We're eating steak, drinking beer and whickey and watching a double feature of Midnight Cowboy and Apocalypse Now.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

We aren't doing Christmas really - too tired from crazy babbeh. He had fun eating some wrapping paper though.

Most everyone I know is working today - Christmas Day is not a holiday in Japan.

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After today, I am putting a 2 hour time limit on my participation in family gatherings. My family is pretty laid back nowadays so no anxiety, but still they just wear me out.

An hour until Christmas here. We just watched 5 episodes of Entourage and ate scallop chowder.

My fam is watching a Leave It To Beaver marathon on one of the local stations. Pizza was had. Let the mellowness commence!

gomichild that is one damn cute kid!! Wow!

We're probably staying in (well, there's nowhere to go anyway) and making pumpkin bread and finishing the Mario Galaxy that we got last Christmas. I'm thinking about drinking the whole way through.

We're playing with our new computer stuff, making cake now, cooking turkey later, and generally lazing about. I bought steak for the dog. The dog eats steak on Christmas I have decided.

Yah on the cute kid!

I'm at a friend's house a couple of hours from where I live. Actually, it's the friend's parents' house. Friend lives in portland now and isn't making it back to NC, but her sisters are in, from Chicago and LA, and it really feels like home here. We exchanged presents, all of which were homemade. One of them, this piece of original art, made me tear up.

I was so worried I'd be alone today, and I can't tell you how happy I am that I reached out to old friends, even if it was last minute.

Oh, good, Stewriffic. I'm glad you found some peoples to celebrate with!

I am having a relatively low-key time. Well, totally low-key right now; the relatives are all tucked into their hotel, dealing with their own breakfasts and such at the hotel's restaurant, then they'll be over here this afternoon for presents and eating and drinking. I am curling up with my computer and my cat and my light-therapy lightbox, watching the Christmas tree twinkle and drinking tea. It's nice.

We managed to find a great deal on hotels rooms for everyone in a resort-ish place right on the ocean, and everyone got rooms with balconies overlooking the ocean. Which means I feel not at all guilty about saying, "Why don't y'all just hang out at the hotel for a while so I can get some stuff done here?" and they look not at all unhappy about saying, "Hey, that sounds like a great idea!" I think I'm getting better at trying to deal with two families of introverts during extended holiday visits.

I love it when people understand introversion. My sister is an extrovert, and she doesn't get it when I disappear every hour or so for 20 minutes.

(thanks, occhiblu, for caring. like i said, i was worried, so I'm especially grateful to my sweet second family)

I love it when people understand introversion.

I'm hugely introverted myself. I just seem to be the only one in my immediate family who realizes that *they* all need time alone, too; on the few vacation days we've spent all day with each other, everyone is exhausted and frustrated and grumpy by dinner. I have started insisting on "naps" or "errands" or "showers" or something during that 2pm-5pm chunk of the day, not only for my own good but for everyone else's as well.

It still feels slightly rude ("Hi, I'm glad you've traveled across the country to see me! Now leave me alone for a few hours!"), but I know that spending eight hours over the course of the day together and actually enjoying that time together is preferable to spending 12 hours together silently wishing to be elsewhere. (Especially since my father's idea of "being an easy guest" is refusing to give us ANY indication of what he wants to do ("Anything's fine, I'm easy"), so I spend the entire time racking my brain trying to figure out what he would enjoy doing, which, you know, is not easy. Sigh. Express some preferences already.)

Sorry. /end rant.