Sunday, December 28, 2003

I got my Christmas shopping done in the nick of time, as always. I got dad a bull-shaped corkscrew (but dammit, I forgot about the photo album he asked for, didn’t I… I’ll just have to remember it for his birthday) and a Christmas tie, I got Zoë a – well, I ordered Zoë a purse she wanted, and I got mom a Clive Cussler book in addition to the blender I chipped in on. As for me, I got the X-Men 2 DVD I asked for, some more clothes, and some cash and gift certificates.

We spent Christmas at Laurie’s with her and the twins and Mops, Marc and Susan and Kady, Leigh, Kenny, and Sky, and their new Jack Russell terrier. The puppies were hilarious to us, but Mops didn't like them so much.

(Sorry, a relationship guide: Laurie is my dad's older sister, and her twin daughters are seniors in high school, just like Zoë. Mops is their old dog, who is some kind of lapdog. Marc is my dad's older brother and Susan is his wife. Kady is their new dog, a bichon frisé just four months or so old. Leigh is... er, I'm not sure exactly how she's related to me. She's my dad's cousin once removed, or my dad's step-cousin, or something. But whatever she is to me, Kenny is her husband and Sky is her son, a senior like the three girls. And they too have a new puppy dog, just a couple months old.)

Dinner had a Mexican theme. I don't know why they - we, I should say - do that. Maybe it's just yet another way my dad's family is so liberal and non-traditional. For me cooking is just a way of giving food flavor rather than being a hobby or a fun challenge, so if they change the nationality theme every year then I don't get it. But it's success record doesn't seem that great, though of course I'm only going by my immediate family. My mom didn't like the dinner this year. Heh... when I was a kid, I remember being criticized all the time for being a finicky eater. But after a year of not-bad-at-all-just-very-different French food, it seems things have reversed completely.

This afternoon we all went down to Burlington for a little shopping to spend some gift certificates. The shopping went well. I got a book, a graphic novel, and a cheap computer game. Dinner was at Perry’s or whatever that seafood restaurant was called. It could have been better, but then again it’s hardly fair to compare it to Capt. John’s, and at least there wasn’t an hour wait like there would have been at the Olive Garden. Then Zoë went to meet some friends at the Return of the King. I tried to join them because the movie was so good that I wanted to see it again, but there was a mix-up on who was driving, and I had chosen the wrong night to be optimistic… to make a long story short, there was no room for me in the truck they were going home in. So mom and dad came all the way back to Burlington and got me. Yeah - stupid of me.

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