The Relazening

12/25
CLASSIC ELI... He jumps on the foot of my bed Christmas morning at 7 and shouts, "CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS!!" I think he's been doing that for three years now. At least.

We opened up a few nuclear family presents, then packed up and hopped in the car. This was the first major road trip in the Infiniti, and the previous owner put in a Bose sound system for crying out loud. It's pretty great and we're very lucky and thankful to have it, so naturally Mama used the "I plan on reading for this car ride. And can't we just talk?" excuse. I decided to choose only one of those options, and since out loud music was out of the question, I busted out my noisecancellingishbutnotreally headphones and went under for the majority of the ride.

We got to Aunt Gretchen and Uncle Tom's house and Lela (my maternal grandmother) and Aunt Molly were already there. We unwrapped the presents from the Secret Santa, and then had dinner with special guest, Heidi (Gretchen and Tom's neighbor).

Later on, we broke out the games. Rummikub and Bananagrams, two family favorites, made an appearance, as well as The Simpsons Clue. (I was Bart, naturally.) Unfortunately, I didn't know how to declare victory, so in my infinite wisdom, I asked how right after I had stated what I believed to be, and what ended up being, the final combination. Molly snagged the win, that little cheater.

12/26
We woke up the next morning to more games. Copious snacking occurred, because all the snacks and leftover hors d'oeuvres were right in front of us. At about 5, after a dayful of lazing about, we finally got in the car for the trip home, this time bringing Molly with us.

Remember that really crowded place you went to that one time? Well the rest stop at which we rested and stopped was even more crowded than that. And apparently, Sbarro has this new thing where, if you want your pizza to go, they give it to you on a plate, and then you get a box at the drink station. Maximum codswallop achieved. Shoulda just gone to Roy Rogers... got me some fixins... The drinks from Sbarro, of course, caused three of us to require a brief stopover at he airport, because that was pretty much the only feasible place.

On the way through our town, we took the most scenic route possible (seriously, we drove down like half streets) in order to see everybody's Christmas lights.

12/27
Today began the redeeming of redeemable gifts. It started out easy. I just plugged in a flash drive given to me by Molly and downloaded dat music. I further augmented my library after redeeming an iTunes gift certificate and now I have enough trance music to last for approximately all time.

We then went thrift hopping. My gift to Eli was $40 worth of stuff from any thrift store(s), and he went crazy with it. He loves searching for used electronics, and he has recently come into possession of a couple of gigantic speakers, in addition to a couple of fly shirts. I managed to find a pretty sweet coat for myself, which I desperately need. Winters for me are going to be a lot colder than I'm used to from now on. Nothing in my life has prepared me for this. Except, you know, snow. And now that I think of it, we could really use some. It's just been cold and dry and desolate and that needs to change.

Due to the unfortunate weather, I've been staying inside a lot, catching up on much-desired-probably-not-needed vedging time. Thank goodness I jotted down what I did on Christmas and Boxing Day, because my brain was just wiped clean by about twelve episodes of Malcolm in the Middle. Netflix instant play, don't ever change.