I’m so tired! I got home just before 1 a.m. from D’s parents house on the 24th, and Dad decided to wake me up at just before six the morning of Christmas, barraging into my room being all hyper, “Wake up! Wake up!” then I was over at D’s again in the afternoon and came home about eleven-thirty. I slept until about nine this morning and have been out shopping with the parents, but I fell asleep in the car going between various spots.

But the actual holiday was cool, D’s brother and nephew were down so we got to spend time with them. D’s brother (his name also begins with D >_< so it's tricky) is cool, but his son can be a bit...spoiled?

It was weirder still being called "aunt" too. My sister and brother don't have children so I've never experienced that. D's brother wrote in the card he gave me "welcome to the family, sister" which was very touching, and they also had a stocking out for me there with my name sewed on it when I came back on Christmas afternoon.

Family:
From Mum and Dad: Two cookbooks I had asked for. "The Chocolate Cake Doctor" and "The Dinner Doctor". (They show you how to combine mixes and food items you have around the house into spiffy meals in thirty minutes, very handy when you're not a Makoto in the kitchen ^_^), money
From Mari-mom and Dad: Walmart giftcard, 2005 calendar. (I apparently also have a "Hot Topic" gift card on the way but it didn't arrive in time).
From D's brother and nephew: Hot Topic gift card.
From D: Silent Hill 4 (aaaaaaagh!!!!), Piper's dark chocolate selection (MMMMmmmm, I will now eat all the box and play SH4 O.o), Chibi-Vader and Chibi-Obi-Wan who he had taped to the SH4 box posed as though they were battling ^_^ I have been tormenting Neko-Ani with them.
From my sister and brother-in-law: Shower curtain (off registry).

From stocking: assorted mini-candy bars, candle set, bill planner, hair ties.

Friends:
From Scott: Cadbury cookies (woohoo!)
From K: Aforementioned Chinese tea set (which I got at the wedding shower because it matched the wedding shower gift).
From Naru: Blue moon scented bath accessories
From Patti: Cookies (which have all been eaten already…like a day and a half after I got them, hehe), two books, and more Myu on it ^_^
From ‘nii-chan: Sword cane, heamatite ankh necklace
From Shuan: Gundam Seed VCDs, Kiddy Phenil action figure (this is what he said I would kill him for, because of inside joke, but they also gave me figurine paint and a paint brush so I can fix her hair, LOL).

Co-workers:
Gift exchange: Tin with mints and mint chocolates in it, Walmart giftcard.
Boss: Alarm clock, Walmart giftcard, death by chocolate brownies
Elle: AMC giftcard
Miss Cheryl: Orchid scented bath accessories, Jasmine rice
Miss Leah: “Beautiful” body spray
Miss Carol: A very pretty blue box with asian design on it containing a candy cane which had a homemade cap; on it so it looked like a snowman and a silver sports car (a joke because she asked what she could get me as a thank you for helping her out with school and I jokingly said “a car”).
Lo: Christmas candle.

What I’ve bought so far with giftcards and money:
*Underworld (extended unrated)
*Headset/microphone for computer
*A zany patterned shirt and blue off the shoulder sweater from Target’s sale rack. (In a bizarre twist I bought nothing black, and Obi-Mom bought a black shirt, and skirt.)

All in all it was a good holiday. Mum, Dad and I had some time together (although I could have done without being woken up at six!!). I spent some time with D’s family and am feeling more comfortable with them, even though his nephew was seriously weirding me out. He seems to have gone through a severe personality shift since last time, but he is a thirteen now, the hormones are probably starting to go whacky. The shirt I got from Hot Topic while we were shopping is cooler than I thought (I didn’t realize it had the sleeves like that I thought they were just normal), and everyone really liked it. I was pleasantly suprised Dad didn’t have a cow about it. So, that was cool.
D’s brother has a great sense of humor and is a very neat person to be around. He’s quite a bit older than D, and brought some pictures with him of what D looked like when he was little *L* so that was fun to see. He tactfully brought them out just as D was leaving for work ^_~ then over dinner we got into a conversation about all the “weird”; foods we’ve ever tried, like haggis, sushi, black pudding, tongue and so on. Then while we all watched “Creature of the Black Lagoon” I got to hear lots of funny and embarrassing family stories, mostly about Mari-Mom locking D’s Dad out of the house and car because of horror films.

Plus I was so happy that everyone seemed to like the presents they got from us. I had been particularly worried about what we had bought for Scott (crossbow), but he was hugging it the whole night (or would have been if we weren’t trying to play a game of D&D). So, that was a relief.