red solo cup

I'm way too tired to still be awake, but I've been thinking about Christmas presents (always a challenge) and marketing strategies (related to my writing, not to convincing my family that they want whatever I've bought for them, although perhaps I should explore that too). Today was lovely, though -- we celebrated Christmas with the Wamplers, which really should be a movie. You'd pay to see it, right?

The fam showed up around ten, which was an ungodly early hour for me and rather late for all of them. And we hung out all day; my mother made a delicious holiday feast (turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, spinach salad, cranberry sauce, jello ribbon salad), and we were all quite merry. Later in the afternoon, we opened gifts -- the giftgiving has slowed down since my brother and I are well into our twenties (er, thirty for me) and there are no longer any children on that side of the family, but it was still fun. Our cousin Drewbaby is a senior in high school, and so we all got various versions of his senior pictures. In return, my brother and I gave him various accoutrements that he will need in college (a deck of cards, ping pong balls, red solo cups, a funnel, some plastic pipe, etc.; what he decides to do with all of that is completely up to him, and I trust that he will be a thoughtful and responsible young man). I also got a v. cool leather bound journal/book thing from Aunt Becky and Scandalous Uncle Brian, which is so pretty that I might have to use it as decoration rather than as a repository for my thoughts.

Becky and Brian left sometime around fiveish and took Gram back to her apartment on the way, but Mark/Kathy/Drewbaby stuck around for another hour or two before heading north. After they left, I hung out in the kitchen with the parents for awhile, ate some leftovers, watched some "48 Hours Mystery" on CBS (of course), and eventually came downstairs, where I worked on marketing for awhile, messed around on YouTube (which was directly related to my marketing thoughts), and then explored Christmas ideas. And now I must go to bed -- tomorrow is my mother's birthday, which will be celebrated with brunch and Cyclones basketball, which is v. different from the birthday celebrating that Chandlord will be doing at a gay piano bar (although I shall be there in spirit). Goodnight!