Merry Xmas! Or Robonukkah!

Well, we had a full day of celebration. It was very pleasant, overall.

I got lots of nice presents, for which I am selfishly grateful.
Jeff gave me: Serenity DVD, iTunes gift card, and Dance Dance Revolution.
I also got Hello Kitty house slippers (from Mom and Dad), a space heater (from Rosalee and Olaf, Jeff's grandparents), a book on painting and interior decoration, a gift card to a mall, bath salts, a little paper doll, and sewing machine accessories (all from Debbie and Jerry).
Jeff and I got a Borders gift card and pictures of their wedding (from Rob and Candace).
Candace and I got a special gift from Santa: Feely bears! This won't make sense to anybody, probably, but Debbie collects black bear figurines, and there are a set that are labeled Jerry, Debbie, Jeffrey, and Robby. Candace and I were at their house the other day, and were saying that we needed bears with name tags, too. So we received some cute bears, with name tags on ribbons (Santa even remembered that Candace's favorite color is red, and mine is blue). They'll live at the Feely house with the rest of the Feely bears.
Dan gave pretty much everybody the universal green card.

When I saw my friends earlier in the week, I provided them with gifts, as well as receiving some.
Elizabeth gave me Stitch boxer shorts and little Stitch figurines.
Sara gave me the full set of Thin Man films on DVD!
Christina gave me an awesome antique map weekly calendar for 2o06.
Side note: Sara and Christina are both leaving tomorrow for a fabulous trip to the Holy Land. Yay! But I can't wait to see them again, and hear all of their adventures and see their pictures.

Last night, I also received some graduation gifts from some family: a sewing machine (!) and some funding for the purchase of my guava tree. So now I have no excuse for putting off learning to sew. I look forward to creating for myself plenty of CUTE CLOTHES.

If I've forgotten anything about presents, I apologize in advance. I know I sound materialistic, but I really am just so blessed by all the useful things I received.

One more thing I just remembered: Mike gave me a gift that was actually from Michael James (Kirkpatrick), and my receipt of it is a very long and involved story. Michael James is a dear family friend, who is nearly exactly Mike's age, and we've known him since he was 10 years old or so. So what I got was a pictorial biography of Audrey Hepburn, because I love old movies, and I'm going to keep it as a coffee table book, even though I don't much care for Audrey Hepburn.

Anyway, Jeff made a lovely meal (supplemented by contributions from Debbie and Rosalee) of prime rib, plus some barbecued ribs and some chicken for moi. It was pretty tasty, I must say. We hung around doing a puzzle, and in the early evening, Jeff and I made a big bonfire of excess BoMs. Jeff went to the Yoshimoto Christmas party for a few hours, and I stayed and finished the bonfire (can't leave the wonderful fire unattended), and then worked the puzzle with my family.

Did I mention puzzles? My family are puzzle-mad. We always have been. We're weird that way. Okay, we're weird in a lot of ways, but the puzzle thing is quite obvious. We love puzzles. We work on them diligently, and become frustrated if we don't have good progress, and when anyone places a piece, the rest of us will clap and cheer and hum "Stars and Stripes Forever" or some other triumphant tune.

The Barbers (Steve, Betsy, and Josh) came to spend the night, and they have already gone to bed, being very tired from their long day.

Mike taught Dan and me to play Texas Hold'em poker, and now Jeff, Dan, and Mike are playing while I relax with my laptop.

I really did have a merry Christmas: I spent time with all my family, ate plenty of chocolate, played with fire, learned to play poker, and then spent some time with myself.