I thought I’d write down some notes about Christmas, keeping in mind that we’re still on vacation, so we’re still in the middle of the holidays from a visiting family perspective…

before Christmas, Brian flew out to visit with us for a few days before driving back home. We had a blast, saw some neat stuff at the museum of natural science, and we accidentally beat halo 3. I’m actually kinda shocked that the game was that short. We just thought we’d play through a few levels, and then surprise, there’s the credits. yeah… kinda shockingly short. but fun.

drove home, and spent much time playing rock band with the family. very awesome. played some halo with my brother, which was also a blast. (a blast – ha!) Christmas morning went by too fast, unfortunately, since we had to leave at 1pm to drive to deedee’s family’s house. But it was a lot of fun while it lasted. We opened presents for a couple of hours, and I have pictures of deedee actually trapped on the couch and unable to get out from behind a wall of presents. That was funny. Actually, Deedee got more presents from my parents than I did… I’m not quite sure what that says, but it’s worth noting.

As expected, the entire family over did it this year, again. My mom bought most of the stuff that I had mentioned I might like. I have some new movies, lots of new toys, clothes, and several hundred dollars worth of martial arts training equipment. It’s kind of an interesting thing, actually… if you put all of that together with the cornerman and heavy bag that deedee got me, and the mats and mirrors that I got me, I think I’d actually be comfortable calling my garage a real studio and possibly picking up a handful of students… I’d have to look into the liability issues with that, but I could see it being a real possibility…

A few of you may have known this, but we got my dad a 42″ plasma tv for Christmas this year… (I got it for free through my freebie sites). I actually got on camera his reaction to seeing it… it’s hilarious. He’s just like a little kid… his eyes got big and his mouth fell open. we had to leave right after that, but apparently right after we left, he went and laid down. My mom asked my brother why dad wasn’t in there playing with his new toys, and caleb told her that he said he was in shock and needed a nap. After his two hour nap, though, he got up, and actually packed up all of the Christmas stuff to make room for his tv. That’s the first time in my life (and apparently the first time in my mom’s life) that the Christmas tree and all of the decorations have been packed up and in the attic by Christmas night. He went on to call all of his buddies and tell them about it, and then he took a picture of his tv and took it to work with him to show off to the guys at work. I think he likes it. It’s good to really nail a Christmas gift like that every once in a while.

so that brings us to Huntsville. Huntsville has been stressful. there is much family drama going on here which is not really my place to report. but I will say that my opinions of certain in-laws are forever changed given some of the hateful things they’ve said and some of the attitudes they’ve displayed. I do not deal well with someone who cares more about gathering possessions than they do someone’s mental well-being. I have also learned that I do not deal well with bipolar people. I’ve known people who are slightly bipolar before, but I’ve never had to deal with an extremely manic-depressive person who has stopped taking their meds. Had it been my family, I think I would have been inclined to make them take their meds, and then talk to them in a few hours… instead, we endured two days of complete mania, followed by a day of complete depression. they did finally take their meds, and appear to be leveling out. and just in case any of the people involved read my blog by lurking, let me say this to them: I do not blame that person for their behavior. That’s genetic and they have no control over that. However, I do blame you for your behavior. That’s your family, and you were well aware of the situation, and instead of helping it, you decided to be utterly childish about it and make the problem worse by your immature comments and your infantile behavior and your desire to basically steal all of the stuff in their house, and at Christmas, no less. You should be ashamed of yourself… and you really should examine the plethera of psychoses in your own eye before you attempt to remove one from someone else’s eye. so to speak.

did I mention Huntsville is stressful?

ok, now for food. because I’m hungry.