Christmas has come and gone

[hester_prynne]

I feel like a fattened goose.
I ate so much today it isn't funny. Went to dinner with a lovely family I used to do caregiving for, before I got my ward clerk gig.
Prime rib. All the trimmings. Pie and ice cream.
Fascinations galore.

I got a cool one cup coffee brewer for work from santa, it's really cherry. I got some new shoes for work too. (I forgot what it was like to have dry feet!) Got some money, and other things. Stella got me a John Lennon collection, a 3 cd set. My favorite thing of course.

What did you get?
What did you eat?
Inquiring, tired old ward clerks want to know...

Adjusting to this new job has rendered me too tired to post much, or even get on line for that matter.

I miss everyone!
Smoochies to all!
H

[lovingpenfull]

I got free meal, potatos, beans, roll, pie; I didn't pay for it.

[Lightning Rod]

I got a spiffy new coat (full length) it's the first long coat I've ever owned, you don't need them in Texas.

Some books and screwdrivers and a spinning musical top that lights up that I use to tease the cat.

The companionship of a lovely family.

A day off

Those are my gifts

I'm glad it's over, now the radio stations can quit playing that dreadful christmas music.

[V-Agent]

I got a bunch of records, including a silly rare '91 PCP Records White Label Promo of Mescalinum United - We Have Arrived.
I can't believe I've been looking for that bloody thing for almost 14 years... aahhh, obsessions... still, nothing like an early German Industrial Techno record to play around the Christmas Tree!
There were also a pair of lovely 6 inch Azurite on Malachite and 11 inch Anglesite and Raspite on Cerrusite specimens from Broken Hill in my stocking.

As for food... gawd, the constant round of BBQs with friends climaxing in a 6 course banquet at our winery on Christmas day is going to haunt my midriff for months to come - ya gotta love it.

But all that lovely tinsel aside, the true gift over this Christmas was the return of a Naval friend of mine from Iraq: he's alive and well, full of stories and has all his arms and legs attached - nothing can equal that - nothing.

It aint over yet though, more BBQs and drunken debates are still ahead until after NYE.
I hope I will survive...

[Arcadia]

I feel like a fattened chicken.
yeah, I ate and drank more than the average during these days too..
In my family each one brings something to eat so the result is a sort of melange thing: cow-meat empanadas, arrollados dulces de atún y jamón y queso, arrollados de pollo, carré de cerdo, berenjenas al escabeche, sandwiches de miga, bocaditos agridulces... The key is to not use the oven. I was in charge of the sweet things (except the icecream). Of course, I bought them with my daddy´s money: almedras y pasas de uva con chocolate, turrones de maní, yema de huevo y coco, budín de castañas y pan dulce.
I´ve got as gifts a pair of sandals, a lona to lie in the sun and the last León Gieco´s cd.
Today I had to wake up early to work again...auch.... three more days...

[Artguy]

Got the flu for Christmas...even though I had a flu shot....my family hates buying for me because I don't really WANT anything...did get some great Tibetan prayer flags for my home shrine...went to visit with my Mom and sister that was great...Happiness and peace to all...

[Glorious Amok]

i ate turkey. i figure once a year is a pretty sustainable celebration.

and every year, there's one thing that goes wrong, or turns out flavourless or overcooked. but not this year... perhaps i've just been a student too long and have missed home cooked meals, but this year, every item on the menu was beyond criticism, each entrée prepared to it's absolute perfection. turkey was red-gold as an autumn baked leaf, mashed potatoes creamy as clouds, brussels sprouts in mom's mustard seed sauce, stuffing with my own added spices, cranberries, salad, a presto-invento salad dressing, corn (the frozen microwaved kind that only a brother can love) and for dessert, my mom's "broken glass" jello & graham wafer concoction, all punctuated by my father's homemade blackberry wine.

i ate, and i ate, and i ate.

i got a DVD player, and the start of a totally respectable DVD library ... the entire Lord of the Rings mega-extended trilogy box set (you have to be a pretty big fan to name your firstborn child from it), Baz Luhrman's Romeo & Juliet (I study Shakespeare for a living), Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands special edition (marry me Tim), and Amélie (so many sexy french girls in the world, and never enough of them in my living room).

also, soap, chocolate, lipbalm, and the item i am in fact the most proud of, a genuine black leather men's wallet. i haven't carried a purse in decades, but i've always shoved in my back pocket any combination of hemp/vinyl/rubber whatever sort of thing would hold all my ID together. and now, i have the real bonafide deal. it looks just like my dad's.

and it makes me feel like a fucken hottie.

[WIREMAN]

....i got a handmade quilt from my mom and a hard time from my wife, a dynamite dinner with 8 poets, lotsa rehearsal time & writing time...a double rainbow on xmas evening, in fact it was just plain spectacular soaring over the city of Baltimore........

[hester_prynne]

Aw heck it's so dang good to read what everyone's holiday was like! I mean really it is. It just warms me heart in this cold hearted world.
Tanks lovies!
Smoochies galore!
H

[abcrystcats]

This wasn't such a hot Christmas for me, but it could have been a lot worse.

Next year, lol, will probably be a LOT worse.

I got a bunch of gift certificates from relatives, which unfortunately will probably go straight back into buying gifts for them, since I am late on sending some packages and can't afford to do this any other way.

I got a copy of my cousin's husband's new book, "Florida."

I spent Christmas day with my aunt and uncle. It was very low key. I'm afraid they'll be leaving for New York a lot sooner than I thought, which was VERY bad news. Their house is closing in 3 days, and they are on their way there now to sign the paperwork. It may take them longer than they think to sell the house in Wheat Ridge. That's the only part that could slow them down.

Suffice it to say, my holiday was messed up. I've had worse Christmases, but not many.

I had a nightmare Christmas night, probably inspired by my aunt and uncle's announcing their impending departure for upstate New York.

Why is it that holidays are often much easier to bear when you can just hole up with some movies and a large supply of wine?

If you can't really BE with people and enjoy the holidays in the way they were MEANT to be enjoyed, then ignoring them seems the better path to take. Half-celebrating them, by taking whatever meager cheer comes in your way seems to me the absolute worst alternative. Pretending you're enjoying yourself when you're really miserable is exhausting. Trying to squeeze every bit of real joy out of a fairly bleak experience is equally exhausting.

I wish I'd had another choice this year, but I didn't.