Sunday, November 30, 2008

Christmastime-ish.

So, tomorrow is December 1st, which is the unofficial start of the holiday season. According to some people, including me. We put up the (fake!) tree and all that today. It takes forever to assemble all those fake branches, and each one has ten-ish little spokes of needles that you have to fluff up. We almost have too many ornaments... there was probably one on every single branch. The living room is gorgeous though, we have accumulated a great number of candles and snowglobes and such due to the fact that my mom teaches first graders whose moms are big on gift-giving. Every year brings a new load of gifty junk, and holiday candy that we gobble down eagerly. (We being my dad, sister, and I, not my WeightWatcher mother.)(Who is also a cheapo because a lot of the stuff gets regifted.)
My mom bought advent calenders back at the beginning of November from Trader Joe's. These ones have obnoxious, unrealistic cartoon drawings decorating them, and I'm sure the chocolates will be as nasty and chalk-like as ever, but for some reason we keep buying them. They are just so fun. I saw one at the World Market (<333) except it was a whole HOUSE! Which, um, is kinda stupid because it's basically just the same thing excepting the fact that it takes up more space... *sucks in deep breath* ... but it's a HOUSE!! I wonder if we will ever get around to making a gingerbread house this year. We keep seeing the kits in stores, every year, but every year, we keep saying we will wait until Christmas is closer, and every year, we never do make that gingerbread house. I remember when we got to make them in school, in second grade. Good times, gooooood times.
Hey, this is random, but does anybody remember Shiv Gettu? Tall guy? (I remember he was sitting across from me while I made my gingerbread house in second grade, so that's why he's getting brought up.) Anyway, back when I had a Facebook, I was chatting with him... and I said I hadn't been seeing him around... and he told me that he had moved to India! Jeez nuggets! I did not know that. I guess it's not a big deal, but it's weird how everybody I know is moving a w a y. . . .
Back to Christmas, I found out my dad is Ebenezer freakin' Scrooge. It's a complicated explanation, but my dad accidentally forwarded me an e-mail that he had sent to my uncle. (That's not exactly how it happened but oh well.) He was talking about our successful Thanksgiving and brought up how now there was Christmas "to deal with" and how he wished he could "fast-forward to January." Then I cried a little bit from guilt because he said on New Year's he was going to hope 2009 brought better luck for our family. And how that was exactly what he said last New Year's, but it didn't work out because 2008 was a "dud." I think he meant about how we lost all our money this year, and now we're broke just in time for Christmas. I don't know if I've told you about what I call the "Happy News," but now it isn't so happy. I should call it the Guilty News, because what it is will cost us a lot. It will cost us money that we can't spare... It's hard to explain without telling you what it is, but I can't

until March.