I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas

Around here, it rained pretty much all day on Christmas. How was it where you were? Really, it could have been worse. An actual white Christmas is only good if you don't have to go anywhere. Since my family came back from Virginia yesterday, it's a good thing it wasn't snowing. And I didn't really dream about any kind of Christmas, although I DID have a dream on Christmas Eve that I was driving a car that had been designed for an emir, but somehow ended up becoming a rental. It was incredibly difficult to find the brake, which turned out to be simply a bump on the floor. I think Dorothy's Uncle Henry and Aunt Em might also have been involved in the dream. But I digress.

Going back a few days, my immediate family exchanged gifts on Friday evening. From my sister, I got a new razor and a gift certificate to the Olive Garden. My brother is making me a clay dragon to sit on top of my computer. I also got a sweatshirt from my uncle. After the present exchange, my mom drove us all down to Virginia, where her mother lives. We got there pretty late, and went to bed almost immediately.

On Christmas Eve, we went out to eat at Cheddar's. I had the chicken tenders and shrimp, which were good. You get a choice of two sides, and I ended up getting French fries and broccoli. I had the same wish I often do with side orders at restaurants, which was that they would have more bread and fruit options, and less potatoes. I was able to eat my fill of dinner rolls and homemade applesauce at dinner, though, so it wasn't a total loss. Also at dinner, I had ham, turkey, and asparagus. This was all on Christmas Eve, mind you. On Christmas Day, my dinner consisted of a Wawa hot dog, with some leftover pizza a few hours later.

My family went to the late church service on Christmas Eve. The associate pastor's sermon was this weird story about how God decided to come to Earth as a baby, because babies don't make war or litter, and they laugh at God's jokes. When God tries to talk to humans, all they hear is the song of the loon. And when He throws pebbles at their windows, all they hear is thunder. (I am not making any of this up.) After church, we exchanged some more presents. Most of my relatives had simply given me money, so I didn't have that much to unwrap. I did, however, get a wallet and a tiny Winnie-the-Pooh notebook from my grandmother, and some candy from my aunt.

During the slow periods of the day, I amused myself by re-reading Hogfather, the Discworld take on the holiday season. I'm actually only up to Small Gods in my general re-read of the series, but I thought I could make an exception for the special time of year.

After returning home last night, I drove to bethje's house. While her presents to me still haven't arrived, she opened the rest of my presents to her, and I opened some from her relatives. Most of it was clothes and candy (which isn't to say that I don't greatly appreciate those gifts, just that I don't see the need to describe all of them in this entry), but I also got the new Pixies concert DVD from her Uncle John. And Beth--um, I mean, Wally and David--gave me a gag gift, namely a book of Jay Leno's Headlines.

Later that night, we watched Miller's Crossing. I kept nodding off during the movie, and had a little trouble keeping the characters straight anyway. I have to agree with Beth that it's the weakest Coen Brothers film I've seen. It lacked the humorous dialogue that's often the highlight of their movies.

Happy Boxing Day, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa to anyone who might celebrate these holidays. Also, happy birthday to slfcllednowhere.