He didn't make the team, but Coach offered to shoot him out of a cannon into a tank full of sharks a

Quiet.

Finally, it's quiet.

Christmas is over...and despite one small wrinkle, Christmas is over, and the world can slowly revert back to normal.

Full normality will be expected to occur sometime in March.

The Christmas Eve Flap was pretty well deserved. My mom was pissed for a good part of the day at "something." I couldn't tell what, and there was no way in HELL I was gonna ask. Once my sister came home, it became pretty apparent.

She bought us Christmas "gifts"...for the family. A bottle of liquor and a six pack of Dr. Pepper. It just so happened to be her favorite liquor, and no one in this house drinks Dr. Pepper. HEr gift to us was one she knew full well no one would ever use. And while it didn't piss me off, or Dad, mom was mighty angry because that wasn't "truly" giving.

Thankfully, though, it wore off - Christmas wasn't ruined, and Christmas Eve continued at a "normal" pace.

An Uncle and his children and grandchildren came over for Christmas Eve. A good time was had by all, and the secret dessert of the evening was Baklava. Man, that stuff is good. One of the joys of Mom's completely overindulgence of Christmas and Christmas type thingies is her Christmas Eve parties. No pastorella this year, though. Troubling. But anyways - A million types of cookies, a million candies and desserts and ALL of us gained about thirty seven pounds just that evening. Sugary sweetness abounded.

I could use a steak, you know. :)

Many presents were exchanged, most came from mom to other people. We're in a pretty bad financial bind this year...and yet mom managed to squeeze blood from a stone and dazzle the world with expensive gifties. I gots me a nice MP3/CD Player which I've wanted since I first heard about them (mmm...10 hours of music per CD...droool). My sister gave me an EXCELLENT book of Alfred Hitchcock's Hand Picked Favorite Mysteries. ::grin:: I got to go through Erin's books first.

The party dispersed about 2AM. Everyone went to bed but me...I stayed up until 4AM. Just before bed, HUGE winds kicked up outside, and the tree in the backyard decided to bang hard against the roof. As it usually does.

INTERLUDE - My sister and I had a big talk on our way to Stockdale not too long ago...basically she told me that she was on the verge of becoming a born again Christian, which is fine by me. She went on and on about her faith in God becoming stronger and stronger after my grandmother died. She told me that she heard God talking to her on one of the days she got better. I was really proud of her (I'm all for Born Again Christians if they do it out of FAITH and GOODNESS instead of HATRED, BIGOTRY and SOCIALIZING). Then she told me, that at twenty-four, she still believes in Santa Claus, and it all went down the tubes for me at that point.

There was a great Saturday Night Live skit I flashed to about a family who never was told there wasn't a Santa Claus, so they were extra nice all year round, and Super Good, in the hopes that Santa Claus would come visit. Scarily, I can see that happening to my sister. And it worries me tremendously. I really care for my sister, and that Santa business downright scares me.

I woke up at 10AM...forced myself back to sleep and woke up again at 12PM. Got myself looking halfway decent, bound myself AGAIN (Two days of this...ARGH) and went downstairs and was KICKED IN THE HEAD.

Mom must have sold her soul to the devil or at least to WalMart to give us presents. A few years ago, things were VERY VERY bad for us, and we literally had nothing for Christmas. Period. This year was much worse. And when we went downstairs, what was under the tree but (for my sister) a damned Playstation 2 (which we knew we were getting, we found it), but also a HUGEMONGOUS sized Telescope! And a VCR!

How the hell they remembered that in August I found out my telescope wasn't very powerful, or that my VCR broke just a few weeks ago astounds me. That we had the money to get them was even more surprising.

Some days, they amaze me. They were either intensely irresponsible, or very very very caring. :) Some days, they're Luminous Beings. :)

A huge Christmas dinner followed, along with aunts and uncles and grandmothers of many kinds (well, one granny) coming in and out of the house. A good time was had by all, and again, we had everyone of my uncles but one show up.

I got Jennifer's phone number in Austin - we're thinking about getting together for New Years. Most cool.

And then the best gift of them all: After all the partying was over, and all the drinks drunk,a and everyone snug in their little bed...I found the fruit salad mom forgot to put out.

I love that fruit salad.

It is fruit salad of the GODS.

And it's mine.

All mine.

To quote a famous Muppet: "ARRRRRRRR NUM NUM NUM NUM NUM!"

I hope all you out there had a Very Merry Christmas, or Solstice, Chanukah, Yule or (if you're an atheist) A Happy Santa Day. :)

Some weeks things just CLICK.

He didn't make the team, but Coach offered to shoot him out of a cannon into a tank full of sharks a

Quiet.

Finally, it's quiet.

Christmas is over...and despite one small wrinkle, Christmas is over, and the world can slowly revert back to normal.

Full normality will be expected to occur sometime in March.

The Christmas Eve Flap was pretty well deserved. My mom was pissed for a good part of the day at "something." I couldn't tell what, and there was no way in HELL I was gonna ask. Once my sister came home, it became pretty apparent.

She bought us Christmas "gifts"...for the family. A bottle of liquor and a six pack of Dr. Pepper. It just so happened to be her favorite liquor, and no one in this house drinks Dr. Pepper. HEr gift to us was one she knew full well no one would ever use. And while it didn't piss me off, or Dad, mom was mighty angry because that wasn't "truly" giving.

Thankfully, though, it wore off - Christmas wasn't ruined, and Christmas Eve continued at a "normal" pace.

An Uncle and his children and grandchildren came over for Christmas Eve. A good time was had by all, and the secret dessert of the evening was Baklava. Man, that stuff is good. One of the joys of Mom's completely overindulgence of Christmas and Christmas type thingies is her Christmas Eve parties. No pastorella this year, though. Troubling. But anyways - A million types of cookies, a million candies and desserts and ALL of us gained about thirty seven pounds just that evening. Sugary sweetness abounded.

I could use a steak, you know. :)

Many presents were exchanged, most came from mom to other people. We're in a pretty bad financial bind this year...and yet mom managed to squeeze blood from a stone and dazzle the world with expensive gifties. I gots me a nice MP3/CD Player which I've wanted since I first heard about them (mmm...10 hours of music per CD...droool). My sister gave me an EXCELLENT book of Alfred Hitchcock's Hand Picked Favorite Mysteries. ::grin:: I got to go through Erin's books first.

The party dispersed about 2AM. Everyone went to bed but me...I stayed up until 4AM. Just before bed, HUGE winds kicked up outside, and the tree in the backyard decided to bang hard against the roof. As it usually does.

INTERLUDE - My sister and I had a big talk on our way to Stockdale not too long ago...basically she told me that she was on the verge of becoming a born again Christian, which is fine by me. She went on and on about her faith in God becoming stronger and stronger after my grandmother died. She told me that she heard God talking to her on one of the days she got better. I was really proud of her (I'm all for Born Again Christians if they do it out of FAITH and GOODNESS instead of HATRED, BIGOTRY and SOCIALIZING). Then she told me, that at twenty-four, she still believes in Santa Claus, and it all went down the tubes for me at that point.

There was a great Saturday Night Live skit I flashed to about a family who never was told there wasn't a Santa Claus, so they were extra nice all year round, and Super Good, in the hopes that Santa Claus would come visit. Scarily, I can see that happening to my sister. And it worries me tremendously. I really care for my sister, and that Santa business downright scares me.

I woke up at 10AM...forced myself back to sleep and woke up again at 12PM. Got myself looking halfway decent, bound myself AGAIN (Two days of this...ARGH) and went downstairs and was KICKED IN THE HEAD.

Mom must have sold her soul to the devil or at least to WalMart to give us presents. A few years ago, things were VERY VERY bad for us, and we literally had nothing for Christmas. Period. This year was much worse. And when we went downstairs, what was under the tree but (for my sister) a damned Playstation 2 (which we knew we were getting, we found it), but also a HUGEMONGOUS sized Telescope! And a VCR!

How the hell they remembered that in August I found out my telescope wasn't very powerful, or that my VCR broke just a few weeks ago astounds me. That we had the money to get them was even more surprising.

Some days, they amaze me. They were either intensely irresponsible, or very very very caring. :) Some days, they're Luminous Beings. :)

A huge Christmas dinner followed, along with aunts and uncles and grandmothers of many kinds (well, one granny) coming in and out of the house. A good time was had by all, and again, we had everyone of my uncles but one show up.

I got Jennifer's phone number in Austin - we're thinking about getting together for New Years. Most cool.

And then the best gift of them all: After all the partying was over, and all the drinks drunk,a and everyone snug in their little bed...I found the fruit salad mom forgot to put out.

I love that fruit salad.

It is fruit salad of the GODS.

And it's mine.

All mine.

To quote a famous Muppet: "ARRRRRRRR NUM NUM NUM NUM NUM!"

I hope all you out there had a Very Merry Christmas, or Solstice, Chanukah, Yule or (if you're an atheist) A Happy Santa Day. :)

Some weeks things just CLICK.