Well, tis Christmas morning. I hope everyone who might be reading is having a merry Christmas, or enjoying whatever particular holiday you might be enjoying. :-) It’s been a good Christmas here, for the most part; we’ve already opened presents, and I’m just relaxing and catching up on the day’s news (such as it might be) before we have Christmas dinner down in the kitchen. This year it’s not going to be anything special, as Mom couldn’t decide what to make. We’re just going to go ahead and have pasta, which is perfectly fine by me. I’ll put the Christmas (so far) in review behind a cut to spare the friends pages of my LiveJournal friends.
One could argue that the celebrations got started on Friday, when I received Misty’s gift in the mail. I’m fairly easy to shop for and she knew it, as she got me a $25 iTunes Store gift card. :-) For the record, I love getting gift cards. Some people might see it as being impersonal, but the nice thing about them is the fact that you can choose the store they like to go to, and they can pick what exactly they want from there. :-) My parents are the same way, so shopping was pretty easy this year. :-)
On Saturday night, I went to Chris’s mom’s house, where she was having her annual Christmas party. When George and I arrived there… true to form, we were put to work right away. (Some things never change.) The party was a surprise in a way, because there were far more people there this year than last year. The food was good, too, as Kathy had made several different kinds of lasagna. My personal favorite was the spinach and crab meat lasagna… yum. :-) After the party was over, I decided that the amount I had to drink and the number of cops around made it where I didn’t feel comfortable driving, so I accepted Chris’s offer to crash there first. (I’m sure I was fine to drive but you never know how the cops are going to be.) Before we did crash, though, I went with Chris, his girlfriend Brandy, George, and Chris’s younger brother Scott (who drove) to Molly’s Pub for a couple of beers. From there we went back to Kathy’s house, then to Whataburger for some food… and then back to Kathy’s to crash.
Sunday morning, some of us woke up relatively early. George, Rick (Chris’s other younger brother), Kathy, and I all decided to go hit IHOP for breakfast. Once breakfast (more of a brunch) was done, I drove George home and worked on computer stuff, plus did some housework. That night, I made my way over to Sean’s father’s house for Sean’s annual Festivus celebration. The night was a night of Festivus celebrations including the Airing of Grievances (if you catch me on IM or IRC I’ll reveal my grievance there) and the Feats of Strength, plus Seinfeld-inspired games such as “Guess the Seinfeld phrase” and…
… The Price is Seinfeld.
I didn’t leave unscathed… nor did Sean. I ended the Festivus celebrations by defeating Sean in the Feats of Strength, by pinning him down on the ground in two seconds. Unfortunately, I accidentally hurt his head in the process. :-/ (Sorry, man…) Looking back, I shouldn’t have done it, as there was too much of a chance of seriously injuring him. Karma came back to bite me in the ass, though, as seeing as some people missed it, I had to accept a challenge. I lasted a while, but eventually I was pinned. (Well, not really, but I didn’t mind losing as I did.) It was a fun night, and I enjoyed myself.
Yesterday was spent mostly doing two things: updating engineering workstations at work remotely, and finishing Christmas shopping for the folks. I got Mom Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on DVD and a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card, and I got Dad a big bottle of Chivas with a decanter and a $25 Home Depot gift card. Also, Misty let me know that my gift to her, a $50 Borders gift card, had finally arrived. :-)
As far as gifts I got today, I did pretty well. Mom got me a $25 iTunes Store gift card (really meant from the critters, but why quibble) and three CDs: greatest hits CDs from Bob Seger and Tears For Fears, and Nine Inch Nails’s Year Zero. Dad got me a $75 gift card to Barnes & Noble, and a set of scratch offs from the Texas Lottery. All in all, life’s good. :-) I’ve redeemed the iTunes Store credit to my account but considering everyone and their dogs are buying stuff right now, I’ll wait a couple of days. :-)
In any event, today should be a decent and quiet day. We’ll be having Christmas dinner at around 1 PM, and after that it’ll be a quiet afternoon in which I can nap. From there, well, I’ll probably watch a couple of movies tonight on my DVD player. We’ll see. I have to go back to work tomorrow morning, so I can’t be up all night. I’ll try and make the most of it, though. (Of course, spending time talking to Misty when she’s available is a given.) All in all, it’s a good holiday weekend, and I enjoyed it.
Hopefully all of you are doing the same. :-)
Serenity Now!