Unwrapped

Ah, XMAS. It's over. This one is in the can and no one seems to have been hurt by the making of it. This is quite a feat for my family. Usually a fight or two develops that forces us all to choose sides or at the very least belittle the participant on the opposite side of ours to death. Not this year. Apparently my brothers sat down my stepfather the eve before the eve and put some sense in his ear. Flashback: this past Thanksgiving a fist fight almost broke out between my stepfather and his younger sister, my aunt. This was five minutes into the holiday dinner. I think everyone was bracing for a repeat performance...

Alas, no such luck. Everyone behaved themselves almost to the point of boredom. At various points, I was on the verge of throwing a fit just to spice things up a bit. My family has a nasty habit of not telling me what the plans for the holiday are and this year I was shocked to find out on XMAS Eve that we were not having dinner at my Grandmother's house on XMAS Day which is customary. Instead we were eating the XMAS meal at my stepfather's wife's sister's house. Now of course, my Grandmother played on the fact that I'm out of the loop and threw in her offer to eat at her house on XMAS morning more or less to try and piss off my stepfather's wife. Considering that both parties didn't decide to call me ahead of time and invite me anywhere, I was tempted to just not go anywhere and head home to eat tuna from a can by myself. But then I realized that this behavior isn't new, I haven't been invited anywhere from my family in so long that it has become "the way."

XMAS Eve was the pollyanna unveiling amongst my siblings. Everyone agreed this year that we MUST go back to picking names from a hat around Thanksgiving because the "grab bag" method just blows. Nobody understands the rules and some of the gifts were geared too much toward a particular gender which is no one's fault. In any case, I escaped with a Best Buy card for $50....and put forth a Target card for the same that Brother Mike swallowed up. The rest of the night consisted of seeing old faces from the neighborhood that pop in this one time a year to visit and a quick stop over at my roommate's parent's house down the block.

XMAS morning is was low key. I arrived late enough to miss the little kids tearing apart their presents. (I have a sister that is 2 and Brother Mike who lives at the old childhood home has that little stud Mikey.) But made it in time to take part in the feast we call breakfast. I got to open my gifts and then we watched Elf before dinner at the aforementioned stepfather's wife's sister's house. I love Elf as the new staple of XMAS. Move over A Christmas Story...

Dinner was brief, we rolled out as soon as our plates were empty to make an appearance at Granny's house before we hit up a movie at the suburbian multiplex. Our selection this year was Spanglish which is a great movie for a 13 year old girl. I'm not saying it was bad, but it was like Stella or My Girl....a mixture of comedy, drama and pre-teen subplots that are just hard for me to relate to. Paz Vega was hot, Tea Leoni was good as a bitch and Adam Sandler proved he can act in something that doesn't require a baby voice. It was a compromise since my sisters (3 of them between 19-20) just don't get Wes Anderson. I have no choice but to check out Life Aquatic over the next 3 days while I'm off from work. The important thing was that we made it to the movie this holiday...our tradition is back on track.

A recap of my XMAS gifts:

1. $190 cash
2. $100 to Best Buy
3. King of Queens Season 1 on DVD
4. $50 to Regal Cinema
5. 2 Shirts and a watch
6. $50 to Best Buy
7. David Sedaris' latest book
8. Eternal Sunshine on DVD
9. A Wine Tasting Guide
10. Discovered Covered by the Late Great Daniel Johnston
11. $25 to AMC Cinema
12. Wilco: A Ghost is Born
13. Elvis Costello: Almost Blue Enhanced CD

I'm sure there will be some more gifts trickling in over the next couple days. But I'm pretty satisfied with my lot. Giving is the fun part, getting them is gravy in my opinion.

Oh well. It's time to do something for me today. I'm done with the family shenanigans for now. I need to relax, unwind and visit with some folks. And do wash. Lots of laundry to do. XMAS is over.