I am a full time student at the University of Texas, studying Russian and Linguistics. I'm a geek, a Mac, and a mommy to a doofy chocolate lab who lets me share his apartment. There are a couple of rubber ducks in my car that help me tell my left from my right. Welcome to my corner of cyberspace.
You’re lucky I’m here at all. I dragged myself away from my new Kindle (which I will be speaking about in detail later) just to post for you all, my faithful three readers.
Don’t you feel loved?
I’ve been neck deep in Christmas celebrations here in Lockhart, as I’m sure everyone else has. I’ve been keeping up with the Chaos family in Iowa, and old friends back in North Carolina… and feeling extremely jealous because I really think that everywhere BUT Texas ended up with a white Christmas this year. We did get a Christmas eve rain that was, well… wet. But I suppose I should be happy. It was 80 on Tuesday, so at least it cooled down sufficiently.
I can’t abide an 80 degree Christmas.
It hurts my brain.
I’m from North Carolina, damn it.
In my family, we’ve always celebrated Christmas on Christmas eve. I think this had something to do with having an extended family that tied up Christmas day, but whatever the reason, we always did our Christmas – just the three of us – on Christmas eve. Pretty much the same every year – food, presents, paper carnage, threats of homicide…
Wait… family…skeletons…back…in…closet… *slams door*
Just kidding.
Christmas has always been a pretty big deal here, and we take stock in tradition, starting with the food.
Some families do Turkey. Others go out to eat. We do lasagna.
World famous lasagna – or at least fairly popular among my friends- and this year, done in roll-up form. It’s a style I adopted for ease of serving/freezing/reheating purposes and I’m completely sold on it.
As is also traditional in Lockhart, we baked enough to feed a small army. It’s a Southern thing. If you’re a cook and you’re from the South, you just don’t want people to walk away hungry.
We also use only whole milk and full fat butter, because we don’t want people to walk away skinny. But that’s a different concept entirely.
As always, the lasagna lived up to expectations, and I was very pleased with the outcome.
There’s half a pan in the refrigerator, if anyone wants leftovers.
All of the puppies, of course, were sufficiently photographed. This is my job: documenting the growth and ever-changing makeup of the puppy population in our family. I am flabbergasted – FLABBERGASTED, I tell you – that I managed to get a shot of everyone looking at the camera, in focus, and generally happy. I attribute this to a Christmas Miracle.
And my new remote shutter release.
Question: Am I too young to become a crazy dog lady? I really do have an enormous number of puppy photos.
And finally, presents were opened.
Now, I have something to say about this.
A few nights ago, I was having a Mario Kart marathon with my Awesome Neighbors when the idea of large Christmases and being spoiled came up. As always, I smiled and nodded and inwardly blushed. Because see, we do Christmas like THAT. *See photo above* There’s some great challenge and pleasure in trying to find the right gifts for everyone.
Over the years, Christmas became our thing – that one thing. Even if we didn’t always do GREAT, we managed to have good Christmases. It was important to the parental units. And it was fun. The years when no one could afford to do much shopping, the challenge was in the making. And even this year, a lot of what I gave was framed photos, or small things from stores in Austin that mom can’t get to frequently. It’s the giving. Trying to give the thing that produces that look. That’s the fun of it.
Of course, the getting is pretty awesome too. My primary loot was the much-lusted-after Kindle, some wall art I’d picked out online, and many kitchen gadgets, including a cast iron grill/griddle that I can’t wait to use. And many, many things from infomercials. A Ready-Set-Go individual grill. A duckie pillow pet. (Ducks are very important, you know.) A Snuggie.
Hey – don’t judge the infomercial gear.
My Sham-Wows work GREAT. And I love my Slap Chop.
Either way, I always feel a little ashamed of myself when I talk about Christmas. I always feel guilty, like I’ve got some deep, dark secret of being a spoiled little rich girl. I’m not, really. Rich, anyway. I’m a college student… I’m just happy when I’m not eating ramen. But we do have good Christmases.
We spent most of today playing with our new toys – all except dad, who seems to have come down with the traveling stomach bug. Wherever we go, the sickness finds us.
12:23 and Christmas is over. I hope that everyone had a great one, filled with joy and presents and not too many threats of homicide. Because really, what more can you ask for?
And now, I’m going back to my Kindle.
This thing may be a new addiction. I’ll let you know, next time I come up for air.
С Рождеством!
*Bobs
Riding in Cars with Ducks 