Christmas Recap

It was a good Christmas. A busy Christmas, but a good Christmas. This was maybe my first one where I had to be a grown-up, rather than just sitting back and letting my parents do their thing.

Christmas dinner turned out just fine, despite my worries. The real surprise was the complete role-reversal of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. It was my brother and I who waited patiently for our parents to go to bed and fall asleep so that we could set up their gifts. We got them a PVR (personal video recorder) that works like a DVR, but does oh-so-much more, including internet access and video archiving, all through the TV, using a remote. While I'd chipped in for the cost of the materials, it was my brother, Scott, who spent weeks putting everything together and making it all work, which turned out to be very, very challenging. And then when it came time to hook everything up to the big TV in the living room, of course, things did not go smoothly, and we were up until 2 am. I was pretty much there just for the moral support - though, I don't know how effective my "support" was, as I kept asking every five minutes if I could just go to bed already.

In the morning, my parents (who no longer sleep late) were up by 6:30, and had woken me up by 7 with their morning routine. I, of course, then proceeded to wake up Scott. Fair is fair.

As it does every year, the gifts were more than any of us should have spent, but all were so appreciated that no one regrets the cost in money and time. I finally gave my mum her Clapotis, and dad his log cabin blanket. The Clapotis is in mercerized cotton, and the blanket is in plain-Jane acrylics, all the better for washing.

I got some kitchen appliances from Santa - I always seem to get small appliances. I think Santa thinks I have a big kitchen. But now I get to replace my crusty, ten year old toaster oven (love the toaster oven), which is only a good thing. My brother got me a very cool printer, that even prints onto CDs and DVDs. In return, my brother got a whole lot of kitchen stuff for his (as yet theoretical) new apartment.

Other stuff happened during my break, but I kind of feel like I'm still recovering - more stories to come.