O Tannen-bomb

It's Christmas, and I'm sitting alone in my room writing another stupid blog post. I guess I don't have to be writing. I could be doing something else, like reading or looking at dumb things on the internet. Alone, yeah, that's kind of a given. This Christmas has been so...different. It used to be that we'd gather at Nona and Gramps's house in Chicago, have maybe 13 or 14 of us hanging out together all day, playing games or talking or cooking or whatever. This year it's in Alabama, since N and G have moved down here to be near Aunt Jan and Uncle Greg. So we've been splitting Christmas between the two houses, sort of. All the family gatherings have been at J and G's house, but that's only been for part of the day. Seven hours or so, most of which is spent either dealing with food-related activities or staring blankly at whatever the hell happens to be on TV. Food-related activities are kind of standard, but the cooking generally only involves the women (so I have barely gotten to talk to my male relatives at all) and the eating is kind of a sore spot for me. I mean, delicious food, hell yes, but I feel like I've gained about fifty pounds and that isn't exactly doing good things for my self-esteem and mood. Booooo.

So I spent most of the family-time helping in the kitchen, which I guess is okay but I wish I could've done more socializing with the whole family. I played Rummikub with Greg, John, and Gramps for awhile, which was awesome. We did all the gift-exchanging things, which was also awesome--I got many, many delightful things--but there just wasn't time to sit around and just...be with family.

The rest of they day(s) I've spent at N and G's house, since that's where I'm sleeping. Time here basically consists of sitting...alone...reading...surfing the web...whatever...boring. I've spent some time with N and G, talking or whatever, but as much as I try, there's only so much time I can spend with them. I love my grandparents but they can be very abrasive people. And then Mom, Dad, Brian, and Amy are staying at a hotel, which splits our family up even more. Christmas is not quite as Christmasy when the family's all split up. I guess it's good that we're able to spend any time together at all, but it doesn't feel right.

Some people might write some schmaltzy drivel about "Therefore, Christmas is not about what you get but who you spend it with." I guess. I mean...on the presents front, I couldn't be happier! The family bit is what makes it all so weird. So I suppose I'm seeing it two different ways...so Christmas is both fantastic and disappointing. I don't know if that makes any damn sense at all. It does to me.

The highlights of my Christmas loot:

$350 plus $125 in gift cards
The Beatles anthology book
Little Miss Sunshine DVD
Blue Like Jazz and Life of Pi--two of my favourite books
a bunch of clothes, including a black Beatles sweatshirt
Burt's Bees lip gloss
a delightful-smelling candle that's going to look so cute in the apartment
and before I left Bloomington, Katie gave me some books, two of which are also on my favourites list

et cetera.

And tomorrow I'll see what Santa left. Haha. I love that we still do the Santa thing, sort of. But now we all do it. My siblings and I put stuff in our parents' stockings, and for whatever reason they still put stuff in ours. I hope that doesn't end anytime soon, but Mom sounded like she wanted to be done with that tradition. Meh. I hope it keeps up.

And theeennn...the 27th is Mom's birthday! I'm so excited about the thing I got for her. She's been talking about how she needs a new 2008 calendar, so I got her one.

Holy fucksticks, I'm bored.

I guess I should get to bed before my grandpa yells at me again. Last night he yelled at me at midnight to go to bed: "Why are you still up? Go to BED!" and not in a friendly jocose manner either. It sounded like the voice people use when they're so mad they could hit you. However, my response was just "No, I'm fine, I'm not tired yet." Because I am twenty-one fucking years old and I can figure out when I'm tired. And I can decide on my own when to go to bed.

And of course I'm not going to go to bed now, probably stay up and surf the web a bit longer, but I've run out of things to say.

I didn't even fucking listen to Sufjan Stevens' Christmas album today. That's how un-Christmasy it's been.

Hope yours was Christmastacular.