g to the o to the t to the q to the l to the gooooood time

Merry Christmas, everyone! The family and I had a lovely day, despite the absurd seven a.m. start time enforced by Santa and our Christmas morning traditions. We tried something new this year, each buying two gifts for the other three people's stockings, and it was a rousing success. Then, we proceeded to (slowly) unwrap presents, prolonging the magic for a decent interval since we all had multiple wonderful things to discover (none of which could have been traded to anyone else in the family - we have v. divergent tastes). I received some awesome gifts, including a cookbook stand, a bed tray (to go with my octogenarian heating pad from last Christmas), the "Pride and Prejudice" A&E miniseries (I emailed Vidya promptly and told her I would be making her high tea to serve on the tray while we watched "Pride and Prejudice", which no doubt pleased her), Craig Ferguson's memoir, a Cross pen that I've coveted for months, new Moleskine notebooks, etc. I feel like I made off like a bandit, and am quite glad that I didn't get what my family members got, even though they seemed equally happy (mom: gardening book, gardening tools, sheets, cutting board, etc.; dad: travel backpack, grill cover, grill brush, etc.; Michael: computer components, saw blades, Red Dwarf DVD, etc.) It's amazing that we all get along so well despite our rather diverse interests and tastes.

Even though I'm 28, it's still the case that I wanted to play with my 'toys' (in this case, the pen and notebooks), and instead had to put them away like a good girl and spend the day with the relatives. It was nice, obviously, but it's funny how easily one can revert to childhood over the holidays. Uncle Mark, Aunt Kathy, Drewbaby and Gram came out for brunch, and we had the breakfast casserole and blueberry cake that we mixed up last night, as well as some ambrosia that Dad made this morning. Jackie and her husband Shawn came over to hang out while my nieces and nephew were at their paternal grandmother's house celebrating Christmas, but I didn't spent much time with them, as Michael, Drew and I were playing Michael's new "Country Band" game downstairs. I really don't like country music, but I do like playing drums, and the song "Good Time" by Alan Jackson really amused me. Things devolved when Michael handed me the mic, since I don't know any of the songs and am also not particularly tuneful, but it was still fun.

The Wampler side left shortly thereafter (no doubt driven away by my impersonation of Shania Twain), and my nieces and nephews arrived. We hung out for a few hours, opened packages, and then had a delicious early dinner (which, being only five hours after brunch, made me uncomfortably full on not so much food). They left around 5:30 since the weather has been bad for the past couple of days, and the rest of us collapsed into heaps of exhaustion.

Mom, Dad and I rallied long enough to watch the first two parts of the "John Adams" miniseries documentary that my sister gave Dad for Christmas. So far, I think it's really good; obviously, we know how it ends, but Paul Giamatti makes up for the less-than-stellar opinion I had of "Sideways", and the relationship between John and Abigail is fascinating. Unfortunately I did some research after we stopped watching and read a rather gruesome recounting of the surgery that his daughter underwent in later years to remove a breast tumor -- think no anaesthetic, with her tied down to a chair and the doctor sitting on top of her, digging a fork into her breast to pull it away from the chest, and then sawing through it with a knife and cauterizing as he went -- ugh. But hopefully we'll continue watching the documentary over the next week, as that whole period of history is fascinating to me.

Now, on that unpleasant note, I should go to sleep. Merry Christmas!