xmas!

[jebreject]

Hope you feel better soon!

[elpollodiablo]

Last night was wonderful! Up until about midnight with my grandparents and aunt and cousin and Danielle, looking at old photos and drinking homebrew and champagne and all. Happy holidays, everyone!

[clare]

Thanks Tourist and Jeb. It's tricky. She and my MIL were really close - talk every day close, so it's going to be especially hard on her, and the bloke is an only child, as is his cousin. We're trying to figure out how to get him there as fast and cheaply as possible. Funeral on Friday.

[G.C.R]

Oh Clare, that's awful christmas news. Awful news any time. I hope you guys are doing ok.
Greg please say more things that happened on christmas.

I made food and sang along to the Afghan Whigs real loud
Ate lots of Haloumi and things with family.
Got given great things, like a book about Jacques Tourneur, weights and a plant.
Swam in the sea and it was so warm
Watched the dog throw up epic amounts, torrents and torrents of seawater and seaweed
Ate more things
Had beers in the sun with a friend
Watched Its a Wonderful Life for the first time ever, my god what a depressing film.

[Greg Nog]

Sister in law is Skyping with her Canadian family and I just heard:

"No, it's a GLOCKENSPIEL, Mother"
"Soorry!"

Ps I bought my niece that glockenspiel, it is LOUD AS HECK and she played it on Xmas morning until she started spontaneously crying

She also did this with an electric-guitar toy she got, we think that she basically gets overwhelmed by the emotionality of music

In the latter case, her mom was in the other room, and walked into the room my niece was in once she noticed the music had stopped.  My niece was silently lying prone, face down, cheek against the hardwood floor, a literal puddle of tears pooling by her face, the guitar clutched in one hand.

[clare]

Wow! I was wondering how the glock went down, as I didn't get one for E this year (too much other fun stuff!) Toddler overloads can be pretty funny.

(thanks Grace)

[Greg Nog]

holy shit so much to drink at xmas night scotch tasting, dad was telling vietnam stories, heard him use the f word for the second time in my life
(first time when was he got impaled by a metal garden implement)

Also holy shit I do love some Ardbeg

Promises were made

Like:

We will take a distillery tour in scotland
We will have an all-islay scotch tasting next year
I will do the heavy athletics in the nh highland games next year

BETTER START TRAININ BOY

[jebreject]

What should have been a completely stress free xmas went pretty much diasterously and now I feel depressed and am kind of questioning some major life decisions. Or not questioning really but things feel a little shakey at the moment, and my mom is incredibly upset, and so is M, and I'm still sort of at a loss to even explain what the fuck went down.

[clare]

Oh dear, it sounds bad... do you have the kind of family where it will blow over in a bit, or do you need to do some hard work to make it better? I hope that it gets sorted soon!

[hannah]

Jeb

I'm here if you need to talk.

[mountmccabe]

I got back from Florida last night where we went to spend Christmas with and meet the fensters. I had never been to Florida before and had not met most of ausdem's clan. It was fun. There were manatees! And quite a few hawks. Everyone was welcoming and seemed to like me, too.

[peacocks]

ooo where in florida? I'm glad you were able to see nature's bounty while you were here!

[jebreject]

Oh dear, it sounds bad... do you have the kind of family where it will blow over in a bit, or do you need to do some hard work to make it better? I hope that it gets sorted soon!

I think things will be fine. It was just unexpected, and kind of horrible. I don't know. Emotions running high, poor stress management, etc.

Still reeling a bit.

[clare]

Yurk. let me know if you need an ear.

[mountmccabe]

ooo where in florida? I'm glad you were able to see nature's bounty while you were here!

We were around Tampa the entire time. I would like to see more Florida on future visits.

[mixed cats]

We had a good time! There was the annual wrapping war among my brother, cousin, and Bill, which was amusing and messy. My cousin's kids sat and drew pictures for a while after i gave them my weird crayons and some paper. Only one annoying relative came (20 years old, generally an idiot [see also: his parents], joined the army and developed an incredible sense of entitlement because apparently people who sign up for the military voluntarily deserve to have everything handed to them, like respect and mixed drinks, without actually doing anything to earn them except be in the military?) so everything was generally very nice.

We got a metric fuckton of stuff because our families are large and generous. I have 22 new bottles of nail polish.

I also ran out of moisturizer on Christmas Eve and used one out from my sample hoard and broke out in a horrendous rash all over my face by morning, and it is still there and still sucks ass

  for family ish

[YojimboMonkey]

If there was a site for pictures of kids posing with christmas presents I would totally win it

NNNEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRDDDDSSSSS


The youngest is really good at the ham & cheese routine






My eldest, at 14, is borderline too-cool-for-christmas but thought the cheeseburger ornament he got was funny. Or that it looked tasty, I'm not sure


Bonus shot of my sister *flipping the fuck out* over some Boy Meets World DVDs. She was literally squealing with joy.


And the goofyface pics




I have an enormous mouth. And bad teeth.

[peacocks]

Excellent!!!!

[peacocks]

I had a small Christmas with just my mom and stepdad. I got a lot of presents from their cats and the most played with gift was a triangle my mom got me! I will soon have enough auxilliary percussion instruments to make a movie soundtrack. Then we ate dinner and watched a bunch of indiana jones and the IT crowd.

Some of my friends got me presents! They are crazy! One of them got me The Lathe of Heaven and a Yoko Ono record and one painted me an awesome picture!


ps it came with a black light bulb.

[Greg Nog]

NERRRRRRRRRRDS

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[clare]

Jim's pics are great. I love the nerds one...

Peacocks, The Lathe of Heaven Yay!

[coldforge]

My dad gave me a bottle of wine, a bottle of hot sauce, and a wad of cash. I think he's getting the hang of it.

[coldforge]

My mom, on the other hand, gave me three paperback Penguin Classics that she got for free from work.

[elpollodiablo]

We spent some Xmas & Jeopardy! money on a bunch of kitchen stuff this week, including some All-Clad pots & pans and a set of Wüsthof knives to replace all of our beaten-up, mismatched, hand-me-down stuff. They's all real pretty.

Also I bought a toaster.

[Greg Nog]

Oh, rad on the knives!  How do you guys store them?  I'm completely in love with my magnetic knife rack for ease of use.