The Christmas Adventure: In Entiretum!

Whewowwiewowwhachamacallit! That was quite a week, let me tell you! No, let me tell you!

Remember how when you were a kid Christmas break meant baking and sleeping in and lots and lots of presents? Well the latter still applies, I guess, but not the same way. I mean, it's not like we're asking for Suzie Wets-A-Lot dolls and Star Wars action figures anymore... well not all of us

Christmas break began with Andrew and I returning from WSC on Sunday at 11pm with a literal MOUNTAIN of laundry to get through. WARNING: VERY BORING CONTENT FOLLOWS (the joys of being an adult.) This is 5 weeks worth of dirty clothes. Sorting alone took half an hour. We had 8 loads. And one cart. That held 3 loads at a time. 3 loads at a time. By the time I got the 3rd set of loads down, the first was done, and by the time the first was in the dryer the second was done. All in all with folding and sorting etc we were up til 4AM doing laundry. w00t w00t.

The next morning we were supposed to be up at 8... it was more like 9. We got to Andrew's mom's house about an hour later for crepes and kittens! It was a good time, really. Andrew and his... what... step brother? played Guitar Hero (why do boys jizz over that?) while I read and ordered him to "Brrrring me a kitten" once in awhile. Very cute kittens. Sorry, no pics of them. It was very nice to be included by the family in Christmas practices. Some presents they gave to me because they knew Andrew and I would share things. It IS kind of obvious. Like DVDs, some VERY generous gift cards, and LOTS of Chocolate from Belgium.

Here's where I can tell you about Lala. Lala (Nelly, really) is Andrew's Mom's Husband's mother. She has lived in this country for, oh, 40 years and has never learned English. She knows enough now to get by and stuff, but no command over the language at all. As a result, she cannot follow a conversation. We've come to the conclusion that she's been creating her own in her head, and it's always a comic musical. She'll "sing along" to Christmas carols: "da da daaa da da daaaaa hahahahahah!" and dance and laugh at almost anything. She did manage to ask me about my cats, so we had a convo about that. At the end of the day, "at least her world is happy."

Then we were immediately on our way to spend the night at Andrew's Dad's house. Sleep was not on the immediate menu, however, no sir. First we had to help Santa build Spencer (the 10y.o. lil bro) his new 3-in-1 conversion game table. It's actually a really nice table. Pool, rotates to air hockey, stack on a ping pong table... nice shiz. Santa kept us up late, however he mostly let me watch Polar Express which I'd seen parts of, but never in its entirety. Now I have and it is good. Then we passed out. Literally got into our separate beds and I don't remember anything for 5 hours.


Of course, Spencer being 10, we woke up REALLY early. 7? 8? who cares I was yaaaawning. Plus because the rest of the family wasn't coming until 10am, Spencer had to wait to open all of his presents (being 10 it was probably torturous) so we had to try to keep him occupied with the 3-in-1 for a couple of hours. Luckily, that kid will do almost anything Andrew tells him to! So we played pool and air hockey a few times. Then we decided dressing would be a good idea. Clothes: good. Pyjamas: not bad, but not what you want to be wearing when the G-parents show up. The rest of the day went by in increments. Some presents, some food, some presents, some food, some tv, some food, some presents.


Andrew's dad gave me a new digital camera (after I upload the new pics, there will be illustrations to this entry), which is about the sweetest thing ever. Andrew warned me in advance so I wouldn't cry in front of the family. Because I did cry. It's so sweet. And it's a really great camera! Idiot-proof, came with a 1GB memory card, and it's small. Her name is Athena and she's my favorite. I helped where I could with the food. I made a salad and put jelly on plates for the rolls. Lynne (Andrew's stepmom) couldn't stop thanking me. The G-parents, Nennen and Bobo, gave me a set of porcelain warming servers. When I told Lynne that I'd gotten a lot of food stuff, she said, "Well, the pressure's on!"

She couldn't have been more right. After some flat-tire drama at the house (we drove home on a weenie-wheel) we arrived home to find that our friend Matt had called Andrew to ask him an "important question." Thinking it had something to do with a show, Andrew called him back, only to find out that Matt's question was: "hey, will you be an usher in my wedding?" Pause. Our best friends are getting married. We're a PART of a WEDDING for people we're CLOSE TO. AAAAUUAGH! It was actually very sweet how he did it. We all knew he was going to surprise Alie at her house on Christmas Day, and that he was getting her an iPod Nano Video. What we didn't know was that he'd engraved "I have an important question, will you do me the honor of..." then got down on one knee with her great-grandmother's ring and finished the question. Needless to say there were so many happy tears that night!

The next day we had to go to Sears Auto to get the tire fixed before we could go to DE to see my family. We got there AT 10am. We were told 1hour, 1.5 tops. an hour later we were told another hour. We were not out of there until 12:45. The guy was rude and there was nothing to do but get muffins from Giant and make the best of it. We did make a new "friend." Andrew has a habit of doing that. Another guy in a similar situation was waiting with us and chatted with us about his son, marriage, college shennanigans, and gay rights (he's opposed, btw).


We made it to my mommom's house at about 2:45 (we did get a little lost, but that's the beauty of Route 13). We had dinner, we had presents (new clothes and dollar-store gag gifts), we had less-than-awkward conversation! All-in-all not bad. Of course, Brendan's hair was (literally) the highlight of the evening. Afterwards, Andrew and I immediately went to use our Friendly's gift certificates (a Mommom tradition) because there are no Friendly's in DC. It was goooood. Then we drove up to the Dover Target for some tax-free home-shopping. We got some hampers, cleaning stuff, towels, and I got a skirt! Oh adulthood. Then the long drive home...
We sang. It was fun.


We made it. And instead of sleeping in, we got up early (like 10) to go use our giftcards on the things we really wanted. I got me an iHome! And i went on Amazon.com and used the $$ my family gave me to buy all the books and DVDs I wanted. And some more home-stuff like a breadbox and socks. Andrew got us a new DVD player for our room. And it is niiiice. He had to work later, so while he was doing that I cleaned the apartment out. I organized, I moved, I folded, I discarded. Including the poor laundry cart that had actually collapsed when we removed the final load from it for folding. I also went to Giant and got dinner food: a Honey-Rotisserie chicken, caesar salad, and chives for red potatoes. Matt came over for dinner when he and Andrew were done, and I have to admit... I do like hostessing.

Back to work, though, it happens. I got to talk to bothBecca bizzizzle and A$ last night! I haven't talked to either of them in so long. It was the best. Andrea and Erica sent me a poster of a serpent encircling a gryphon... for Harry Potter fanatics. Love it. And we watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Andrew also got a call from Berry. And guess what. He and Julie are engaged! Wtf?!?!? They actually did it before they left for the week, and didn't tell us. "It didn't come up" puh. Now two of our couple friends are engaged! At first I was a bit jealous, but now I'm excited to see how this unfolds. I mean these are two very different couples, so watching them tie the knot will be very educational for us, so we will watch and learn!

I think that's it for Christmas. Stay tuned for New Year's! We're going to a friend of Matt and Alie's and have been told to "bring our drinking boots!"