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25 December 2011
MERRY CHRISTMAS, BUNNIES!!! Was Santa good to you? Do tell.
I got some awesome fleece pants, and a windchime that's a GONG. So cool. (I hung the windchime on a tree branch in our yard last evening and now it's raining, or I'd post a pic.)
No gifts, but for the first time ever I'm celebrating with family in Florida. I've already been swimming and am on my third Paloma. Have a bunnyriffic holiday everyone.
I got some books and a few concert dvds (Pixies, Clash, Coltrane) but I also got the Batman: Arkham City game and have the next four days off of work, so that's where I'll be.
Coya got a new collar and a squeaky toy and a big ass dog cookie. She's a happy girl.
I got a Go set :) and a Rubik's snake :)) And there's a few things I haven't received yet since we won't be celebrating Christmas with my GF's family until New Year's Eve.
I got a great haul this year: a lovely blue sweater, a pair of pjs with scotty dogs all over it, a desk mug, the Emma Thompson Sense & Sensibility dvd and the Kevin Kline/Rex Smith Pirates of Penzance dvd. It is, it is a glorious thing to be a Pirate King!
I got a Blu-Ray player for the new TV, and a DVD of the Covent Garden 2003 performance of the Magic Flute. Plus the Spy vs. Spy omnibus, and a couple of new hardback novels. Oh, and chocolate.
I got all sorts of body products- a mountain of lip gloss, some makeup, perfume, a gift card to Bath & Body Works to buy more. I shall be the finest smelling girl in all the US of A.
I got antique books, a gorgeous bracelet, and gift cards to a couple of my favorite places. Everyone seemed quite happy with what I gave them, too. It's been a fabulous Christmas.
I'm alone like always...and just had to put up with a snotty little Russian making nasty comments about Jews in a GV Indian place. She claimed she was one herself when I told her she was in the presence of them. Bullshit.
The kid got quite the haul. Nothing too over the top, though. The winners of today appear to be her new cuddly penguin and elephant and this dinosaur book (age six and up. Pah! I say -- the kid named most of the dinosaurs and other animals in it, although got confused between pliosaurus and elasmosaurus).
Did you post about it somewhere? I'm pretty sure I saw a post online, and that's how it ended up on my wishlist. I remember pulling out a Cub Scout book with Morse Code to decode the Morse line ("By Prohias") when I was 9 or 10 years old.
Which are totally awesome and have not left my feet all day.
She also gave me a pair of silver and turquoise Navajo earrings that her mother gave to her when my mum was 14 or so. I've coveted them since I can remember. She let me wear them for a while but took them back. I got a bit sniffly when I opened the box.
Mum also gave me an awesome calendar with Arts & Crafts woodblock prints. As well as a couple food-type goodies from Trader Joe's.
The totally exciting part of our day: most of our (east) area of the city lost power for a few hours this morning and part of the afternoon due to a big windstorm. We were going to have waffles for breakfast, but the power went out in the middle of making them. The mister went to McD's (which I couldn't believe was open) and brought back burgers. We had the waffles for dinner instead of the planned lasagne. I couldn't help but feel sorry for all those poor people cooking turkeys and hams and roasts; I hope their meals didn't get ruined. I'm just glad we were all flexible about our "ruined" planned meals.
Kindle and cordless reciprocating saw from my brother who always spends several times more than he should at Christmas. A PS3 and a bunch of games, although most of that I bought myself. Rechargeable handheld vacuum cleaner and some other smaller miscellaneous items.
My gifts are on a mule train or something between LAX and Poland, I presume - the mail is pretty unreliable this time of year! Heh - looks like another year with the "tradition" of opening presents on Epiphany...
Better than anything I got, though, was my brother and cousin's secret plan - so secret I didn't even know about it until a few hours ago - to fly my mom's sister out from Wisconsin and just have her *ring the doorbell* on Christmas Day! Straight out of a movie, that is. :D
We are STILL having Christmas. We've done both family Christmases, but we decided to have our Christmas at home today: fondue, snuggling, board games, movies, and opening our presents to each other.
But! My niece gave me homemade peppermint bath salts and --- because I recently told her I somehow stopped accumulating or hearing new music about ten years ago --- she made me a mix CD entitled "Music from the last ten years!" Mom gave me a deep purple drape cardigan that I put on immediately and wore all night and a bound edition of ALL the Cooks Illustrated issues from 2011.
I am reeeeeeeally looking forward to giving The Fella his gifts. I think they're pretty great.
I got a beautiful mustard top and brown cashmere sweater from my parents. The boyfriend suddenly surprised me with a Christmas gift -- I had been waxing nostalgic about reading my aunt's copies of Calvin and Hobbes and he popped into a comic store on his walk and bought me a copy of The Essential Calvin and Hobbes. Thought it was very sweet of him.
I did really well. I got some beautiful seaglass jewelry, some royal jelly handwash and hand lotion (perfect because I'd just run out of my kitchen handwash), a sweater, some skin cleanser, a running hat and gloves, a book and a bunny nightlight!
Jon got me a very cute stuffed Angry Bird -- the black exploding one, with a Santa hat (he's good about adding to my stuffed menagerie). And he picked himself up a bottle of Slivovitz (from me), a plum brandy he first tried and liked at a neighborhood Czech restaurant, where we went for his birthday.
And I think we're gonna get ourselves a new sofa, and maybe a coffee table, as a household present to each other before New Year's. I also think I'm gonna keep my iPhone after all. The very nice sales guy at the store was able to reduce the cost of our plan a lot, to the point where it became a lot more affordable to keep it. I was feeling sad to return it (I love the voice activation, but I use my iPad for most stuff). Jon loves his. (Overall, December's been a bit indulgent; it's hard to reign it in sometimes.)
No presents from family yet, though apparently a "big box" is in the mail for us from Jon's sister and husband, which is sweet of them. We weren't expecting anything (course, last year's box never did arrive -- though one year they sent us lobsters, FedEx, which were delicious). My mom's not up to much holiday giving lately. She told me years ago I was too old for Hanukkah, anyway. : (
I received some make-me-pretty facial cleansers and lotions, a beautiful multicolored scarf, a cream sweater and some decorative kitty figures.
Plus, my Mom gave me a pair of those rocker style athletic shoes that were a hit several years ago. She'd never seen them and was fascinated. Had fun rocking around her house for show.
I've been putting off buying myself an iPod for, ooooh, a zillion months. This fall, I've been postponing because we have house rule against buying ourselves presents right before Christmas, but mostly because I hate the whole gamut of decision-making that it requires: what model? What size? What color?
But The Fella dove right in and got me a BIG FAT NANO in bright red. (Yay, I'll be able to find it!) I'm charging it right now; I just loaded the first music onto it.
We're still having Christmas, too, to my husband's irritation. We opened the gifts to/from each other yesterday - I got buckyball magnets! and a miter saw! Oh, I'm gonna have fun. Kidlets got Angry Bird cards and Pokemon cards - we are shunning electronic games for as long as we can.
Today we opened the box from my mom - I got beautiful artwork my SIL did:
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
