The vacuum exploded & all I got was a stinky t-shirt!

Today is the day that our household celebrates Christmahanukwanzakyuletivus or whatever people want to call it these lately... we're not Christians by any means... I believe in many gods and my hubby is a urban druid of sorts... but we celebrate the massively-marketed religious holiday for the kids and because it's nice to enjoy the holiday season with loved ones, no matter what the holiday is called...

The presents were opened early this morning, around 7:30am-ish... I've been up since 6:30am when I woke up from a dream about finding out that my dad had a terrific secret that he wanted to tell me... what was the secret, you ask? That he had mutant super-powers like the X-men do in the comics and that both my sister and I, plus any of our offspring, would/should have them too... it was a marvelous dream and I was sort of sad to wake up from it... of course, now I am waiting for my dad to read this and call me up to tell me that he really HAS been hiding his superheroic powers... *chuckle*

Any, back to presents... money was tight this year so we really didn't get a lot of things... you already know about the digital camera from my parents if you've been reading my blog regularily... my parents-in-law bought most of the mountain of gifts under our festively decorated and highly reusable-plastic-and-metal evergreen tree this year... I got a bunch of clothes that didn't fit me properly, including a pack of underwear that was two sizes too big (I haven't been a slim lady for many years and I do have a good sense of humour about it, but I have to admit that I was a bit insulted by getting them... mostly because when I later joked to my mother-in-law about the size, she pretty much insinuated that I was bigger than both of her sisters' waists and hips combined because one of them wears a size that is bigger than the one that she got me and then belittled my ability to remember what my own underwear size is... feel the love, people... feel the love)... so I am returning pretty much everything that they got me, except for one gorgeous blue and green sweater that actually fits me... *sigh*

In other present news, my grandma sent me a couple of pictures of me when I was 3 years old and one of her and granddad... it's one of the best presents ever I must say! I miss them a lot since I am so far away from back home and seeing a picture of them brings back tons of memories... which is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give to someone... speaking of which, our eldest daughter also got me something that was quite wonderful... the library at her school was getting rid of some of its old books and she snagged a bunch to give as gifts... she knew how much I adore costuming so she got me a book on that subject... what she didn't know at the time is that she got me a book I have read dozens and dozens of times... The Costume Book For Parties and Plays by Joseph Leeming... it is one of the first books I ever looked at when I started to seriously create costumes and this one is in far better condition than the one I had before considering its age... ^_^

My hubby got me the 4th volume of The Walking Dead... it's a graphic novel/comic book about people surviving in a world full of zombies... I highly recommend the series to those of you who don't mind gore and adult situations... it's like a well-made horror movie that you can read! ^_~

Gifts that my hubby and the girls got: video games (Lego Star Wars, Ultimate Spiderman, We Love Katamari); clothes, clothes, and more clothes; books, manga, Dungeons & Dragons d20 books; non-photo blue prismacolor pencils; and a karaoke machine... just to name a few...

We also lost a most valued "friend" today... our vacuum cleaner died while I was trying to tidy... it's been threatening to go for a while now and it decided to go out with a BANG! and green-grey smoke... we thought it was maybe just the belt that had gone, but then my hubby's dad decided to "fix" it and took it apart only to discover fixing it would cost more than getting a new one... farewell, our dirty little devil, you will be sorely missed! -_-

And now I am downloading music (thinking of calling my family that's way far away or mayhaps playing some City of Heroes so I can get my in-game present-collecting badge for the holiday event), while the youngest child plays Baldur's Gate upstairs and my hubby and eldest child play Lego Star Wars on the Nintendo Gamecube... the sleeping cat is nestled on his perch by the window and all will be right with the world until 7-8pm-ish when the kids' birth mother comes to pick them up and take them to her home until December 30th...

Ah well... enough chit-chat... Merry Holidays and Happy 2006 just in case I don't write before then, Blogland... take care and stay warm! ^_^