Let it be said that I love Christmas. This year it took me a long time to get in the Christmas spirit. I generally kind of build Christmas spirit throughout December, and this year started out pretty typically… But between getting sick before my trip to Boston a week or two ago, and the interview which stressed me out to no end (and will continue to do so until I hear one way or another). So even a few days ago I really didn’t feel too holly or even very jolly, but between yesterday and today, I was kicked in the ass and got a cheer jumpstart thanks to my awesome family.
Yesterday us minus Aimee (who had to work and arrived late last night) went to visit Grammy & Grampy in Martinsville. We usually have the family gettogether at their place, and just munch on deli sandwiches and stuff while catching up and exchanging gifts, but this year they took us out to eat, which was a nice change of pace. We returned home around 4pm and after a bit of waiting started the aforementioned movie night. We watched Christmas Vacation, Christmas Vacation 2 (which sucked big-time, we bailed after 15 minutes), and Die Hard. We have been taking a few years off from Christmas Story, as my family feels a bit burned out on it (I don’t quite understand their sentiment).
After the movie night I had this insane craving for hot wings that went unfulfilled. Larissa even drove me around for awhile trying to track some down to no avail. I am still having residual pangs of craving right now, and I believe this is one of the strongest cravings for food I have ever had. I am going to need to have wings tomorrow one way or another.
After everyone woke up this morning we opened the gifts under the tree. It is just so awesome watching everyone open presents, it instantly transports me back to my childhood. It isn’t even about the presents so much as it is the one time of the year I know everyone in my family will be in the same place, all with smiles on their faces. I ran some cat5 out to the living room so we could run my Slimp3, so we had an endless supply of Christmas music.
After we were done shredding wrapping paper, I whipped up some Pancakes, and we cooked the bacon and sausage that we got from the butcher earlier in the week. Man that was a yummy breakfast, and the bacon was literally the best bacon I have ever had. I can’t even believe how good it was. Pretty much as soon as the dishes from breakfast were clean I started prep work on the Ham I was making for dinner. Oh man is that recipe so awesome…
What I got for Christmas:
- I know it sounds corny, but time spent with my family with nobody stressing over much was awesome.
- “Play Poker Like the Pros” by Phil Hellmuth, Jr.
- “Practical Cryptography” by Niels Ferguson and Bruce Schneier
- A Christmas Story: 2 Disc Collector’s Edition
- National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation: Special Edition
- Funny Farm
- The Jerk
- Wet Hot American Summer
- Good Eats DVD Collection: Volume Four (3-Pack)
- Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
- Two Controllers for the Gamecube (Spice and Black, so I now have 4 different colors)
- Sweater and 4 pairs of Pants (by request :P)
- 25 Blank Ritek 4x DVD-Rs
- A bunch of cool stuff in my stocking, as well as some cash to lubricate the wheels of commerce.