Hello Buffistas! Happy Boxing Day!

I am finally back in my own quiet home, with laundry running and a tired dog asleep at my feet. The holiday was kind of madness, way too much going on, lots of people & cars to coordinate, and my mother freaking out even though she didn't have to do anything but show up.

We had 15 people for dinner last night, and I prepared the turkey, the vegetables, the stuffing, the gravy, and one of the desserts. The nice part of that was I got to skip all the cleanup and instead sit with my feet up and play with my new Kindle Fire(!!).

Today has been much more peaceful, and when my brother & his family left, they hired my niece to clean my house, so it's clean and neat and all I have to do is many loads of laundry.

Happy Birthday, Theo, Rayne, & Jesse!

Sumi, your brother is a poopy-head. Who won't go to the train station to pick up their sister? WTF.

My sister also gave me a nice bottle of Glenlivet, so I have something to look forward to later.

Now, if only this damned sinus infection would go away!

Sumi, your brother is a poopy-head. Who won't go to the train station to pick up their sister? WTF.

Seriously. I meant to say that earlier.

In contrast to those ungrateful people, my 4.5 year old nephew thanked the giver for each and every gift he got before he opened it and after. Despite the fact he had a ton of presents, he was really sincere, every damned time. And it was adorable. 9 year old was too, but was more intent on the opening, giving hugs all around after the fact. OTOH, I got to see the genuine delight at getting an adding machine.

He (youngest) apparently threw a fit when he woke up fully (he was awake when I left but he wakes up slow and surly, much like his aunt) and learned I was gone. Mom is talking about flying the boys and PJ out here for their spring break. I can do that. The cats may never be the same, but...

One of the neatest gifts I got? My dad had panes of glass cut for my porch light. 4 plus a spare. I've been meaning to, but he was the one who figured out how to get it working and had taken the dimensions, and knew I'd only finally get around to it in a gooddamnedwhile, so did an end run. Mom says he's always talking about stuff he wishes he had time to do on my house. That's just so my dad showing his love.

Anyway, good times. Now if I can just manage to miss getting whatever caused my SIL's bronchitis (she got a 'script right away, but still) it'll all be good. I'm fighting some bug, I've got a couple swollen glands, that's all. Ahrg.

Sumi, your brother is a poopy-head. Who won't go to the train station to pick up their sister? WTF.

Seriously, Emmett would pick Matilda up if she was arriving at a train station in Moscow, and he was in San Francisco. He'd be there!

I just got a used wii fit and balance board with Christmas money, both for like $30. WHEE!

Now, if only this damned sinus infection would go away!

Aiieeee - I hope you kill it off fast Consuela! Signed, sinuses feel slightly better, but still in kill-it-with-fire mode.

DH has unboxed Skyrim. I can talk to him and he doesn't hear me at all.

Wow, not mine. One would laugh and then accuse me of one or more of several things that she made up and tells herself so often that she's decided they are true, like I caused a friend of hers to have nightmares, or created a fraught and humiliating experience by offering to donate a large gift certificate towards a family dinner at a Sausalito white-tablecloth restaurant (wtf,exactly). Lately she's been accusing me of causing her son to have mental illness breakdowns. The other sister would remind me that she can't possibly do anything that requires her to get out of her pajamas before noon (she has, on several occasions, refused to take me to either the airport or the airporter when I needed help getting there. Thankfully, I have terrific neighbors.) The brother, who lives a safe 3,200 miles away, would say, well at root, we all love one another. This is why I choose to have a quiet non-Christmas at home, and to make a few donations that I know are appreciated and used well instead of giving gifts with my family.

Happy birthday, Theo, Jesse & Rayne!

Cool, P-C!

God bless the ungrateful: [link]

Wow. Just... wow.

I just got a used wii fit and balance board with Christmas money, both for like $30. WHEE!

Oooh, I should look for something like that!

My brother and SIL would drop anything for me, and vice-versa. Hell, my SIL has said that if she ever divorces my brother (when he's REALLY pissed her off,) she's keeping us (and we've informed her she'd never be able to shake us off, either.) She and I jokingly fight over who gets my parents should they need to move elsewhere and need care.

We're lucky, and I know it. She's pretty much estranged from her own parents and brother due to...I don't know, she still calls every week and her mom won't answer, sends the boys' school pictures and chatty updates, even though her heart isn't in it. But she will make the effort so that her kids will know she at least tried. He mother has met Tyler once, when PJ took the boys up there last summer. Her mother barely even addressed him when PJ met them for dinner with her uncle. Dominic used to spend a couple weeks every summer and now that he's 9, he's digesting that betrayal, even as they have never said anything bad about her parents to him. But that Grammy has abandoned him, and he gets that. It's fucking awful. Everything I've seen, including a poison-pen letter her own mother wrote her last year, make me think there are serious mental issues or immaturity at work (she still is connected with broader family, living grandparents and aunts and uncles. They don't get it either.)

But goddamned, they have us.