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random update
Dec. 25th, 2001 06:55 amWell, I can't sleep so I figured I'd update my journal.
The holidays are in full gear for M. and me. On Friday we drove in to the Central Valley (yuck) for an early Christmas celebration with my parents, their neighbors, my sister, and her boyfriend. We didn't get out of town as early as I would have liked and subsequently hit hellatious traffic and the typically 1 hr 45 min drive took just over 3 hours--Bleah!! I was quite tense by the time we arrived. Anyhow, we had a nice dinner with the family sans dad (he was at work until 10ish), though the neighbor kids were mighty wired it being Christmas and all. The neighbors gave M. and me some nice personalized ornaments and some yummy smelling candles. My sister was rather sick and M. and I were still wiped-out from our illnesses, but we still had fun. I got to meet my sister's boyfriend for the first time and he seemed rather nice. When dad got home we hung out and M. and I introduced him to the Comedy Central show, Insomniac and he really enjoyed it. My parents' dogs were fairly well-behaved most the evening, and their poodle, Chloe, looks absolutely darling in her new red jacket. She recently had to have her fur shaved very short and she gets cold quite easily (being 8 lbs and all) so my mom bought her a jacket. It is too cute!
Saturday morning we did our family "Christmas morning". M. and I are rather broke this year so I made my family gifts which they really liked. For my sister I framed three pictures I had taken of her with one of her giraffes (she is a zookeeper). I had intentionally not shown her the photos before as I had intended to use them for gifts at some point and the result was that she was very suprised when she saw them. Upon opening her gift she looked shocked and asked "Where did you get these pictures?" (I had taken them and she had forgotten that). She really liked her gift, especially since she has no other pictures of her with her giraffes.
For my parents I came up with a very creative gift, if I do say so myself. I bought one of those photo flip albums which have little frames on the front so they can act as a display for the front picture. I got one which was dual-sided with a frame thingy on either side of the stand, and photo-pages underneath each frame. I then enlarged two of my favorite pictures of me with my parents--one is of me and mom, the other me and dad, both from when I was about 2 years old. On each picture I overlaid the text "Memories of Mom/Dad". I then put each picture in one of the "frames". Then I typed up some of my favorite memories of my mom and dad, mostly from my childhood. I used different fonts to convey different moods. I printed them out on colored paper and cut them out with craft scissors (the kind that make cool edges) into varying shapes. I put each memory in its own photo-page and I filled the album--each parent had 18 different memories. The resulting product looked very cool and I liked the memories I used. My parents loved the gift and they had even forgotten some of the things I wrote about. So, my gifts were a hit.
My parents got M. and me some really nice gifts. They got me a bunch of new sweaters and blouses which are all really nice and which I sorely needed. My sister got me a cool burgandy fishnet shirt from Hot Topic--Yay!!---It even has sparkly stuff on it :-) After we did our presents we went out to lunch and hung out and then we made the trek back home.
M. and I slept most of Sunday as we are still recovering from our respective illnesses. Sunday evening we finished shopping for my extended family's gift exchange today and for M.'s parents. I still haven't made M. and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eeyore74's gifts, so they will get them a couple of days after Christmas. I have been far too wiped out the past couple of days to do much :-(.
We were supposed to go back to my parents' for Christmas Eve, but M.'s parents called yesterday morning to tell us that M.'s dad was too sick from the radiation to go to my grandparents' on Christmas day as they had planned. So, we ended up going to their house last night instead of to my parents'. It was OK, if a bit strained for a variety of reasons. Today M. and I are going to my grandparents' for the extended family Christmas, then toeeyore74's afterwards. I feel bad I do not have eeyore74's and M.'s gifts ready but this illness has really kicked me in the butt!!
Ah well....I am very hungry now so I should get myself a snack--maybe then I will be able to sleep for a few more hours.
The holidays are in full gear for M. and me. On Friday we drove in to the Central Valley (yuck) for an early Christmas celebration with my parents, their neighbors, my sister, and her boyfriend. We didn't get out of town as early as I would have liked and subsequently hit hellatious traffic and the typically 1 hr 45 min drive took just over 3 hours--Bleah!! I was quite tense by the time we arrived. Anyhow, we had a nice dinner with the family sans dad (he was at work until 10ish), though the neighbor kids were mighty wired it being Christmas and all. The neighbors gave M. and me some nice personalized ornaments and some yummy smelling candles. My sister was rather sick and M. and I were still wiped-out from our illnesses, but we still had fun. I got to meet my sister's boyfriend for the first time and he seemed rather nice. When dad got home we hung out and M. and I introduced him to the Comedy Central show, Insomniac and he really enjoyed it. My parents' dogs were fairly well-behaved most the evening, and their poodle, Chloe, looks absolutely darling in her new red jacket. She recently had to have her fur shaved very short and she gets cold quite easily (being 8 lbs and all) so my mom bought her a jacket. It is too cute!
Saturday morning we did our family "Christmas morning". M. and I are rather broke this year so I made my family gifts which they really liked. For my sister I framed three pictures I had taken of her with one of her giraffes (she is a zookeeper). I had intentionally not shown her the photos before as I had intended to use them for gifts at some point and the result was that she was very suprised when she saw them. Upon opening her gift she looked shocked and asked "Where did you get these pictures?" (I had taken them and she had forgotten that). She really liked her gift, especially since she has no other pictures of her with her giraffes.
For my parents I came up with a very creative gift, if I do say so myself. I bought one of those photo flip albums which have little frames on the front so they can act as a display for the front picture. I got one which was dual-sided with a frame thingy on either side of the stand, and photo-pages underneath each frame. I then enlarged two of my favorite pictures of me with my parents--one is of me and mom, the other me and dad, both from when I was about 2 years old. On each picture I overlaid the text "Memories of Mom/Dad". I then put each picture in one of the "frames". Then I typed up some of my favorite memories of my mom and dad, mostly from my childhood. I used different fonts to convey different moods. I printed them out on colored paper and cut them out with craft scissors (the kind that make cool edges) into varying shapes. I put each memory in its own photo-page and I filled the album--each parent had 18 different memories. The resulting product looked very cool and I liked the memories I used. My parents loved the gift and they had even forgotten some of the things I wrote about. So, my gifts were a hit.
My parents got M. and me some really nice gifts. They got me a bunch of new sweaters and blouses which are all really nice and which I sorely needed. My sister got me a cool burgandy fishnet shirt from Hot Topic--Yay!!---It even has sparkly stuff on it :-) After we did our presents we went out to lunch and hung out and then we made the trek back home.
M. and I slept most of Sunday as we are still recovering from our respective illnesses. Sunday evening we finished shopping for my extended family's gift exchange today and for M.'s parents. I still haven't made M. and
eeyore74's gifts, so they will get them a couple of days after Christmas. I have been far too wiped out the past couple of days to do much :-(.We were supposed to go back to my parents' for Christmas Eve, but M.'s parents called yesterday morning to tell us that M.'s dad was too sick from the radiation to go to my grandparents' on Christmas day as they had planned. So, we ended up going to their house last night instead of to my parents'. It was OK, if a bit strained for a variety of reasons. Today M. and I are going to my grandparents' for the extended family Christmas, then to
eeyore74's afterwards. I feel bad I do not have eeyore74's and M.'s gifts ready but this illness has really kicked me in the butt!!Ah well....I am very hungry now so I should get myself a snack--maybe then I will be able to sleep for a few more hours.
