have yourself a merry little Christmas...
we ended up having a great Yule/Christmas, in spite of my mood. debboamerik made dinner for Yule, roast pork with sticky onions, brussel sprouts with chestnuts, and cheddar mashed potatoes. we didn't include Yule in our gift-giving restriction for this year (we agreed to otherwise let the wedding rings be our birthday/anniversary/holiday gifts to each other), but our Yule gift-giving is pretty structured anyway. I got new Beanie Babies from Miles, Nikki, and Sandy (Leelo, Bently, and Oasis, respectively). debboamerik gave me the Indigo Girls' Holly Happy Days and The Highly Selective Thesaurus for the Extraordinarily Literate. my wife got a new cat tree ornament and sparkly snowflake earrings from Miles, Christmas socks and tap-dancing Christmas cat earrings from Nikki, and the DVD of Joyeux Noel from Sandy. I got her Yo Yo Ma's Songs of Joy and Peace and two new pairs of pants. then we watched Love Actually, our favorite Christmas movie.
a friend of debboamerik's loaned us her car and we went to church for Christmas Eve; we got there for the very end of the Christmas Eve service and stayed for midnight liturgy, which was quite beautiful. it was also relatively short, since the Metropolitan wasn't there; 90 minutes instead of the usual 2.5-3 hours. we came home and tried to sleep, but my arm/my wife's tossing and turning kept me awake. I'm not sure what kept her awake, though. :-P
we must have been asleep simultaneously for at least some portion of the night, because Santa came; Santa was obviously not bound by the gift-giving restriction. Santa brought us lovely things; I got a Bunny Suicides 2011 calendar, Cats on DVD and CD, a Boggle game, and silly coffee mugs. in my stocking I got new crayons, a Rosie Reindeer bath duck, and a new, hand-carved wooden spoon for my salt dispenser, to replace the one someone (*cough* fafou*cough*) lost a hundred years ago. my wife got a new Star Wars transformer, a beautiful silvery snowglobe, and in her stocking Beauty and the Beast on DVD, a Rubik's Twist, and a mini-Slinky. she also got a Kindle from her parents, which I think I have more interest in than she does. Santa brought a couple of things for us, too; a new glass scale (which I'm not supposed to be offended by, apparently :-P) and a heart-shaped, crystal ornament engraved with our names and the date of our elopement. so far, my wife's favorite present seems to be the Rubik's Twist, and I think it should go without saying that mine is the Cats DVD.
after opening presents (and playing with them), we had breakfast (coffee, apple bread pudding, and sausage) and went back to bed for a little while. then debboamerik made cranberry sauce and I made cheddar and black pepper biscuits and we went to the V. family Christmas dinner/party. we saw a lot of our favorite people (though I missed alaanu terribly) and got applauded and congratulated (and teased and pouted at) for our elopement. I don't think I've ever felt so welcome in that family as when nehesi's dad included our marriage in the list of family blessings for 2010. I was horribly embarassed, but in the best possible way. I got to have a lovely talk with nehesi's dad and some of the other family/guests from the older generation. I love listening to the elders talk about their lives and experiences, I always learn something interesting about them, about history, and about myself.
so far, the holiday season has been good to me, and I've been good at not letting my depression overwhelm the joy of the season. next week the round of doctors' appointments starts again, but hopefully that'll mean some answers and solutions soon. Happy Yule and Merry Christmas.
a friend of debboamerik's loaned us her car and we went to church for Christmas Eve; we got there for the very end of the Christmas Eve service and stayed for midnight liturgy, which was quite beautiful. it was also relatively short, since the Metropolitan wasn't there; 90 minutes instead of the usual 2.5-3 hours. we came home and tried to sleep, but my arm/my wife's tossing and turning kept me awake. I'm not sure what kept her awake, though. :-P
we must have been asleep simultaneously for at least some portion of the night, because Santa came; Santa was obviously not bound by the gift-giving restriction. Santa brought us lovely things; I got a Bunny Suicides 2011 calendar, Cats on DVD and CD, a Boggle game, and silly coffee mugs. in my stocking I got new crayons, a Rosie Reindeer bath duck, and a new, hand-carved wooden spoon for my salt dispenser, to replace the one someone (*cough* fafou*cough*) lost a hundred years ago. my wife got a new Star Wars transformer, a beautiful silvery snowglobe, and in her stocking Beauty and the Beast on DVD, a Rubik's Twist, and a mini-Slinky. she also got a Kindle from her parents, which I think I have more interest in than she does. Santa brought a couple of things for us, too; a new glass scale (which I'm not supposed to be offended by, apparently :-P) and a heart-shaped, crystal ornament engraved with our names and the date of our elopement. so far, my wife's favorite present seems to be the Rubik's Twist, and I think it should go without saying that mine is the Cats DVD.
after opening presents (and playing with them), we had breakfast (coffee, apple bread pudding, and sausage) and went back to bed for a little while. then debboamerik made cranberry sauce and I made cheddar and black pepper biscuits and we went to the V. family Christmas dinner/party. we saw a lot of our favorite people (though I missed alaanu terribly) and got applauded and congratulated (and teased and pouted at) for our elopement. I don't think I've ever felt so welcome in that family as when nehesi's dad included our marriage in the list of family blessings for 2010. I was horribly embarassed, but in the best possible way. I got to have a lovely talk with nehesi's dad and some of the other family/guests from the older generation. I love listening to the elders talk about their lives and experiences, I always learn something interesting about them, about history, and about myself.
so far, the holiday season has been good to me, and I've been good at not letting my depression overwhelm the joy of the season. next week the round of doctors' appointments starts again, but hopefully that'll mean some answers and solutions soon. Happy Yule and Merry Christmas.