The crystalline sound of glasses shivering together
So, if my friendslist is any indication, it's about time for an obligatory Christmas post. I'll likely do exams and whatever else springs to mind later because when my entries get all epic I don't write them very often. (After writing: this is massively detailed partly for my own records. By all means skim or skip.)
I got back to town on the thirteenth with almost all my presents bought and wrapped already, which was fairly handy because it gave me more time to catch up on sleep and help with assorted Christmas stuff like making cookies and wrapping some presents that were shipped a little later than planned. My dad's side of the family got together for food and presents the Sunday before Christmas. I enjoyed seeing people, but I'll admit that I ended up reading through most of lunch because my cousins and their friend wouldn't stop going on about iPhones. Talking about the devices could have been more interesting if there had been more to the conversation that "so cool" ad nauseam. Anyway, it was nice to see those grandparents because college has really cut into the amount of time I get to see them and Grandma was only around for part of a day over Thanksgiving.
The night before Christmas Eve I absconded with Ian's macaroni recipe to make a side dish for everyone. Plans to make really excellent chocolate brownies were discarded when Mom and I realized that would already be about five or six types of dessert at dinner and that the brownie recipe can easily serve thirty. Thus, no need for even more sugary leftovers. Tammie (my aunt), her son Connor, and his new wife Autumn came over Christmas Eve afternoon to talk and hang out: a good time was had by all. After Uncle Dan came over we all headed to my maternal grandparents' house (stopping for delicious chicken strips on the way) to set up the feast. It was a little crazy: Rachel flew my cousin's toy helicopter onto the roof, there were enough cookies to bury an entire manger, and wrapping paper was everywhere, but it was really nice to see everyone for the first time in quite a while. Relatives are changing more noticably when I see them less often, I suppose. After a while everyone split off and my family went to the 11:00 Christmas Eve service. The music was great, as always at this church, but it was a little odd not being up in the choir loft like I've been for the last few years.
Christmas Day was actually very relaxing. I got to sleep in until 9:00 or so and awoke to find a shiny silver iPod nano from Santa sitting on Dad's chair in the den, which was definitely a nice way to start the morning. After that we all did a little present-opening of the stuff from various people to Mom and Dad and from Rachel and I to each other. Then we called assorted grandparents over for breakfast: Pop-pop did his usual magic trick of making a large and presumably tasty breakfast. I cannot directly cerify this because my stomach declares war if I eat much of anything in the morning, but everyone else was making appreciative noises. After breakfast Rachel and I opened our presents from Mom and Dad, which was good fun and way more organized than it was when we were younger and attacking everything. Once all the grandparents departed I ended up taking a nap with the cat and then moving to bed when he left. I hadn't gotten enough sleep and it finally caught up with me hard. Christmas Day ended with some quiet talking, relaxing, and installing Diablo on my laptop. Three levels so far, thirteen and Leoric to go.
Loot list, because all the cool kids are doing it and peer pressure is tasty:
From Neko:
-The Granite Shield by Fiona Patton- this looks very cool
-Really pretty little silver Celtic spiral earrings that I will wear a lot
From Pop-pop, Grandmother, the rest of Mom's side of the family, and my other grandparents:
-The fourth season of House
-Money, some of which I spent on things to be detailed later
-Gold-ish dolphin earrings that were proclaimed to be very "me" by the giver and are very decidedly not (likely to be regifted)
From Rachel:
-Mass market edition of Cursor's Fury because I'm collecting the Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. (Go read all of his stuff right now. Yes, you.)
From Mom and Dad (and Santa):
-A silver iPod nano (squee!) because my old one got water-damaged somehow. This is excellent, though I may exchange it for one of the sleek poison green ones once stores restock because I'm keeping it close to forever and that color is pretty.
-Magic Study and Fire Study, both by Maria V. Snyder
-Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad Trilogy all in one volume
-The special DVD edition of Sweeney Todd (which Mom and Dad watched with me while Mom covered her eyes a lot)
-The Mensa guide to solving sudoku and a volume of Mensa's really nasty sudoku puzzles because I want to be better
-The Diablo battlechest, which is guaranteed to eat large chunks of my time for breakfast (I don't care because Diablo is wonderful)
Overall I'm really really happy: I just sort of made a list this year and then plunged into exams without really worrying about anything and now I have all sort of shinies to keep me entertained. I've already gone through one of the books in a day and will do the same with another over the next two because they are delicious (the Study books.) This isn't too much of a problem, given that I work in a bookstore, know nerds, and keep good books around to re-read at intervals.
Ian's present thus far gets its own section because it's adorable and I'm going to ramble. If you don't want to read this bit, skip it.
So, I was chatting with Tammie and Connor and Autumn on Christmas Eve afternoon when Mom heard a knock and went to answer it, assuming that it was Uncle Dan, who was on his way over. Instead it was the mailman, who was holding a tall green box addressed to me. Extremely puzzled, I looked at the box and realized that it was from a flower company. I have been informed that I spent the whole time unwrapping the flowers and reading the card grinning enormously and blushing: that said, I don't care because that was the first time I had ever gotten flowers that weren't a prom corsage from a friend. The flowers, for the curious, are a mixture of red and white carnations, red and white roses, and baby's breath. They're from a company that delivers flowers just as they're starting to bloom, so these look really great and a little different every few hours. Normally I'm not this easily entertained by greenery. :-P Pictures may eventually be forthcoming if my camera cooperates like a good electronic device.
Yesterday (the Saturday after Christmas) we decided to go to Perimeter Mall because we had a bunch of coupons and that place is massive. I've gotten out of the habit of going to the mall in college, and the sheer number of people was a little overwhelming. That said, it turned out well. Mom, Rachel, and I were looking at a mall map when I noticed Charlotte Russe not far from us. (For those who don't know, it sells some fairly pretty junior-size clothes if you sift through the place.) Rachel found some really pretty tops for a steal and I found a skirt that I ended up putting back because it was lying about being on sale. After that we headed to Macy's because Mom had the best coupons for there and I found a really nice blue-green top (which I accidentally grabbed in medium at checkout and need to exchange for small, grr.) Dad had been wandering around elsewhere during all this and informed me that he'd found a Lindt chocolate store. They had bags of truffles on sale, so I ended up getting ninety of my favorite kinds of truffles (peanut butter and milk chocolate) for twenty dollars, which is crazy when you work out how much they are normally. I am in creamy chocolate heaven and plan to make these last at least through the semester.
When Dad got tired of the mall we went to Barnes and Noble, where I found the Bible edition (leather cover, gold-edged pages) of the complete works of Shakespeare for ridiculously little compared to what I've seen it for elsewhere and grabbed it. Given that I'm an English major, this is the ideal combination of form and function for me. I also copied a cheesecake recipe out of a food critic book in the discount box because I am a terrible person and love cheesecake. Everyone else found good books, so after we were done we went to Bambinelli's, the traditional family Italian restaurant. Meatball calzone= win.
After church today I went over to a friend's house to see Erin, a friend of mine from first grade who now lives in Boston and goes to Oberlin. I hardly ever get to see her, so listening to her college stories and laughing about crazy people was great fun. It was a little weird seeing Carol and Lisl, though: they were great friends in high school, but Lisl is now straightening her hair and wearing fake-looking makeup while acting the same ridiculous way and Carol kept letting the conversation die away. It's sad on some level, but on another the drifting seems a little inevitable when we're so far apart. Lisl and I had also been drifting since junior year or so, and we're too different now to be as close as we were early in high school.
Now I just need to brace for New Year's Eve, which should be reasonably fun. Happy almost end of the year, everyone!
I got back to town on the thirteenth with almost all my presents bought and wrapped already, which was fairly handy because it gave me more time to catch up on sleep and help with assorted Christmas stuff like making cookies and wrapping some presents that were shipped a little later than planned. My dad's side of the family got together for food and presents the Sunday before Christmas. I enjoyed seeing people, but I'll admit that I ended up reading through most of lunch because my cousins and their friend wouldn't stop going on about iPhones. Talking about the devices could have been more interesting if there had been more to the conversation that "so cool" ad nauseam. Anyway, it was nice to see those grandparents because college has really cut into the amount of time I get to see them and Grandma was only around for part of a day over Thanksgiving.
The night before Christmas Eve I absconded with Ian's macaroni recipe to make a side dish for everyone. Plans to make really excellent chocolate brownies were discarded when Mom and I realized that would already be about five or six types of dessert at dinner and that the brownie recipe can easily serve thirty. Thus, no need for even more sugary leftovers. Tammie (my aunt), her son Connor, and his new wife Autumn came over Christmas Eve afternoon to talk and hang out: a good time was had by all. After Uncle Dan came over we all headed to my maternal grandparents' house (stopping for delicious chicken strips on the way) to set up the feast. It was a little crazy: Rachel flew my cousin's toy helicopter onto the roof, there were enough cookies to bury an entire manger, and wrapping paper was everywhere, but it was really nice to see everyone for the first time in quite a while. Relatives are changing more noticably when I see them less often, I suppose. After a while everyone split off and my family went to the 11:00 Christmas Eve service. The music was great, as always at this church, but it was a little odd not being up in the choir loft like I've been for the last few years.
Christmas Day was actually very relaxing. I got to sleep in until 9:00 or so and awoke to find a shiny silver iPod nano from Santa sitting on Dad's chair in the den, which was definitely a nice way to start the morning. After that we all did a little present-opening of the stuff from various people to Mom and Dad and from Rachel and I to each other. Then we called assorted grandparents over for breakfast: Pop-pop did his usual magic trick of making a large and presumably tasty breakfast. I cannot directly cerify this because my stomach declares war if I eat much of anything in the morning, but everyone else was making appreciative noises. After breakfast Rachel and I opened our presents from Mom and Dad, which was good fun and way more organized than it was when we were younger and attacking everything. Once all the grandparents departed I ended up taking a nap with the cat and then moving to bed when he left. I hadn't gotten enough sleep and it finally caught up with me hard. Christmas Day ended with some quiet talking, relaxing, and installing Diablo on my laptop. Three levels so far, thirteen and Leoric to go.
Loot list, because all the cool kids are doing it and peer pressure is tasty:
From Neko:
-The Granite Shield by Fiona Patton- this looks very cool
-Really pretty little silver Celtic spiral earrings that I will wear a lot
From Pop-pop, Grandmother, the rest of Mom's side of the family, and my other grandparents:
-The fourth season of House
-Money, some of which I spent on things to be detailed later
-Gold-ish dolphin earrings that were proclaimed to be very "me" by the giver and are very decidedly not (likely to be regifted)
From Rachel:
-Mass market edition of Cursor's Fury because I'm collecting the Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. (Go read all of his stuff right now. Yes, you.)
From Mom and Dad (and Santa):
-A silver iPod nano (squee!) because my old one got water-damaged somehow. This is excellent, though I may exchange it for one of the sleek poison green ones once stores restock because I'm keeping it close to forever and that color is pretty.
-Magic Study and Fire Study, both by Maria V. Snyder
-Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad Trilogy all in one volume
-The special DVD edition of Sweeney Todd (which Mom and Dad watched with me while Mom covered her eyes a lot)
-The Mensa guide to solving sudoku and a volume of Mensa's really nasty sudoku puzzles because I want to be better
-The Diablo battlechest, which is guaranteed to eat large chunks of my time for breakfast (I don't care because Diablo is wonderful)
Overall I'm really really happy: I just sort of made a list this year and then plunged into exams without really worrying about anything and now I have all sort of shinies to keep me entertained. I've already gone through one of the books in a day and will do the same with another over the next two because they are delicious (the Study books.) This isn't too much of a problem, given that I work in a bookstore, know nerds, and keep good books around to re-read at intervals.
Ian's present thus far gets its own section because it's adorable and I'm going to ramble. If you don't want to read this bit, skip it.
So, I was chatting with Tammie and Connor and Autumn on Christmas Eve afternoon when Mom heard a knock and went to answer it, assuming that it was Uncle Dan, who was on his way over. Instead it was the mailman, who was holding a tall green box addressed to me. Extremely puzzled, I looked at the box and realized that it was from a flower company. I have been informed that I spent the whole time unwrapping the flowers and reading the card grinning enormously and blushing: that said, I don't care because that was the first time I had ever gotten flowers that weren't a prom corsage from a friend. The flowers, for the curious, are a mixture of red and white carnations, red and white roses, and baby's breath. They're from a company that delivers flowers just as they're starting to bloom, so these look really great and a little different every few hours. Normally I'm not this easily entertained by greenery. :-P Pictures may eventually be forthcoming if my camera cooperates like a good electronic device.
Yesterday (the Saturday after Christmas) we decided to go to Perimeter Mall because we had a bunch of coupons and that place is massive. I've gotten out of the habit of going to the mall in college, and the sheer number of people was a little overwhelming. That said, it turned out well. Mom, Rachel, and I were looking at a mall map when I noticed Charlotte Russe not far from us. (For those who don't know, it sells some fairly pretty junior-size clothes if you sift through the place.) Rachel found some really pretty tops for a steal and I found a skirt that I ended up putting back because it was lying about being on sale. After that we headed to Macy's because Mom had the best coupons for there and I found a really nice blue-green top (which I accidentally grabbed in medium at checkout and need to exchange for small, grr.) Dad had been wandering around elsewhere during all this and informed me that he'd found a Lindt chocolate store. They had bags of truffles on sale, so I ended up getting ninety of my favorite kinds of truffles (peanut butter and milk chocolate) for twenty dollars, which is crazy when you work out how much they are normally. I am in creamy chocolate heaven and plan to make these last at least through the semester.
When Dad got tired of the mall we went to Barnes and Noble, where I found the Bible edition (leather cover, gold-edged pages) of the complete works of Shakespeare for ridiculously little compared to what I've seen it for elsewhere and grabbed it. Given that I'm an English major, this is the ideal combination of form and function for me. I also copied a cheesecake recipe out of a food critic book in the discount box because I am a terrible person and love cheesecake. Everyone else found good books, so after we were done we went to Bambinelli's, the traditional family Italian restaurant. Meatball calzone= win.
After church today I went over to a friend's house to see Erin, a friend of mine from first grade who now lives in Boston and goes to Oberlin. I hardly ever get to see her, so listening to her college stories and laughing about crazy people was great fun. It was a little weird seeing Carol and Lisl, though: they were great friends in high school, but Lisl is now straightening her hair and wearing fake-looking makeup while acting the same ridiculous way and Carol kept letting the conversation die away. It's sad on some level, but on another the drifting seems a little inevitable when we're so far apart. Lisl and I had also been drifting since junior year or so, and we're too different now to be as close as we were early in high school.
Now I just need to brace for New Year's Eve, which should be reasonably fun. Happy almost end of the year, everyone!