The Magic of Christmas

Papa and I buried Riker a short while after I woke up. I have a feeling he had been getting weary of this life, so to me it seems he has been released from a cage of sorts. Thank you so much to those who sent their condolences, it means so much.

I broke out a game that we haven't played in ages today. It's called IZZI and it is composed of just 64 tiles with black and white patterns on them, and the object is to arrange them into an 8x8 where black always borders black, and white always borders white. Papa essentially took the day off work, so he and I spent part of the afternoon challenging ourselves to IZZI with various variations. My favorite was the center cross:

[PICTURE TO BE UPLOADED WHEN I'M NOT SLEEPY.]

Mama and Eli came home and we went on a family Christmas shopping trip. So it's only natural, of course, that the first stop was dinner. We went to Chipotle, where they make burritos the size of adult guinea pigs. Delightful.

At the mall, I was reminded how hard Christmas shopping can be. My mom's side of the family (to me, an aunt&uncle + aunt + grandma) lives generally within the same area, and we participate in a secret santa each year. My recipient's list was not too expansive, and I thought I'd be able to find most, if not all of the things I was looking for, given that the mall we went to is probably larger than the town we live in. Even after a bit of prior research though, I only managed to find [CENSORED DUE TO REVELATION OF SECRETS]. Thoroughly disappointed, but not completely bummed, I will have to continue searching this week.

Eli managed to find The Dark Knight at 5Below (score!) so we got to continue from where we left off the other night. (Did I mention we watched Batman Begins? I cannot recall.) Unfortunately, Eli fell asleep halfway through. Or maybe that's fortunate. I mean, I guess I'm gonna HAVE to watch the second half over again. Darn :)

I'm slowly remembering all my household responsibilities. There are so many lights and appliances to turn off. And since it's December, those lights include the Christmas tree. Every night, Mama says, "Don't forget to turn off the magic of Christmas!" because she loves being ironic and making fun of the perfect American family. What a hipster. She always reminds us that we have to behave like muggles so other families don't find out how crazy we are.

Tonight it appears somebody has already turned off the magic of Christmas. Looks like I've been outsourced. Oh well, some poor sucker just played right into my laziness.