Christmas 2013, is summary.
Dec. 28th, 2013 01:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaI went down to Corvallis over Christmas (Dee decided to go up to see her family immediately after Christmas, so it was lovely no-stress scheduling), and it was okay, I guess. Every few Christmases, the holiday comes during a depressive episode and I just want to wish the whole thing away because I lack the spirit to begin with and all the holiday responsibilities and events serve to exacerbate my mental state; at least once I've effectively defaulted on Christmas, even failing to buy gifts. This would have been one of those years, there but for the grace of Devon—he saw it coming, and so he researched wishlists and gifts and made it stupidly easy for me to pick presents for others. And everyone loved them! and that surprised me. Buying for my family is hard; my parents have a lot of art in the house and I've had good luck getting new pieces for their collection, but that grows predictable year after year; my sister and I have radically different tastes, and I never know what on her wishlist reads as "something you actually really want but may still have sentimental value." Considering where I started, with a deep unwillingness to do anything and an utter dearth of Christmas spirit, coming out the other side having given successful gifts feels awesome.
I gave:
To my mother, a blown-glass bird ornament and The Petit Nicolas (she's been learning French)
To my father, a one year subscription to Strava (tracks, maps, and charts bike routes and speeds)
To my sister, a cover/case for her cell-phone
To Dee, a one year subscription to Playstation Plus (she's been subscribing for a few months now and has been using it a lot)
(and to Express, a size changer and silly hat for one of his TERA characters)
I received:
From Devon, a new monitor! My old one wasn't quite failing but it was old; this one is made for gaming, and has a fantastic UI, and is just a tiny bit larger.
From my parents, money (it will probably go to books), armwarmers, The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two, Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology, chocolate, and a glass serving board
From my sister, a cashmere scarf
From Devon's family, money and a beautiful chocolate brown viscose scarf
As always, I record this stuff because my memory is horrible and they're things I don't want to forget.
My father's birthday was December 21st, so we did a family dinner in and a family dinner out, and I went to the house to decorate the family tree, and then decorated Devon's grandparents's tree; Christmas Eve was blessedly quiet, but I went to both Devon's grandparents's family Christmas (a dozen people were there) and had traditional Christmas homemade pizza dinner with my family; Devon and I drove up to Portland on boxing day so that he could transport and set up the new monitor and Dee could leave to see her family the next day. In other words: exhausted, utterly exhausted, and while there were highlights and the homemade pizza continues to be the best pizza, I am mostly just exhausted. And exhausted.
But the days have been silver gray and heavily fogged; skeleton trees against cashmere skies; cold weather, scarf and overcoat weather, hot coffee weather; distinctly winter.
I gave:
To my mother, a blown-glass bird ornament and The Petit Nicolas (she's been learning French)
To my father, a one year subscription to Strava (tracks, maps, and charts bike routes and speeds)
To my sister, a cover/case for her cell-phone
To Dee, a one year subscription to Playstation Plus (she's been subscribing for a few months now and has been using it a lot)
(and to Express, a size changer and silly hat for one of his TERA characters)
I received:
From Devon, a new monitor! My old one wasn't quite failing but it was old; this one is made for gaming, and has a fantastic UI, and is just a tiny bit larger.
From my parents, money (it will probably go to books), armwarmers, The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two, Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology, chocolate, and a glass serving board
From my sister, a cashmere scarf
From Devon's family, money and a beautiful chocolate brown viscose scarf
As always, I record this stuff because my memory is horrible and they're things I don't want to forget.
My father's birthday was December 21st, so we did a family dinner in and a family dinner out, and I went to the house to decorate the family tree, and then decorated Devon's grandparents's tree; Christmas Eve was blessedly quiet, but I went to both Devon's grandparents's family Christmas (a dozen people were there) and had traditional Christmas homemade pizza dinner with my family; Devon and I drove up to Portland on boxing day so that he could transport and set up the new monitor and Dee could leave to see her family the next day. In other words: exhausted, utterly exhausted, and while there were highlights and the homemade pizza continues to be the best pizza, I am mostly just exhausted. And exhausted.
But the days have been silver gray and heavily fogged; skeleton trees against cashmere skies; cold weather, scarf and overcoat weather, hot coffee weather; distinctly winter.
