..stupid ideals..

Well... I wanted to blog.... I just didn't.

It's been a wild week. We all know that Christmas time is the equivelant of Grampa chopping the head off the Christmas Turkey... At first it goes crazy running around resulting in much bloodshed, but once it's done, there's a nice dinner on the table.

I felt sort of nostalgiac during the days leading up to Christmas. I pulled out old childhood Christmas cartoons, listened to some music and the recorded television Christmas program Channel 4 did during my high school choir years. I tried to get as much of the Christmas spirit into me as possible. But even with all the reminiscing, it only went so far.

First of all, it's been bright and warm all week. Gusty winds and sunny skies... Mild temperatures totally... it got cold a couple of days, but Christmas day was a comfy 76 degrees. In the evening it cooled down to about 55. So, there we were with spray-on snow and snowflake decorations, with the front yard getting greener by the day.

Second, I hardly helped decorate the tree. The only thing I did was put the star up top, but even then, that was days after my sisters decorated the tree. It wasn't even a real tree, so there was no pretty pine tree sniff.

Third, the shopping.... I didn't even begin shopping till Christmas Eve morning. Later on in the afternoon, I went with Vanessa and her mom and sister-in-law to Mexico and shopped a little. But overall, there wasn't very much shopping... not much money to do it with and it was hurried.

So... it wasn't until that evening that I started getting the feeling it was Christmas... My family and I headed out to the church for the Children's Mass. Meaghan was going to be an angel in the play... one of the three dancing on stage around the flocks and shepherds. It was very cute and the church was decorated beautifully.... Even though the heat was unbearable (I have no idea why the heater was running... but several people had to go outside for air -- my mom included), we all had a good time.

Afterwards, we tried finding somewhere to have dinner........ on Christmas Eve... an open restaurant. Of course, the only option (since my dad doesn't like Chinese) was Pizza Hut. We all had a good time, laughed and complained about the service (even though we knew full well that there was only one person waiting tables and working register and one person doing all the cooking -- We still left a good tip). My parents being the crossword puzzle geeks they are, begged me to walk next door to the newsroom (yes we're located just across the parking lot from Pizza Hut) and steal a newspaper for the next day. Deadline being 6 p.m., the task was simple and we all took turns doing crossword puzzle... thingies.

Anyway, later on I went to Midnight Mass at Vanessa's church... It was her directorial debut. Since her aunt was in the hospital after giving birth, Vanessa took over the choir, and they all did awesome. Her choir is so much better than our church choir. Ours is just annoying.

When I got home my sisters were busy trying to discover the source of a horrid stench that was polluting the entire house. It smelled like rot and decay and was totally disgusting. After airing out the house as best we could, we decided to call it a night.

Then Christmas Day arrived. And it was as fun as always. We opened presents and had a turkey dinner ... and family stuff was fun. After the whole huge family thing, which took place at Meaghan's house, my immediate family went back to my mom's house to open our own presents. We all had a good time. Then we went back home and played Simpson's trivia. Yes, it was all fun.

So that was my Christmas week... Many more things have happened since, but I'll blog about it later. Right now I'm in a hurry to get home. I hope everyone had some happy holidays... Thanks for the well wishes (winks at Kenny) and Amanda, Tokk's right SSDD means Same Shit Different Day.... saw it in a movie and it happens quite a bit.

Merry Christmas.... late.