Christmas

Vacation is going by way too quickly. I've spent about 80% of this break socializing like a chipmunk storing food in preparation for the winter season. I'm signed up for 16 credit hours next semester, plus 2 extra credits for a research methods course required for the McNair Scholarship program I'm in. This is a great time to have school break though, seeing as it coincides with out-of-town friends pooling in to the fine state of Utah for the holidays.

Christmas has been so much fun. Throughout the month my grandparents snuck by our place to drop off soup and rolls and whatnot all ninja style. Which were super delicious and very sweet of them. Then, on the eve o' xmas a couple of little presents were opened between my parents and me. My dad unwrapped his gift to discover a box of crackers and my mom unwrapped her gift to discover a vegan "cheese" ball to dip said crackers in. Mmm!

Then, as per family tradition, we nibbled on the above mentioned deliciousness while watching a Christmas film together. This year we chose Christmas Evil (also known as You Better Watch Out and Terror in Toyland), which is a 1980 slasher film where I learned that nothing beats watching Santa Claus get chased down by a torch-wielding mob or paint a sled on a creeper van full of toys to get around in. John Waters calls it the "greatest Christmas movie ever made." It predates the horror film Silent Night, Deadly Night, which up until just this December I thought was the earliest Santa slasher film. Eh, wrong.

It was such a pleasant surprise. I expected the usual crazed Santa slash em' up, but this was a lot more bizarre and entertaining. Fiona Apple's dad plays the father. That explains a lot.

The next morning I woke to loud festive Christmas music pounding through our household, the fake tree all lit up, and my dad cuddling my mom. I made them coffee, my brother arrived, and then we took our sweet time unwrapping gifts. The most enthusiastic member of the family was Gany (our pup), who had two presents to unwrap - a little snowman made of three white tennis balls and some biscuit caps for a chew toy of his. He was just like a little kid shredding the wrapping off and flipping out about how exciting it was. And he had a little bit of a hard time abstaining from helping everyone else unwrap gifts that weren't his due to how freaking fun it was:

I got a pack of much-needed socks. Living here with my parents, there's what I refer to as the "mother vortex". I have no idea where this vortex is located or how it works - all I know is is that, once items enter, they never re-emerge. I also received some Planet Bike bicycle lights, which are the brightest and most blinkiest of them all! Also a super insanely soft grizzly bear blanket AND, most importantly, a modernized Glow Worm.



Remember these?

I do. My brother and I spent hours hiding under our beds with these awful things. And both received modernized versions this year:

Seriously. ... which also explains a lot. I actually like it. And not-so-secretly it's on my bed. I played it last night (it glows and plays bed time songs, one of which is the "Hush little baby" song from Evil Dead 2! Which is how I remember it, anyway) as I fell asleep. Throughout the night, my cats stepped on the Glow Worm a million + 1 times and it played a million + 1 bed time songs. Thanks, cats.

And thanks to my friends and family, too, for always being so wonderful, giving, thoughtful, supportive and generous - all year 'round.