CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISTMAS. Yes.
Good Christmas, I had. (Quoth I in Yoda-phonics... O.o)
I'm down visiting family in Georgia. It's my dad's side of the family, and there's a hell of a lot more of it than up in Annapolis with my Mom's side of the family. My aunt had kids far earlier than my dad, so that her oldest grandchild is older than my elder brother. All told, I have 3 first cousins and 12 seconds down here. That's plenty hard for me to keep track of, plus 4 in-laws. When you add the out-laws, as it were, and then friends, you get Christmas Eve at Ruthie's house, which had fewer people than previous years at only about 75 people. ::blink:: I see these people maybe once a year and I have a terrible memory at the ripe old age of 21. Half the people there remember what college I'm going to. HOW DO THEY DO THAT? I love them. It takes me a while to warm up at just about any party, and then too, but it's hard not to feel welcome when everyone is so classically Southern Friendly. It also helps that I have two cousins pretty close to my age. They're both closer to my brother, but at least I feel pretty comfortable around Knox. We're not bffs, but I can manage a semi-intelligent conversation without completely going into wallflower mode. Go me!
Christmas morning (heh, try 11) we opened presents. My dad got me a GPS, which is awesome because, helloooooo GPS, and more to the point: I am severely directionally challanged. Severely.
Earlier this year, my brother was best man at one of his best friends' weddings. The wedding just happened to be in Istanbul. ::rends hair in jealousy:: He brought be back a little square wooden box with inlayed mother of pearl and wood on the top. It's a well-made box and the fit of the lid is tight. I like it. I like boxes. Especially little-ish boxes. I always have. ^_^
My aunt got me a lovely necklace with turquoise stones made by an artist friend of hers which isn't too dressy, so I'll have to remember to actually wear it. Again, I like it. She also gave a respectable check, and money is ALWAYS welcome.
My cousin Liz got me false-book box which is sweet, (BOXES!) and Charlie's family gave everyone a cd of Christmas music from a number of locals bands, one of which is his. Jeff and his family hosted the immediate(-ish) family get together Christmas afternoon, which was plenty. (There were these mint brownie things... holy crap, I think I'm in love. Those things were DELICOUS!)
All in all, a lovely Christmas. I head up in a little bit to childminerva 's, which will be about 3 hours driving, if my brother is to be believed. (The jury is pretty much eternally out on that.) We might go see that Chihuahua movie. ::headdesk:: Damn you, Edward James Olmos. Why did you have be so ridiculously awesome, and then do voice acting for such a ridiculous movie? Nothing good can come of this.
My brother is going to spend a few more days down here, so I'll be heading north on my own. YAY MUSIC! I've just gotten to Tom Petty on my iPod. This is a good plan.
Thank you to thuri for the e-card!
And yes, Min, you greedy wench, you can have the big kickass present when you get back to school and the smaller present tonight, so long as you abide by two things: you share the little one with your sister, and you share the big one with ME! ^_^ Unselfish giving. Something I learned from you. It'll basically be your's though, unlike your gifting of The Client. Your father wouldn't have fully appreciated the awesomeness of that movie though. I do appreciate the full awesomeness of this gift. ::tease::
The best of the rest of the holiday season to all! And to all... good afternoon?