(no subject)
Christmas!
Christmas is a relatively serious holiday, in the general canon of my family. There's quite a lot of in-jokes and traditions and affectionate teasing of each other that goes on to have a Nice Time. None of us are serious people really, and yet this is a Serious Holiday, and somehow that works out nicely all around.
Despite the usual threats about jumping onto my bed at six in the morning, I was able to wake up naturally around 7:15 and jump on *Alys*'s bed instead. Oh-ho, how the tables have turned! Well, not really since she was awake and enthusiastic and excited and we retreated to my (more comfortable) guest bed and flopped around and read books and watched vines. There are no longer any *official* limits on when we can wake the parents up, but we still kinda default to "Christmas doesn't actually start until eight AM".
Around eight, Shannon was actually up and out of bed (and not taking a decade long shower, as is her wont on Christmas morn) and we were able to do stockings. We've not done stockings on the parents' waterbed the last two years, which I miss, but it is slightly less chaotic to just do them in the living room where they're kept. I received some nice spiders and pronoun pins in my stocking (as well as the requisite chocolate) and a handful of tiny plastic babies that Alys put in there dramatically last night. I have no idea. I'm pretty sure they're food for the spiders.
Also, everyone in the family received a tiara in their stocking. I am the only one who managed to maintain tiara integrity for the entire day, so please picture everything else I say with me as a goddamn princess.
Post stockings is breakfast, where I got to be Head Chef by dint of being the bossiest. Alys laid the table, Shannon did the bacon, and da worked diligently on the big puzzle in the other room (and also did a goodly chunk of the washing up after). I made Alys laugh by giving her a half-clementine instead of the once-traditional1 grapefruit. She made all of us laugh by putting out green sugar-crystals instead of more traditional sugar. It...did not look appetizing on my grapefruit (but yes I ate it anyways and it tasted fine)
We did the rip-rip-tear-tear, which is increasingly becoming an entertaining game of "it shouldn't be this hard to undo a drawstring" as we replace paper with cloth reusable present sacks. They come with jingle bells! Wretched Excess this year for me included:
( Wretchedness below! )
Post-presents was lots of lazy flopping about, then cleaning up vaguely, more flopping, puzzle, flop flop nap nap, oh hey we should start dinner. I wound up being Head Chef for dinner as well, and made homemade mashed potatoes while chatting merrily to mom about Cool Art and helping her out with the rest of the kitchen tasks. We put together an excellent spread, everyone ate, was merry, and then dad and I cleaned up.
Post-dinner entertainment was a viewing of The Linguini Incident, which Shan had somehow never seen. (If you've never seen this excellently weird film starring David Bowie, please let me know and I'll arrange a viewing.) We finished off the evening with a couple episodes of taskmaster, and more puzzle.
It's been a lovely Chrimmas day! If you celebrate, I hope yours has been nice as well.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: It used to be a mandatory part of Christmas breakfast, which Shannon hated and Alys *big time* hated. While it was entertaining to watch her make grapefruit face, once I was more-or-less Head Chef, I put my foot down about forcing other people to eat specific foods.
2: We all know, including mom. She's well aware it's a MLM scheme, knows what that means, and isn't selling. So long as she continues to not sell, I figure it's probably fine.
Christmas is a relatively serious holiday, in the general canon of my family. There's quite a lot of in-jokes and traditions and affectionate teasing of each other that goes on to have a Nice Time. None of us are serious people really, and yet this is a Serious Holiday, and somehow that works out nicely all around.
Despite the usual threats about jumping onto my bed at six in the morning, I was able to wake up naturally around 7:15 and jump on *Alys*'s bed instead. Oh-ho, how the tables have turned! Well, not really since she was awake and enthusiastic and excited and we retreated to my (more comfortable) guest bed and flopped around and read books and watched vines. There are no longer any *official* limits on when we can wake the parents up, but we still kinda default to "Christmas doesn't actually start until eight AM".
Around eight, Shannon was actually up and out of bed (and not taking a decade long shower, as is her wont on Christmas morn) and we were able to do stockings. We've not done stockings on the parents' waterbed the last two years, which I miss, but it is slightly less chaotic to just do them in the living room where they're kept. I received some nice spiders and pronoun pins in my stocking (as well as the requisite chocolate) and a handful of tiny plastic babies that Alys put in there dramatically last night. I have no idea. I'm pretty sure they're food for the spiders.
Also, everyone in the family received a tiara in their stocking. I am the only one who managed to maintain tiara integrity for the entire day, so please picture everything else I say with me as a goddamn princess.
Post stockings is breakfast, where I got to be Head Chef by dint of being the bossiest. Alys laid the table, Shannon did the bacon, and da worked diligently on the big puzzle in the other room (and also did a goodly chunk of the washing up after). I made Alys laugh by giving her a half-clementine instead of the once-traditional1 grapefruit. She made all of us laugh by putting out green sugar-crystals instead of more traditional sugar. It...did not look appetizing on my grapefruit (but yes I ate it anyways and it tasted fine)
We did the rip-rip-tear-tear, which is increasingly becoming an entertaining game of "it shouldn't be this hard to undo a drawstring" as we replace paper with cloth reusable present sacks. They come with jingle bells! Wretched Excess this year for me included:
( Wretchedness below! )
Post-presents was lots of lazy flopping about, then cleaning up vaguely, more flopping, puzzle, flop flop nap nap, oh hey we should start dinner. I wound up being Head Chef for dinner as well, and made homemade mashed potatoes while chatting merrily to mom about Cool Art and helping her out with the rest of the kitchen tasks. We put together an excellent spread, everyone ate, was merry, and then dad and I cleaned up.
Post-dinner entertainment was a viewing of The Linguini Incident, which Shan had somehow never seen. (If you've never seen this excellently weird film starring David Bowie, please let me know and I'll arrange a viewing.) We finished off the evening with a couple episodes of taskmaster, and more puzzle.
It's been a lovely Chrimmas day! If you celebrate, I hope yours has been nice as well.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: It used to be a mandatory part of Christmas breakfast, which Shannon hated and Alys *big time* hated. While it was entertaining to watch her make grapefruit face, once I was more-or-less Head Chef, I put my foot down about forcing other people to eat specific foods.
2: We all know, including mom. She's well aware it's a MLM scheme, knows what that means, and isn't selling. So long as she continues to not sell, I figure it's probably fine.