday and i was upset at myself for blowing what i had so strongly argued to marshall a few days before. he was rightly upset and i frantically apologized and that i was equally upset with myself for ruining breakfast. i also ended up breaking down in the middle of our lovely pancakes and eggs, trying to explain how important my relationships with my mom and sister are. i told him that sometimes when i've spent more time that i expected with either my mom or my sister or both, i feel that he doesn't seem to understand and that it sounds like he considers this time lost or wasted. this makes me feel mad because doesn't he understand that i don't live with my mom and anymore and it's difficult for me to be away from her and the same goes for my sister, who lived for 10 years (years that i was in high school and college) in a different time zone than me and now i'm trying my hardest to spend as much time with her as i can because i missed out on so much time when she was away. i don't know why i started talking about all of this. i think because of the time i spent at my mom's the day before which skewed my schedule for that night and therefore caused me to sorta ruin our breakfast.
luckily, not all was lost. we kissed and made up and finished our breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen. we got to exchange gifts, which was totally fun. marshall loved the shirts i bought him (he looks SEXY GORGEOUS in them, btw), but he shoes i got were a tad too small. we're hoping we can find another pair like them when we return them to the store. he really liked them (and they aren't black or white - yay!) and was equally sad that they didn't fit. marshall totally surprised me with a nintendo ds lite, COMPLETE with the *new* super mario brothers AND a starter kit with screen protectors, carrying case, plastic game chip cases, finger-guards for when you don't want to use the stylus, extra styli, car charger and ear buds! i was floored - i was totally surprised with this gift! we got all of our stuff together and packed up our suitcase for florida and headed to my mom's. dinner was a long way off, so marshall and i stole away to fry's in search for nintendogs. being the day before christmas eve, fry's was surprisingly not as bad as i thought it would be. of course, at this time, they hardly had anything left. we did, however, find a really helpful salesman (which, if you've ever stepped into a fry's before KNOW this is INDEED a tremendous find) who climbed up in the boxes above the sales racks and found the last copy of nintendogs (the dalmatian edition). he kept asking me if this version was okay. sure it was - i didn't care which dogs came with it - i just wanted the game! anyway, on our way to the line, marshall found a great box set: the riddick chronicles, which included pitch black, chronicles of riddick and an anime based on the riddick story. so cool and it was only $15! we went back to my mom's where i started up nintendogs and bought myself a female dalmatian named penny. :)
christmas dinner with my family was great and lots of fun. my mom made a great lasagne and my hors d'oeuvres were very well received. marshall's mom and grandma joined us for dinner, too, which was really nice. they certainly enjoyed watching how my mom, my sister and i act around each other. marshall told me a few days later that while they were listening in on our conversation while the 3 of us were in the kitchen chatting about stuff (i believe kegels made their way into our chat), he mentioned that we were like hens sitting around the coop clucking. my dad stepped in saying that we couldn't all be hens, because, even though we're all so alike, we're completely different, too. i think he used hen and crow, but marshall can't remember what the other bird was. i got some great gifts this year, namely an electric mixer from my grandma (but really from my mom), a set of corningware casserole dishes and taurines, "friends" seasons 1 and 6, a victoria's secret gift card, a tiny oxo measuring cup, and awesome rocket dog shoes. marshall's mom's reaction to the amount of liquor given as gifts was funny. giving wine or liquor as gifts in my family is an everyday occurrence, i mean, my dad got 6 bottles of wine that night! but i guess to an outsider this just makes us look like a pack of alcoholics. anyway, we all had a great time opening gifts. of course, my mom went overboard with gifts to my niece and nephew, so they tried to only open a few gifts and leave the rest for later, as it was getting late. everyone went home and marshall and i showered and went to bed early for our next day would start at 5am. *shudder*
well, i guess since i haven't updated at all since before christmas, i'll begin with a week before this last friday...
work was horrendously stressful right before i left to go on vacation. i'm not sure what was going on, but everything was just up in the air and with no resolutions in sight. finally right before i left, i was able to resolve a few things before heading out to finish up some last-minute christmas shopping. i got most of the shopping done with no problems at all. i headed to santana row and picked up gift cards for my cousin and marshall's sister. since i was thirsty and unwilling to spend $1.25 on a skimpy bottle of london tapwater ( i.e. dasani, which i hate anyway), i decided to stop by my mom's (who's about a mile away from where i was) and grab a bottle from the garage. i pulled up and realized she was home. i decided it would be rude to just run into the garage, grab a water and leave without saying hello, at least. yeah, i ended up staying until almost 5pm, which in all fairness was only about an hour and a half since i arrived. anyway, i stayed and chatted with my mom and played a little with carus and ian, who were staying at my mom's for the day. finally, i realized that my entire schedule had been blown out the window because i wanted to stay and chat with my mom, so i left and headed to target for 2 last gifts: a gift card for my other cousin and a fleece blanket for my grandma. finished that up and headed home. i felt bad because i still had so much to do and finish before the comedy show marshall got tickets for the day before. turns out we would have no time whatsoever to catch it, so instead, i finished up my veggie dip and cut-up veggies for christmas dinner, and we headed to maruichi, a fantastic ramen place in downtown mountain view. it was really good and i totally recommend it! after that we headed back home where i finished wrapping all the left-over gifts.
saturday morning was hectic, when i was really hoping for it to be relaxing. i was unable to finish my corrections for my friend's essay for applying to law school on friday, so i was frantically getting them squared away saturday morning. this, of course, totally blew what i had in mind for our own little christmas. marshall was basically left putting breakfast together. i was upset with myself for not getting everything needed to get done before saturday and i was upset at myself for blowing what i had so strongly argued to marshall a few days before. he was rightly upset and i frantically apologized and that i was equally upset with myself for ruining breakfast. i also ended up breaking down in the middle of our lovely pancakes and eggs, trying to explain how important my relationships with my mom and sister are. i told him that sometimes when i've spent more time that i expected with either my mom or my sister or both, i feel that he doesn't seem to understand and that it sounds like he considers this time lost or wasted. this makes me feel mad because doesn't he understand that i don't live with my mom and anymore and it's difficult for me to be away from her and the same goes for my sister, who lived for 10 years (years that i was in high school and college) in a different time zone than me and now i'm trying my hardest to spend as much time with her as i can because i missed out on so much time when she was away. i don't know why i started talking about all of this. i think because of the time i spent at my mom's the day before which skewed my schedule for that night and therefore caused me to sorta ruin our breakfast.
luckily, not all was lost. we kissed and made up and finished our breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen. we got to exchange gifts, which was totally fun. marshall loved the shirts i bought him (he looks SEXY GORGEOUS in them, btw), but he shoes i got were a tad too small. we're hoping we can find another pair like them when we return them to the store. he really liked them (and they aren't black or white - yay!) and was equally sad that they didn't fit. marshall totally surprised me with a nintendo ds lite, COMPLETE with the *new* super mario brothers AND a starter kit with screen protectors, carrying case, plastic game chip cases, finger-guards for when you don't want to use the stylus, extra styli, car charger and ear buds! i was floored - i was totally surprised with this gift! we got all of our stuff together and packed up our suitcase for florida and headed to my mom's. dinner was a long way off, so marshall and i stole away to fry's in search for nintendogs. being the day before christmas eve, fry's was surprisingly not as bad as i thought it would be. of course, at this time, they hardly had anything left. we did, however, find a really helpful salesman (which, if you've ever stepped into a fry's before KNOW this is INDEED a tremendous find) who climbed up in the boxes above the sales racks and found the last copy of nintendogs (the dalmatian edition). he kept asking me if this version was okay. sure it was - i didn't care which dogs came with it - i just wanted the game! anyway, on our way to the line, marshall found a great box set: the riddick chronicles, which included pitch black, chronicles of riddick and an anime based on the riddick story. so cool and it was only $15! we went back to my mom's where i started up nintendogs and bought myself a female dalmatian named penny. :)
christmas dinner with my family was great and lots of fun. my mom made a great lasagne and my hors d'oeuvres were very well received. marshall's mom and grandma joined us for dinner, too, which was really nice. they certainly enjoyed watching how my mom, my sister and i act around each other. marshall told me a few days later that while they were listening in on our conversation while the 3 of us were in the kitchen chatting about stuff (i believe kegels made their way into our chat), he mentioned that we were like hens sitting around the coop clucking. my dad stepped in saying that we couldn't all be hens, because, even though we're all so alike, we're completely different, too. i think he used hen and crow, but marshall can't remember what the other bird was. i got some great gifts this year, namely an electric mixer from my grandma (but really from my mom), a set of corningware casserole dishes and taurines, "friends" seasons 1 and 6, a victoria's secret gift card, a tiny oxo measuring cup, and awesome rocket dog shoes. marshall's mom's reaction to the amount of liquor given as gifts was funny. giving wine or liquor as gifts in my family is an everyday occurrence, i mean, my dad got 6 bottles of wine that night! but i guess to an outsider this just makes us look like a pack of alcoholics. anyway, we all had a great time opening gifts. of course, my mom went overboard with gifts to my niece and nephew, so they tried to only open a few gifts and leave the rest for later, as it was getting late. everyone went home and marshall and i showered and went to bed early for our next day would start at 5am. *shudder*