Christmas.. presents, mainly

[same_sky]

Here's a shocker. If you don't eat McDonald's for months on end, then it can actually be kind of good when next you eat there. I had to tell M last week where the McDonald's even IS on this side of town, we were so uninterested in eating there, but there was a burning low-blood-sugar-induced desire for immediate sustenance that led me there for lunch today while we were out doing the 50% off sales at K/Wal-Mart, and it was actually quite tasty, which made me feel very unfoodie. (Also, we ran into starrflowerr twice in one day, which is especially weird since we have never ran into her in town before.)

Christmas with the Yayers was very very nice.. enough so that we have officially extended it through today. M tried to get me to agree to buy more presents for second Christmas, but I didn't go for it. ;) We got a lot of stuff.. a ridiculous amount of stuff, really, especially since my parents didn't buy as much this year. We took the requisite loot pictures but I'm not up to posting them at the moment. From M, I received a 200GB hard drive (Seagate! Let's hope it doesn't whine like a dying elephant like M's Maxtor!) and a stack of books, plus a Gameboy game (Sims.. Urbz) and Sweet Gift of the Year, a copy of the first Counting Crows CD, August and Everything After, for I have literally worn mine out. It skips and jumps and is mostly unplayable. What makes it even sweeter is that I was actually playing it anyway in my car this week, which made M very smug. ;) Highlights from the rest of the family include clothes, a purse, a wallet, two small mirrors to match the larger mirror I got last year.. after she had purchased it the year before that and never used it, so I requested it) a pyrex baking dish with a neat little holiday carrying tray, a stack of DVDs, and twelve multi-colored Sharpies. I am very excited about the Sharpies in particular, for they have an Ultra Fine point. You know. Like a stick, not like a triangle. I think you would have had to have been there on that one.. not worth explaining.

I had a bit of a holiday faux pas last night when we were opening gifts. We opened two before we left on Dec 23, but we saved most of them for when we got back. I had left one of M's presents upstairs because I knew that if I brought it down, he would instantly know what was in the package. Naturally, two days later, I had completely forgotten about that, so we opened our presents. When we were done, M says, "You know, there was one thing I was sure you would buy that you didn't." And I, still not remembering the box upstairs, said, "Oh, what's that?" And M says, "A tripod." And yes, it is at this point that I say, "OH! It's upstairs---" and then clap my hands over my mouth and try to cover with something lame like, "Umm, nevermind. Hold on a minute, I'll be right back!" and then fly up the stairs in a completely unsuspicious manner. M is still laughing his rump off in the living room floor when I get back with the long, immediately recognizable tripod box. But at least he got the darned tripod, right?

It wasn't too bad, anyway, because as he pointed out, we have definitely learned this year that receiving things are more enjoyable if you're sure you're not going to get it. My parents had lots of packages for my niece, Whitley, this year but they were all very cheap things, so her money equivalent was $50 short. They put the $50 in an envelope and stuck it on the tree to give her after the packages were opened. I don't know what brought this to my mind but I decided it would be a lot more fun to make it into a game. Whitley was very excited as soon as she heard there was to be a special game this year, but she was absolutely sure she wouldn't win because she never (according to her) wins anything. Anyway, Mom put a $1 bill in two additional envelopes, and numbered them 1, 2 and 3, and stuck them back on the tree. When it was time to play the game, M, Whitley and I all got to draw a number. (The magic envelope was 2, and therefore, the slips of paper all had 2 on them.) M and I, though, pretended that we got 1 and 3. We opened ours up first, and got the dollar bill. When Whitley opened hers and saw this fifty dollar bill, she totally freaked out. She fell down on the floor, clutched at her heart dramatically--yes, my niece, where's the surprise there--and laughed so hard she nearly cried. She WON! She really really WON! It was so funny. Mom had been planning on telling her that it was rigged, but after seeing how pleased and excited she was over winning, none of us are all that sure she should. *laugh*

The funniest present was definitely in M's stocking, though. We always have a lot of tiny little presents to open.. hair gel, razors, makeup, candy, etc. Imagine his surprise, though, when one package contained two individually wrapped plastic spoons! *laugh* We had had this big conversation about M taking frozen lunches to work with him, and being on the lookout for those packets of salt from fast food places. Apparently, in the time after this conversation, the "salt" had been replaced by "spoons" and so they just thought it would be funny to wrap up a couple of spoons for his lunches. It was, actually... more so than it would have been anyway because M had no idea what the spoons were supposed to be for... hehe.

Naturally, the one year we couldn't run back to the house to get something is the one year in which we forgot something.. the present for Whitley's little brother, namely. M had put my presents on top of it, so I guess we assumed it stayed. We'll probably be back up there this weeked anyway, though, so I guess we'll take it then. Anyway, this whole thing has gotten extremely long, and I need to do a quick backup before I put my hardware technician to work with the new hard drive. I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Comments

[courtesy.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a lovely Christmas :)

LOVE the game for Whitley, that's hysterical!!

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

It was so funny, you should have seen her. She was so excited she nearly passed out. :)

I hope you had an equally lovely Christmas!