Christmas Time Has Come...Again

We spent Christmas Eve as we usually do by attending the candlelight service at church and opening presents. I received a digital camera, a sweatshirt from a highly-trendy store (*sigh* my sister picked it out with the goal of forcing me to conform to American concepts of sylishness), cologne, and some gift cards for various stores. I gave my brother my old digital camera, which works fine but cannot take very high-resolution photos, hence my reason for asking for a new one.

On Christmas day my brother and I went over to my parents’ house for a traditional turkey dinner and stocking emptying ritual. While everyone in my family took an after-lunch nap, I finished reading the excellent short story collection by Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies. Soon after awaking, my brother decided to head back to his place, leaving me alone with my parents and sister (at that point, I was also ready to go home but did not want to offend my mom).

In the evening we played Scrabble. It has been quite awhile since I've played a board game, and oddly, it was actually pretty fun. The fun was only decreased slightly by the fact that Mr. Webster's fine dictionary does not include the words “Goosestuba,” “Cravestaxis,” and the Scrabble rules do not permit--due to a typo or editing oversight, I suspect--the use of common but archaic words such as “trofler” (old English word that means, er, something I can't recall), or words that are clearly foreign sounding, like “Lautreisee,” “Volgsrun” or “Corantoli”. My Dad's main tactic consisted of forming words like “was” and “go,” and though I skoffed at his inability to form words with more than 3 letters, his score was ahead of mine for most of the game. My Mom kept scoring 50 points per turn using X's and Q's. And yes, I lost.

Afterward we watched the always entertaining Hitchcock film Strangers on a Train, then I went back to my house to mess around with my digital camera. So this Christmas holiday turned out well. For the rest of Christmas break I plan to read a few books, watch some movies, and work, of course. I found a temporary job in the daytime in addition to my evening job at the library. Fun, fun.

Wow, it's been so long since I've posted that it took me a moment to recall my login password. This semester has been hectic, but finals will be over by next week, and I'll have time to relax.

A few weeks ago I moved into a new house with a couple guys. So far it's working out quite well. We just got internet last night, so now I don't have any reason to return to my family's house--well, except to see my family, of course, and maybe for the occasional home-cooked meal. My brother recently moved out as well and is living in a new house a few miles north of my house.

I'll post more in the coming weeks...hopefully.