MONDAY

Shelly doesn’t love me so she doesn’t come get her prezzies. Okay so that’s a lie, but “Nature hates us” sounds less good somehow. I so desperately want to post pix of her present on my LJ and dA, but I’m waiting until she gets it.

TUESDAY

We did our family Christmas, I got a whole bunch of books- I wuvs them (favorite title, a cookbook called “How To Make It In the Sack” bwahahaha). I got an mp3 player as well and while I have no clue how to work it (me+tech=uneasy allies at best), it looks cool and I’m making a list of songs I want to put on it (suggestions?). My nephew has developed some of my evil, he gave me and my mother matching organizers but he put mine in a big box with pennies in it so it would rattle. *tear* I’m so proud. And annoyed. The sandwich stuff my sister provided was lovely.      

WEDNESDAY

Woke up 6:30ish in the A.M.. So tired. Shower. Must finish dishes and toss clothes into bag. Mom wants to leave at 8, I laugh derisively in my mind.  Running around like a headless chicken ensues. I grab my list of things to do/bring as we walk out the door around 9. 2 hours later Mom remembers the pie (the one on my list) and some presents we left behind. To heck with it I think. Burger King breakfast was tasty, but gone too fast (especially with someone stealing my hash browns). Oh and they’ve been playing Christmas music since Halloween night and guess what I can’t find the one frickin’ day I want to hear it? That’s right, I heard like one or maybe two of my favorite Christmas songs and then nothin’. Grr. Oh and much fog in places. So we got there around 2pm and it was all fine for, say, ten minutes. Then my teeth were sort of insulted and I was put to work on cleaning. (A recurring theme of the holiday- it’s Maegan’s fault that such and such thing isn’t done despite her having nothing to do with it. It’s good stuff.) Oh and my grandmother griped about the cold medicine she asked us to bring (another recurring event). We burned a bunch of old papers out in the burn barrel and my grandmother mentioned she wanted the tree next to it cut down. Then my aunt, uncle, and their grandson showed up and I was asked “why?” about 50 bajillion times- which oddly didn’t bother me. Though the eye poking got a bit worrisome. They brought BBQ though so that was good. While I used a handsaw to cut down the tree (I hate power tools, I’m weird about loud noises) Mom plus the aunt and uncle and my wee second cousin worked at cleaning the garage. My grandmother stayed in the house after we got done burning, my cousin showed up and kept her company a while with the wee boy. At one point I was molested (not really) because my aunt handed me a dusty box and when I turned my head to answer someone she started dusting my chest, I was a wee bit startled. We did not finish the garage, but I got the tree down to a stump lower than my knee and we called it a night before midnight. The garage was a wreck. I had to scrub the smoke smell out of my hair and because I hadn’t cleaned “my” room, I slept in the floor. I was so cold my skin hurt and it woke me up several points in the night. I actually put my jacket on at one point.       

THURSDAY (MERRY CHRISTMAS)

 Grr, argh. The grandmother got up at 7 to put the ham on (but did not take her medicine) and we all waited until 8 to really get up and do anything. When Mom got up she mentioned she had been cold also and that some of the liquids in her make-up bag had gotten cold enough to solidify. Brr. The grandmother did not take her medicine until after 11ish. I was really trying not to get annoyed, really really, but my family has the ability to put me on edge like no one else. Mom did a couple dishes I normally do, because the grandmother had me running around doing other things. Since the back room where Mom and I slept is where the toys for kids to play with and the coats are kept I moved all of our luggage out of the way and in front of the closet (the one where my grandmother’s EXTRA clothes are kept) and then Mom called me to the kitchen. When I came back my grandmother had pushed it all out of the way to get in the closet for a Christmas shirt I thought she already had out. So I again stacked all the stuff, trying not to grumble. Then I had to sweep her bedroom (no way was I dragging her annoying vac out of the closet) despite the fact no one was supposed to go in there and the living room. Then people started showing up and I had to take over doing the bacon wrapped bread sticks my Mom does (which I hate to do) because she had all the stuff out and got called away for a long time. I got snarked at about how I was doing it. We went along okay for a while, finally all the food was done and most of the people had showed up, and we all ate. Yay.  Prezzies were exchanged. I got a cookbook (I get them a lot ‘cause I love them) of 4 ingredient meals and three aprons from my grandmother and one of my aunties gave me a book about aprons (so love it, have many I want to try and make). I think this puts me at over 30 aprons. After that people started leaving and others of us went back to work. I was doing the weather stripping on the utility room while Mom and the same auntie and uncle did the garage. I ended up part time watching the three wee ones that were there, they’re aged 2ish to 4ish and like to ask why a LOT. They tried to help me, which was sweet in a way, and I taught them how to pop bubble wrap. When I went into the house to get scissors for part of my project I was asked if I wanted to burn some more magazines and the wrapping paper, when I told them I couldn’t ‘cause I was busy I was told “but you’re the one that wanted to burn stuff and like fire so much”. I told them what I was doing and they all acted like weather stripping was a brand new invention, plus I told them I had to move the burn barrel over the stump (as Mam-Maw had directed) so that it would burn away over time. So I got some of the stripping up, but I couldn’t do all of it- I needed sandpaper and more energy- and was just moving the barrel over the stump (it’s old enough and thin enough I managed to poke my thumb through part of it) when here came a bunch of people with stuff to burn and they started a fire. They burned the paper and some magazines and somehow it seems it was my fault that the paper was not great to burn and wasn’t burning long enough to burn the stump any. Eventually one of my cousins just loaded a bunch of the left over magazines into the back of his truck to haul off instead of burn. We ended up with so much ash it was over the top of the stump, I had to tell my grandmother to just leave it alone because the stump was not going to burn with all the ash on top- she snarked at me. I helped some more in the garage. One of the wee ones puked a couple times (the same ones that got me sick year before last I think it was) and I told my mother if it happened again I was throwing up on the mother and in their car. I tried to remind my grandmother about her cold medicine at one point and she told me she’d already taken it and for me to leave her alone (she took it a half hour early) so I quit reminding her at all. My brother (lives down the road from my grandmother) and my sister, bro-in-law, and nephew (coming from the bro-in-law’s family deal) all showed up. My bro-in-law ate then had a nap in the back room while my brother, sister, and nephew all watched us work in the garage. My nephew started in on wanting to ride home with me and Mom (almost never ends well) instead of going home that night with his parents which I said I didn’t think was a good idea. My brother and sister told him (I think I wasn’t supposed to hear, and maybe they were going for humor) that since I don’t drive my opinion didn’t matter so he should just ask my Mom. I was tired and upset enough I nearly cried and threw stuff. I told Mom to do whatever she wanted and mostly stopped talking to people. The kid stayed with us, of course, and the garage was still a wreck when we went to bed. Again, had to wash smoke smell out of my hair. Oh and found out that there are now three pregnant women in the family (I won’t say which ones, not my news to tell).       

FRIDAY

Shopping, grr argh. We got up at 6:30ish and called my brother to come get my nephew as he’d agreed- though he and I thought it would be closer to 8 when we all got going. We went to Wal-Mart and Mom got a buttload of Christmas stuff for next year. Mam-Maw got her Christmas cards (she had a big box full, but she didn’t like them or something) and some storage bins for the space we were fixing in the garage for her decorations. I “made a friend” as Mom always calls it- a woman talked to me for a long time, pointing out different things I missed and such, she was actually okay. Then we ran a couple errands and went back to the house. We were back before 9 and I went back to sleep until 2ish which was for the best ‘cause I was kind of hacked off and still oh so tired. They were done eating when I got up, but I had a bite while they went to work on the garage. I went out eventually to help clean and we finished up eventually. My great aunt came to visit and my brother brought my nephew back- with several knives he hadn’t had when he left and music on his iPod that no parental would approve of. We finished the garage and all was goodish. We were getting punchy at the end and giggling like chipmunks as is our way. My nephew decided some of the stories we’d told were scary so he slept in the floor in the same room as me and Mom which meant he ended up kicking my feet in the night. It took me forever to get to sleep.     

SATURDAY

We got up and poked around some, my nephew sprayed Axe and got it all over me so I had to go wash that off. It was so bad I lit matches to get rid of the stink. We were under a tornado watch for a while so we couldn’t leave right off, but it passed over eventually and we left. The drive wasn’t bad and I didn’t fight with the nephew through effort on both our parts. We came home and I was a happy me for it even if it was lateish. I was getting frustrated as I got out of the car because stuff kept falling out on my feet and was about to have a mad fit when a religious pamphlet I have never seen before fluttered out and onto my arm- it’s from 1991 from Garland, TX. I have no clue where it came from, but it made me give up on the mad fit (I’m reading a book called “When God Winks at You” so I thought it might be a little “knock it off” signal).  I went to bed pretty quickly and slept a looong time.

That all makes it sound like my family is out to get me and I’m a whiner (they both have some truth to them) but it doesn’t really matter. I let them get to me even though I know I shouldn’t and I’m responsible for my happiness, not them. I think next time it would be better if I slept more before I went and maybe a hotel room would be good for my sanity. I’m just happy to have spent time with my Mom which is a lot of the reason I go to these family dos.

Phew. Let’s try for something less familially  angsty. Finally watched “The Dark Knight” and it was good- I hadn’t watched the first one, but I thought Heath Ledger was great. I didn’t get to mail any Christmas cards this year, but you people know I love you. I keep getting text messages from a number I don’t recognize that sends me well wishes and tells me about bats flying into classrooms that I can’t ever get a reply on who it is (if this is you, please say so). I heard from my “up North” friend that I met through writing fanfic and was really happy to hear from her. I didn’t maim anyone in Wal-Mart at any point this month despite the bad parenting and asshattery I saw. My nephew had a good Christmas and so did my mother. I’m still writing and mostly enjoying it, though one of my stories stalled out because I couldn’t find that spiral. I’m currently in love with the show “Leverage” and not just because Christian Kane is sexy as all get out. I learned during the holiday madness that Shelly is right and kitty snuggles can cure a lot of evils. I haven’t let the fact that they’re still playing Christmas music *eye twitch* drive me nuts. Oh and I turned 23 this month. And now I’ll shut up. You may hear from me again oh bloggy readers for resolutions, but who knows at this point.