Happy Atheist Children Get Presents Day!
Hello, internet! And a Happy Atheist Children Get Presents Day to you and yours! And whatever other holidays/personal events/whatever you may celebrate today, of course.
Christmas Eve is more of a thing for our family than Christmas Day. We get Chinese food, my grandmother and various other family members come over, it's a nice little tradition. The whole thing started years and years ago. We'd always end up getting Chinese because on Christmas Eve we were still running around trying to get shit done and didn't have time to cook. One year, when I was maybe ten or so, my mom actually got everything done in advance. She was all set to cook us a nice, traditional Christmas Eve dinner when my brother told her that we couldn't--it was Christmas Eve and it was tradition to get Chinese food!
My mom thought about it, realized he was right, and we've done it like clockwork every year since.
So Christmas Eve happens and Christmas Day we usual drift. We open our presents first thing and then go to whoever's house for whatever kind of meal. Sometimes we eat at home, just the four of us. There's no set ritual. This year was a bit depressing in that we went to the nursing home to spend a few hours with my grandmother, who had a massive stroke and can't speak. Happy Holidays, right?
That aside, it's pretty a pretty good holiday. To get the obligatory consumerist fervor out of the way, I got CriMinds S5 and some books I'd wanted and some kitchen stuff and a new cardigan, among other things. I tried to make up for my brother's lackluster reaction to everything he unwrapped by being super enthusiastic, but I don't think it worked. I gave my mom a CD a couple weeks ago (the Indigo Girls' Christmas album) and I pre-ordered a book for her, so I printed out a picture of the cover and taped it to another book so she'd have something to open. I gave my dad a Dinosaur Comics tie (he teaches middle school and wears novelty ties on a daily basis, it wasn't just a generic Dad Gift) and a mix CD. All presents seemed to go over well.
(Also, I never posted about Roommate Christmas! Becca gave me the "To Victory!" dalek propaganda poster and Big Eden. I gave her a t-shirt with the only thing we know for sure printed on it, as well as a book on accents. Tina and Decklin, who are the cutest, gave us monogrammed tumblers and Irish Whiskey.)
***
When my parents get home, we're going to finish A Muppet Christmas Carol. It will be the third time I've watched it this season. I'm DLing the Who Christmas special right now. We tried to watch the Muppets last night, but we were interrupted and then my parents were tired, so they went to bed.
Here is why we were interrupted. We've been calling it "The New Christmas Miracle," but my mother disagrees. (I was looking in my LJ for the post about the Original Christmas Miracle, but I can't find it. I know I've posted it before!)
My mom went out to pick up the Chinese food and I guess stopped at the bank? I'm not sure where the money came from, leading up to this debacle, but the point is that she had all the cash for my cousins' gifts in her pocket, totaling over $200, when you added in the money my aunt gave her to contribute to the (massive) Chinese food bill. She put the money in her pocket, ran into the place, picked up the food, and came home. After dinner, she went to get some money to make up my two of cousins' Christmas bags and realized she couldn't find it.
She searched her coat, her purse, and her car. We tore apart the desk in the kitchen, looked on the floors, and then all of us took turns looking through her purse and her car. We couldn't find it. She was a wreck. She went so far as to call the Chinese place and ask if someone had turned in a wad of cash. She and my father took flashlights and drove back over there to search the parking lot to see if it had fallen out of her pocket.
They couldn't find it. They returned home, my mother obviously upset, even though my father kept telling her that it's "only paper" and it would be okay. As we settled in to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol, Brendan came back downstairs and asked my mom how it went. She admitted they hadn't found it.
"It doesn't make any sense," she said. "I don't know what could have happened to it! I don't even remember putting my hand into my... pock... et."
Yes, of course. The money was in her pocket. Apparently her pocket extended all the way across the front of her jeans to the fly and the money had gotten tucked up in the top corner.
A Christmas Miracle, indeed.
***
So, I am writing Christmas fic! I am hoping to make up for the crappy Christmas fic I wrote last year. Hopefully I will finish it tonight and post it (unbetaed), but we'll see what happens.
Christmas Eve is more of a thing for our family than Christmas Day. We get Chinese food, my grandmother and various other family members come over, it's a nice little tradition. The whole thing started years and years ago. We'd always end up getting Chinese because on Christmas Eve we were still running around trying to get shit done and didn't have time to cook. One year, when I was maybe ten or so, my mom actually got everything done in advance. She was all set to cook us a nice, traditional Christmas Eve dinner when my brother told her that we couldn't--it was Christmas Eve and it was tradition to get Chinese food!
My mom thought about it, realized he was right, and we've done it like clockwork every year since.
So Christmas Eve happens and Christmas Day we usual drift. We open our presents first thing and then go to whoever's house for whatever kind of meal. Sometimes we eat at home, just the four of us. There's no set ritual. This year was a bit depressing in that we went to the nursing home to spend a few hours with my grandmother, who had a massive stroke and can't speak. Happy Holidays, right?
That aside, it's pretty a pretty good holiday. To get the obligatory consumerist fervor out of the way, I got CriMinds S5 and some books I'd wanted and some kitchen stuff and a new cardigan, among other things. I tried to make up for my brother's lackluster reaction to everything he unwrapped by being super enthusiastic, but I don't think it worked. I gave my mom a CD a couple weeks ago (the Indigo Girls' Christmas album) and I pre-ordered a book for her, so I printed out a picture of the cover and taped it to another book so she'd have something to open. I gave my dad a Dinosaur Comics tie (he teaches middle school and wears novelty ties on a daily basis, it wasn't just a generic Dad Gift) and a mix CD. All presents seemed to go over well.
(Also, I never posted about Roommate Christmas! Becca gave me the "To Victory!" dalek propaganda poster and Big Eden. I gave her a t-shirt with the only thing we know for sure printed on it, as well as a book on accents. Tina and Decklin, who are the cutest, gave us monogrammed tumblers and Irish Whiskey.)
***
When my parents get home, we're going to finish A Muppet Christmas Carol. It will be the third time I've watched it this season. I'm DLing the Who Christmas special right now. We tried to watch the Muppets last night, but we were interrupted and then my parents were tired, so they went to bed.
Here is why we were interrupted. We've been calling it "The New Christmas Miracle," but my mother disagrees. (I was looking in my LJ for the post about the Original Christmas Miracle, but I can't find it. I know I've posted it before!)
My mom went out to pick up the Chinese food and I guess stopped at the bank? I'm not sure where the money came from, leading up to this debacle, but the point is that she had all the cash for my cousins' gifts in her pocket, totaling over $200, when you added in the money my aunt gave her to contribute to the (massive) Chinese food bill. She put the money in her pocket, ran into the place, picked up the food, and came home. After dinner, she went to get some money to make up my two of cousins' Christmas bags and realized she couldn't find it.
She searched her coat, her purse, and her car. We tore apart the desk in the kitchen, looked on the floors, and then all of us took turns looking through her purse and her car. We couldn't find it. She was a wreck. She went so far as to call the Chinese place and ask if someone had turned in a wad of cash. She and my father took flashlights and drove back over there to search the parking lot to see if it had fallen out of her pocket.
They couldn't find it. They returned home, my mother obviously upset, even though my father kept telling her that it's "only paper" and it would be okay. As we settled in to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol, Brendan came back downstairs and asked my mom how it went. She admitted they hadn't found it.
"It doesn't make any sense," she said. "I don't know what could have happened to it! I don't even remember putting my hand into my... pock... et."
Yes, of course. The money was in her pocket. Apparently her pocket extended all the way across the front of her jeans to the fly and the money had gotten tucked up in the top corner.
A Christmas Miracle, indeed.
***
So, I am writing Christmas fic! I am hoping to make up for the crappy Christmas fic I wrote last year. Hopefully I will finish it tonight and post it (unbetaed), but we'll see what happens.