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Christmas unwrapped
Dec. 25th, 2006 10:22 pmHome! I am so glad to be home! Little Miss Antisocial Raging Hormones wore herself out with three days of fun family togetherness, and then had to come home and weep piteously at nothing in particular. I seem to have entered the Moody segment of pregnancy--poor M! And, due to me not hearing him comfort me correctly, I came away from this with the understanding that occasionally crying is necessary so that porn is okay again. It was an odd conversation, I can tell you that much, and I said some completely ridiculous things because when one is crying at nothing in particular, one must make up reasons for being upset and they tend to be weird. But, you will be glad to know that the tears have been dried and porn is good once more. Theoretically. I must say that I am not really that much of a porn fan, but if I had been. I am actually happier with life than I've been in a long while, so it feels very strange to cry at the drop of a hat over nothing.
So, Christmas! It was nice! My niece is now in a stage where she's hard to buy for, so for the last three Christmases, my parents have given her $50 to round out the dollar amounts with what they give M and me. My parents are very, very good at spending the same on all three of us. In 2004, we planned a little game where she chose an envelope from the tree that contained the money, and M and I just picked dummy envelopes with $1. (That one went over so well that we still have not told her that it was rigged.) Last year, they taped fifty one dollar bills together, end to end, and put them all in a regular box with a slot cut in the top, the edge of the first dollar taped on the top to get it started. So, she pulled it out, and kept pulling and pulling and pulling because it actually takes quite a while to pull fifty bills out of a box like that! We were all giggling like mad by the time she got it done.
This year, they orchestrated a Deal or No Deal game to give her the money. Deal or No Deal is a game show. There were fourteen "cases", aka envelopes, placed on the tree with numbers on them. There was a board with dollar amounts listed, and the envelopes all contained notes with corresponding dollar amounts. She chose her case to start out--she picked 11, which is her age--and then began choosing envelopes. M handled all photography, and Mom and I were the lady lovelies who opened the case. (I did not object to the stereotypical idea here, but M knew I was thinking it even though I said nothing, and that was enough.) Dad did all the commentating, which he was perfect for.The gist here is that what appears on the tree is NOT in her case, so she is eliminating the possibilities to find out how much she has. Periodically, the banker would call and "talk" to my dad, who has a long history of talking to Mr. Nobody on the phone. The banker would give her an offer to buy her case and end the game--she'd get the amount that the banker offered. We even had a small chest with NO DEAL written on the top, and DEAL written inside, so that she could slam the lid on the case in response to the banker. This was dreadfully confusing until you actually saw it in action, so I hope this makes sense. Anyway, it was really funny, and it turned out much, much better than M or I had anticipated. She immediately chose the cases with the highest amounts of money, though, which wasn't so great. At the end of the game, she was going to open a $20 case, but the banker called back with a last-minute offer to either take the $20 or open the mystery envelope, which had cash money inside--maybe one dollar, maybe a million. (She was skeptical of this last claim.) She wavered between the two, but in the end chose the mystery envelope and ended up with the correct prize. It was completely unrigged, except for the final offer to trade for the mystery envelope--none of us had any idea what dollar amounts were in what envelope. That made it a lot more fun for us to watch and participate in. It was a lot of fun. I wanted to do a scavenger hunt, with clues and small wrapped packages. Maybe next year!
We came home tonight and started putting stuff away before we took the obligatory pictures of our loot, which is disappointing. Highlights for me include an mp3 player, a pearl pendant (from M), a flash drive, seasons three and four of Friends and a little massaging gadget. Highlights for M include an mp3 player (which was a surprise for him), some CDs and a DVD, some tool-related items, and an oil pan. We do fun stockings full of small little gifts, and the oil pan was part of that one. We bought Whitley an mp3 player, too, which I think she really liked. I helped her put a few songs on it before she had to go home, but we don't have much time on Christmas Eve for playing with her, so hopefully we'll be able to work on that a little more later. My grandfather seemed to really, really like his bread machine.. he had the box opened and was peering inside for a long while before someone finally pointed out that perhaps he should work on the stack of presents growing at his feet instead of playing with the first one he opened. I got a second-hand lecture (from my cousin, who he had been talking to before we arrived today) about how we shouldn't be spending money on him like that when we have other expenses, but I must say that we both really, really enjoyed it. It feels nice to give people stuff that they like.
And then there is Ducky, who also received presents this year. :) Almost everyone bought Ducky a little bitty something, so we now have our very first baby-related items in the house. Strangely, most of these items had DUCKS on them. I can't imagine why. It was very touching, and more so because it didn't wig me out. There has been a serious anti-jinx ban on baby stuff until now. My parents even put together a few things in a stocking for the duckling. Ducky celebrated by dancing around all weekend long, and occasionally accommodating me by curling up in a ball so that s/he could be felt from the outside.
We did the Christmas dinner today, and it was delicious, as usual. I wanted to eat twice as much as I could hold. I admit to a bit of pre-meal sulking, when I realized that there was a shortage of frozen lemonade, and therefore, the cousin who was planning on making the punch was planning on just skipping it instead. "Christmas is RUINED," I whined melodramatically to M, who--oddly--laughed at me. How rude! But, we finally prevailed, and fetched the ingredients and I stirred it up after the blessing had been said, making me the last one to get a plate of food. It was still good (with a package of lemonade kool-aid substituted) so I was happy. I love punch. Christmas would just be wrong without it! I did feel the urge to reassure Cousin that I was just teasing her about ruining Christmas, as earlier, I might have called her a crack whore as well, and I decided that she might think I was being kind of a little bit bitchy, maybe. (In my defense--the crack whore comment was made totally out of LOVE, okay? But I was serious about the punch.)
Anyway, nice holiday. I'm glad to be home, though, because it is nice and quiet here and I don't have to wear clothes if I don't want to. That's pretty much my criteria for a good time--not so much the party animal, am I?
So, Christmas! It was nice! My niece is now in a stage where she's hard to buy for, so for the last three Christmases, my parents have given her $50 to round out the dollar amounts with what they give M and me. My parents are very, very good at spending the same on all three of us. In 2004, we planned a little game where she chose an envelope from the tree that contained the money, and M and I just picked dummy envelopes with $1. (That one went over so well that we still have not told her that it was rigged.) Last year, they taped fifty one dollar bills together, end to end, and put them all in a regular box with a slot cut in the top, the edge of the first dollar taped on the top to get it started. So, she pulled it out, and kept pulling and pulling and pulling because it actually takes quite a while to pull fifty bills out of a box like that! We were all giggling like mad by the time she got it done.
This year, they orchestrated a Deal or No Deal game to give her the money. Deal or No Deal is a game show. There were fourteen "cases", aka envelopes, placed on the tree with numbers on them. There was a board with dollar amounts listed, and the envelopes all contained notes with corresponding dollar amounts. She chose her case to start out--she picked 11, which is her age--and then began choosing envelopes. M handled all photography, and Mom and I were the lady lovelies who opened the case. (I did not object to the stereotypical idea here, but M knew I was thinking it even though I said nothing, and that was enough.) Dad did all the commentating, which he was perfect for.The gist here is that what appears on the tree is NOT in her case, so she is eliminating the possibilities to find out how much she has. Periodically, the banker would call and "talk" to my dad, who has a long history of talking to Mr. Nobody on the phone. The banker would give her an offer to buy her case and end the game--she'd get the amount that the banker offered. We even had a small chest with NO DEAL written on the top, and DEAL written inside, so that she could slam the lid on the case in response to the banker. This was dreadfully confusing until you actually saw it in action, so I hope this makes sense. Anyway, it was really funny, and it turned out much, much better than M or I had anticipated. She immediately chose the cases with the highest amounts of money, though, which wasn't so great. At the end of the game, she was going to open a $20 case, but the banker called back with a last-minute offer to either take the $20 or open the mystery envelope, which had cash money inside--maybe one dollar, maybe a million. (She was skeptical of this last claim.) She wavered between the two, but in the end chose the mystery envelope and ended up with the correct prize. It was completely unrigged, except for the final offer to trade for the mystery envelope--none of us had any idea what dollar amounts were in what envelope. That made it a lot more fun for us to watch and participate in. It was a lot of fun. I wanted to do a scavenger hunt, with clues and small wrapped packages. Maybe next year!
We came home tonight and started putting stuff away before we took the obligatory pictures of our loot, which is disappointing. Highlights for me include an mp3 player, a pearl pendant (from M), a flash drive, seasons three and four of Friends and a little massaging gadget. Highlights for M include an mp3 player (which was a surprise for him), some CDs and a DVD, some tool-related items, and an oil pan. We do fun stockings full of small little gifts, and the oil pan was part of that one. We bought Whitley an mp3 player, too, which I think she really liked. I helped her put a few songs on it before she had to go home, but we don't have much time on Christmas Eve for playing with her, so hopefully we'll be able to work on that a little more later. My grandfather seemed to really, really like his bread machine.. he had the box opened and was peering inside for a long while before someone finally pointed out that perhaps he should work on the stack of presents growing at his feet instead of playing with the first one he opened. I got a second-hand lecture (from my cousin, who he had been talking to before we arrived today) about how we shouldn't be spending money on him like that when we have other expenses, but I must say that we both really, really enjoyed it. It feels nice to give people stuff that they like.
And then there is Ducky, who also received presents this year. :) Almost everyone bought Ducky a little bitty something, so we now have our very first baby-related items in the house. Strangely, most of these items had DUCKS on them. I can't imagine why. It was very touching, and more so because it didn't wig me out. There has been a serious anti-jinx ban on baby stuff until now. My parents even put together a few things in a stocking for the duckling. Ducky celebrated by dancing around all weekend long, and occasionally accommodating me by curling up in a ball so that s/he could be felt from the outside.
We did the Christmas dinner today, and it was delicious, as usual. I wanted to eat twice as much as I could hold. I admit to a bit of pre-meal sulking, when I realized that there was a shortage of frozen lemonade, and therefore, the cousin who was planning on making the punch was planning on just skipping it instead. "Christmas is RUINED," I whined melodramatically to M, who--oddly--laughed at me. How rude! But, we finally prevailed, and fetched the ingredients and I stirred it up after the blessing had been said, making me the last one to get a plate of food. It was still good (with a package of lemonade kool-aid substituted) so I was happy. I love punch. Christmas would just be wrong without it! I did feel the urge to reassure Cousin that I was just teasing her about ruining Christmas, as earlier, I might have called her a crack whore as well, and I decided that she might think I was being kind of a little bit bitchy, maybe. (In my defense--the crack whore comment was made totally out of LOVE, okay? But I was serious about the punch.)
Anyway, nice holiday. I'm glad to be home, though, because it is nice and quiet here and I don't have to wear clothes if I don't want to. That's pretty much my criteria for a good time--not so much the party animal, am I?
