Merry, merry all.

Just spent an interesting evening at my father's. My father's third wife's sister's husband is creepy and they have an equally creepy son. I had thought I was the only one to find them creepy, but apparently C picked up on the vibe and confirmed my suspicions.

Otherwise there was ok food and good conversation (with creepy dudes just staring and not talking).

K-bug (who is 4 days post-wisdom teeth extraction) looks like she has gone 10 rounds with Tanya Harding...and only one person asked what happened. It makes me wonder what the others THOUGHT. I mean, she has two black eyes, with swollen and bruised checks. The color range of her bruises is truly impressive.

Anyway - I hope everyone survives their families and has a wonderful 25th.

Awww, poor K-bug. Hope she heals up quick.

So me and JZ and Emmett and EM hosted JZ's Dad and his girlfriend, and close friends of EM (a family of three, including a daughter Emmett's age). Lotta people scrunched around the kitchen table, but we made it work. The only glitch was forgetting to put JZ's lobster pot pie in the oven until we were serving the beef stew. But the happy ending to that story is still lobster, so not that bad.

Emmett was bouncing off the freaking walls, and ready for it to be morning already. Everything's wrapped. I finally got him to bed. EM is asleep on the couch, JZ is crashed in bed and I'll be following soon.

Tomorrow morning: presents, coffee, bacon, Mimosas and two huge garbage bags of wrapping paper.

Then we go see JZ's Mom's side of the family.

Boxing Day, godfamily.

Day after that? Kong!

Merry Christmas, Buffistas. Sleep tight.

Except for Drew. You sober up, drive home and then sleep tight.

I'm back at the homestead now. Only actually had two beers.

I'm now eating a grilled cheese sandwich and thinking that I might check to see what's on TV. Mom's watching the Pope's Xmas mass on TV in the other room.

From our normally grand vista, we can see our block, and fog. All Los Angeles is mere rumor.

MERRY CHRISTMAS BITCHES!!!!

We (Mum, Dad & me) celebrated our Christmas dinner yesterday evening; today we go to visit my grandmother (who has refused flatly to leave her house for Christmas day) and take her turkey and suchlike, and then to the 97 year old neighbour's to take her turkey and suchlike. And I guess we open presents at some point.

I am feeling all pleased with myself because I started the day off by swimming 100 lengths of the pool, then had a lovely warm bubble bath, utilising Lush products such as Sonic Death Monkey, Almond Coconut Smoothie and Coolia...Cooliana...Coo...that yummy Coconut Conditioner. And then had a delicious healthy breakfast (having had the foresight to go and buy Special K w/red berries yesterday).

If my sister's scales are to be believed (and I do remain cynical, as they are Not My Normal Scales), I have now lost more than 25lb.

Bloody well done me!!!

(It should perhaps be mentioned at this juncture, lest anyone imagine for a moment that I am now sylphlike, that this simply means I'm now the same size I was when I went to the F2F in LA.)

And a fine size it was, too. Don't let Fay fool you, folks, she's a stunner.

Happy Christmas, luv. And the rest of you, too.

Emmett was bouncing off the freaking walls, and ready for it to be morning already

I love this part of Christmas. Our Christmas this year is lacking children and it's noticeable.

I feel like I've sort of lost the Christmas spirit, but I don't want to talk trash about the in-laws in public. They have wonderful qualities, particularly my FIL, but Christmas is about different things here, as in, not what Joe and I are used to.

I have no problem talking trash about my family christmas. Especially given that it is before 9AM and I am awake, because we have to go to Mass (which starts at 10AM, and is half an hour away). Stupid "reason for the season" and all that. HARUMPH, I say.

Also bitter because instead of yummy Christmas dinner last night (we always do our celebrating on Christmas Eve), my mom decided we would do a Trader Joe's Christmas. Which *could've* been yummy, but...there were two cheeses, crackers, grapes, pineapple, bruschetta, and mushroom turnovers. I don't eat mushrooms. She knew that. I was less than enthused by the selection, lemme tell ya.

Not to mention that she's given up buying gifts for me--she literally gave me things she wanted me to give back to her (which I did). (Well, and some cash. So it's a little easier to roll my eyes at the rest)

I'm thinking next year I may need to just be elsewhere. Maybe I can get my sister and BIL to join me somewhere else. But then my brother would want to come. And that would be kinda mean to my parents, don'tcha think?

Awesome, Fay! 25 pounds is a great start. The best thing about it is, as you said, the fitness that comes with the weight loss. It's amazing how much more energy you have with just a few pounds lost. And 100 laps of the pool? Damn, girl, you're really fit to be doing that.

Karl! Lovely to see you here. All the joys of the season to you! Hugs and kisses, too.

meara, even if your parents do want to come along, at least you have the ability at that point to do it on your terms. Have the food you want, establish rules for gift giving, tell them to go to church before they come over so you can indulge in a lie in, etc. It makes it much more tolerable, then.

Merry Christmas!

Karl! So good to see you here. Long time. tacklehug How's it going with you and yours?

We did Christmas Eve with my family and got home about 1am. I did some cooking, cleaning, laundry, and santa clausing until about 3am. Bobby was up at 4:30 and they have been in and out since then. I didn't get out of bed until about 8, but not a whole lot of sleep was had.

There are many presents, the smell of yummy food, and peace and quiet at the moment. Today will be cleaning and packing and entertaining. Coffee is good.

Have a wonderful day Bitches.