Christmas and all that
Dec. 27th, 2008 07:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
floatingleafThe weather is getting crazier by the minute. Last weekend we had snowstorms and Arctic winds, then freezing rain that covered everything in a thin sheet of ice, and now it's (almost) warm rain and distant thunder. Which is, of course, the preferable variety so far - not that it will last. Anyway, the trip downtown last Monday for a holiday dinner with friends was successful - by which I mean to say that no one froze to death, though I'm sure we all felt pretty close to it after just a few minutes spent outside.;) I don't think warm food & hot tea ever felt so blissfully satisfying to me before... lol. Taking a taxi back home instead of the train was really the only option I could handle under the circumstances, extravagant or not. Btw, I did check on my car after I got back, to see if I can open the door (it could have frozen) and if it will start (since I hadn't used it for about three days). It did. The one thing it didn't occur to me to check was whether I can actually get out of my parking spot (some of the tires were deeply imbedded in frozen snow). Which resulted in taking public transportation to work again and being two hours late (the trains & buses are pretty frequent up until 9 a.m., but after that... let's just say I almost froze my feet off waiting to complete the trip). Fortunately, the boss excused this, since I spent all that time trying to get to work - so I didn't have to come in today to make the two hours up. *profound sigh of relief* But that still didn't answer the question of how to get home for Christmas (it's a long trip to my parents' house, and it would have been nearly impossible to manage public transportation with all the stuff I needed to bring with me: bags of laundry, Christmas gifts for everyone etc.). Luckily, it turned out that my brother-in-law has a tow cable - so he came over in his big Jeep on Christmas Eve and towed me out of the mess I had gotten myself into.:) That wasn't the end of trouble, however, since right after that I noticed one of my windshield wipers (the one on the drivers side, of course) wasn't working anymore (but it wasn't snowing at the time, so more good luck to me, lol). I got it fixed today, though - temporarily, I suppose, but that's as much as I could hope for during the holiday season. I wonder what that pathetic ancient pile of junk I call my car has in store for me next (and yes, I'll be driving it until it falls apart on me, since there is no way in hell I can afford a new one at this point).
Christmas itself was nice - as usual, it revolved around the mountains of traditional Christmas food my mother had either made herself or bought at the local Polish store... but I decided to have a guilt-free approach to the whole thing this year and not ponder the calorie question at all; and, strangely enough, I don't seem to have gained any weight (it's still hovering somewhere between 132-134 lbs, as it has been for the past few weeks). Granted, I almost made myself sick with indulgence on Christmas morning, and pretty much couldn't stand the thought of food for the rest of the day.:P See, we usually have this massive Christmas brunch, which is then followed by champagne and cake to celebrate my sister's birthday (yes, she was born on Christmas day). So imagine a full glass of champagne and two/three pieces of cake consumed after assorted snacks like various kinds of ham, bacon & sausage, my mom's delicious potato salad (with LOTS of regular mayo, of course - I don't think she ever heard of a 'light' variety, lol), smoked trout, hard-boiled eggs, pickled herring... well, you get the picture.:D And my stomach really isn't what it used to be. I pretty much knocked myself out and had to take a nap (even though I'd slept eight hours that night, lol). And then borrow some of my dad's antacid tablets.:/ Still, I'm not really feeling guilty - more like relieved that this sort of thing happens only once a year.:P
As for the gifts, I got a surprising amount of really cool and/or useful stuff this time: the Vidalia Slice Wizard, a set of wooden spatulas, a nice watch, a pair of elegant gloves, an assortment of medicinal teas good for the winter season and an amazingly beautiful photo album about Ireland. And my sister, the official Starving Artist, who had no money to spend on gifts this year, painted a lovely little still life just for me (she did one for mom & one for dad as well). I also got two sets of jewellery - earings with a matching necklace - but because I never got my ears pierced (which my parents had forgotten about) and don't really care to do that now, I gave the whole collection to my sister (it was much more in her style than mine, anyway). So then mom said she felt bad about it, and handed me fifty bucks.:D
So this is all my news for now. I have a little ficlet to post which I wrote as a Christmas gift for namarie120 - but I think I'll do that tomorrow. Happy Holiday Season to all still reading at this point.:P
Christmas itself was nice - as usual, it revolved around the mountains of traditional Christmas food my mother had either made herself or bought at the local Polish store... but I decided to have a guilt-free approach to the whole thing this year and not ponder the calorie question at all; and, strangely enough, I don't seem to have gained any weight (it's still hovering somewhere between 132-134 lbs, as it has been for the past few weeks). Granted, I almost made myself sick with indulgence on Christmas morning, and pretty much couldn't stand the thought of food for the rest of the day.:P See, we usually have this massive Christmas brunch, which is then followed by champagne and cake to celebrate my sister's birthday (yes, she was born on Christmas day). So imagine a full glass of champagne and two/three pieces of cake consumed after assorted snacks like various kinds of ham, bacon & sausage, my mom's delicious potato salad (with LOTS of regular mayo, of course - I don't think she ever heard of a 'light' variety, lol), smoked trout, hard-boiled eggs, pickled herring... well, you get the picture.:D And my stomach really isn't what it used to be. I pretty much knocked myself out and had to take a nap (even though I'd slept eight hours that night, lol). And then borrow some of my dad's antacid tablets.:/ Still, I'm not really feeling guilty - more like relieved that this sort of thing happens only once a year.:P
As for the gifts, I got a surprising amount of really cool and/or useful stuff this time: the Vidalia Slice Wizard, a set of wooden spatulas, a nice watch, a pair of elegant gloves, an assortment of medicinal teas good for the winter season and an amazingly beautiful photo album about Ireland. And my sister, the official Starving Artist, who had no money to spend on gifts this year, painted a lovely little still life just for me (she did one for mom & one for dad as well). I also got two sets of jewellery - earings with a matching necklace - but because I never got my ears pierced (which my parents had forgotten about) and don't really care to do that now, I gave the whole collection to my sister (it was much more in her style than mine, anyway). So then mom said she felt bad about it, and handed me fifty bucks.:D
So this is all my news for now. I have a little ficlet to post which I wrote as a Christmas gift for namarie120 - but I think I'll do that tomorrow. Happy Holiday Season to all still reading at this point.:P
