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More banging around in the kitchen woke us up around 9am xmas morning. Brö was more restrained than he has been about xmas in the past- he said he wasn't feeling nearly as spastic about it this year for some reason. In an effort to position hub away from the people I ended up being the one nearest to the tree so I got gift-handing-out duty. Everyone got a few things except hub- which Dad seemed to notice and fret a little bit about. He found a cookbook stashed somewhere and gave it to hub just so someone would have given him something. I was touched; hub and I exchanged gifts at Yule and he's not big into the present exchange anyway, but it was still a thoughtful gesture. Most of the presents were from Brö to Mom, the two xmas freaks, and it was good. Mom also got a box of things from her friend back in Bryan.
My haul was fairly minimalist in appearance. Aside from the usual snack items Mom gets for the stocking every year, everyone gave me cash. There was a gift bag that had 2 smaller gift bags with bills in them from the parents, and another pretty glass jar stuffed with bills from Brö. While there's a small part of me that missed out on the 'present opening fun' with everyone else, there's a much larger part of me that's glad they didn't go crazy with the buying of things I don't want or need, and that I can just sock this away in an account and save some of it for our Europe trip, and blow some of it on hookers and crack in whatever manner I see fit. I love to shop- it's one of the few ways in which I'm a typical girl, so I'll just send letters of thanks explaining what I bought (unless it's weed or dildoes or what-have-you). And Brö made the money festively difficult to get to by packing the jar with confetti, which I spend a good half-hour patiently shaking out. That was fun, believe it or not.
Mom was thrilled. Elaine seemed to enjoy herself too, which was more of a challenge. And Dad has said several times that it was the best xmas ever. I am not sure what's behind that; he's not one to say such things out of politeness (Mom says it every year), and I don't know that his gift selection was all that spectacular (I did enjoy wrapping his AK-47 magazine in the girliest, frilliest gift bag I could find); I think he's just genuinely happy to be alive. I'm glad of it too.
Brö and I both had to work the next day so we left pretty shortly after that. The drive was again uneventful. We had a brief scare when we came close to running out of gas due to a combination of driving through a lot of nothing and the few gas stations we passed being closed, but we lucked out and made it to Brownwood and got filled up. We were pretty hungry by the time we hit Austin around 5pm and just like last year, found the Bennigan's open. The waiter was a heart-breakingly cute fellow who looked a little like my favorite faun from Narnia, and hub was kind enough to put up with me staring at the poor guy. I decided to fall off the wagon one last time and got fried mushrooms and the perilous Monte Cristo (Smfmd. Wssoinm.) which were delicious. We got home around full-dark and unloaded the car. I tried to talk hub into going to Content's party, thinking it would be nice to have some non-scary interpersonal interactions for once. He was totally peopled out, though, and since he's a level 10 introvert and I'm only a level 8, I felt I ought to respect that and I wasn't feeling up to venturing out on my own this time. So we spent a relaxing evening unwinding.
Yesterday I had to work, which kind of sucked because it means I've only got today to really exhale. But it's cool, I'll get paid extra and it was surprsingly slow. I thought that since it was the Monday after a holiday we'd be swamped, but a lot of folks seemed to have yesterday off (including hub) so they probably assumed we were closed too. Hub and Paul hatched a plot to go shooting after I got off work at 3:30, but we didn't get on the road 'til 4:30 and by the time we arrived the nice man explained to us that when the Sun went down the shooting stopped. Since it was an outdoor range this seemed reasonable, and I had wondered if that might not be the case but Paul said they were open 'til 7. Maybe that's in the summer. So we went to an indoor range in Pflugerville, and we shot at paper targets with pistols. I had a hard time controlling my wincing and flinching reactions... even with earmuffs the guns Paul brought were LOUD. I made a fair account of myself with the .22 pistol, but when I tried to shoot Paul's 9mm (a CZ52, if you're keeping score at home) I thought I was gonna drop the gun and shriek like a girl. I managed to get all eight shots off, but I have no idea if I hit anything. Oh well, I gave it the old college try, as they say.
We dined at Zorba's and then back home. The cats were out of food, totally out, and it was clear that they would try to eat one of us before the next day if they didn't get their kibble stat, so off to the petfüd store. Then back home for more quiet relaxing. Today it's been all about me sitting on my ass and doing LJ things. I thought about yoga but I think I'll just do ye olde exercise bike instead and pick up around the house a bit.
My haul was fairly minimalist in appearance. Aside from the usual snack items Mom gets for the stocking every year, everyone gave me cash. There was a gift bag that had 2 smaller gift bags with bills in them from the parents, and another pretty glass jar stuffed with bills from Brö. While there's a small part of me that missed out on the 'present opening fun' with everyone else, there's a much larger part of me that's glad they didn't go crazy with the buying of things I don't want or need, and that I can just sock this away in an account and save some of it for our Europe trip, and blow some of it on hookers and crack in whatever manner I see fit. I love to shop- it's one of the few ways in which I'm a typical girl, so I'll just send letters of thanks explaining what I bought (unless it's weed or dildoes or what-have-you). And Brö made the money festively difficult to get to by packing the jar with confetti, which I spend a good half-hour patiently shaking out. That was fun, believe it or not.
Mom was thrilled. Elaine seemed to enjoy herself too, which was more of a challenge. And Dad has said several times that it was the best xmas ever. I am not sure what's behind that; he's not one to say such things out of politeness (Mom says it every year), and I don't know that his gift selection was all that spectacular (I did enjoy wrapping his AK-47 magazine in the girliest, frilliest gift bag I could find); I think he's just genuinely happy to be alive. I'm glad of it too.
Brö and I both had to work the next day so we left pretty shortly after that. The drive was again uneventful. We had a brief scare when we came close to running out of gas due to a combination of driving through a lot of nothing and the few gas stations we passed being closed, but we lucked out and made it to Brownwood and got filled up. We were pretty hungry by the time we hit Austin around 5pm and just like last year, found the Bennigan's open. The waiter was a heart-breakingly cute fellow who looked a little like my favorite faun from Narnia, and hub was kind enough to put up with me staring at the poor guy. I decided to fall off the wagon one last time and got fried mushrooms and the perilous Monte Cristo (Smfmd. Wssoinm.) which were delicious. We got home around full-dark and unloaded the car. I tried to talk hub into going to Content's party, thinking it would be nice to have some non-scary interpersonal interactions for once. He was totally peopled out, though, and since he's a level 10 introvert and I'm only a level 8, I felt I ought to respect that and I wasn't feeling up to venturing out on my own this time. So we spent a relaxing evening unwinding.
Yesterday I had to work, which kind of sucked because it means I've only got today to really exhale. But it's cool, I'll get paid extra and it was surprsingly slow. I thought that since it was the Monday after a holiday we'd be swamped, but a lot of folks seemed to have yesterday off (including hub) so they probably assumed we were closed too. Hub and Paul hatched a plot to go shooting after I got off work at 3:30, but we didn't get on the road 'til 4:30 and by the time we arrived the nice man explained to us that when the Sun went down the shooting stopped. Since it was an outdoor range this seemed reasonable, and I had wondered if that might not be the case but Paul said they were open 'til 7. Maybe that's in the summer. So we went to an indoor range in Pflugerville, and we shot at paper targets with pistols. I had a hard time controlling my wincing and flinching reactions... even with earmuffs the guns Paul brought were LOUD. I made a fair account of myself with the .22 pistol, but when I tried to shoot Paul's 9mm (a CZ52, if you're keeping score at home) I thought I was gonna drop the gun and shriek like a girl. I managed to get all eight shots off, but I have no idea if I hit anything. Oh well, I gave it the old college try, as they say.
We dined at Zorba's and then back home. The cats were out of food, totally out, and it was clear that they would try to eat one of us before the next day if they didn't get their kibble stat, so off to the petfüd store. Then back home for more quiet relaxing. Today it's been all about me sitting on my ass and doing LJ things. I thought about yoga but I think I'll just do ye olde exercise bike instead and pick up around the house a bit.
