Family dinners

So, I have to go to my grandparents' house for dinner. It shall be interesting. Certain Relatives ducked out, of course (funny how that keeps happening! /sarcasm). I'm not too enthusiastic about this dinner (which is a sort of pre-Thanksgiving dinner to work with people's schedules), but I'll bite my tongue.

I don't think I've ever liked holiday meals with my extended family. Dinners with my immediate family and their SOs are fine, but I've always hated the big family holiday dinners. Here are just a few reasons why...

1. I always got shunted to the 'children's table', even as a teenager. And eating at the 'children's table' with your cousins isn't fun when you don't like two of your cousins isn't much fun. I'm on better terms with them now, but I still am not crazy about taking supper with them.

2. If I bring a book, I'm deemed as 'being rude'. Even though I'm bored to death and my grandfather is more interested in watching hockey than being with his family.

3. This is sort of a companion to #1. For some reason, when we have turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas, my grandfather carves it all wrong. By the time it gets to the 'children's table' - or wherever I'm sitting, actually - the turkey is cold and has lost a lot of it's flavour. I don't think I really loved turkey until we started having holiday dinners at home, actually.

So you can see why I'm not totally pumped for tonight. Granted, we're having roast beef instead of turkey, but I've never liked having dinner with my grandparents regardless. Even now, there's a 'pecking order', and I'm at the bottom of it - and that sucks. A lot.

I've been contemplating ways to slightly freak out my grandfather, from whispering to myself like Brick from The Middle to talking like Lauren Cooper from The Catherine Tate Show. Of course, whenever I do something slightly eccentric (like when I bowed and said 'merry Christmas' in Japanese), my grandfather just kind of smiles at me as if I'm a little kid. Never mind that I'm old enough to vote! (Speaking of which, I have a semi-prepared argument in case somebody pulls the 'you're to young to talk about politics' scheme.)

Meh. I'll find a way.

I really should eat something, and clean up the house a bit.

Fridaaaaaaaaaayyyy :)

Now then. The MSN conversations.

I think it was last week that I spoke to Max on MSN, and he wants to read my NaNoWriMo novel when it's done. Now, I'll have to do some editing, but afterwards I might let him read it. I haven't decided yet.

Holly also asked to read it. I can't remember when she asked - a week ago? Two weeks ago?

I spoke to Erica for a bit, too. And she had the nerve to say that a 50k word novel was 'hardly a novel'. But when I told her the novels were only rough drafts, she said 'nvm', or something like that. So.... yeah.

I think I'm going to skip youth group for the month of December. I really don't feel like going from 'holiday cheer' mode to 'defend the mouth against a cushion attack' mode. I want to enjoy December, and I'm gonna enjoy it whether people like it or not.

So I did some Christmas shopping today, speaking of the holidays. Mom and I got some stuff for Dad, so that means I just have to finish Justin's scarf and get something for Mom - and maybe something for Breanne. I've decided not to make her that Calorimetry. I guess I'm feeling like a selfish knitter. But you know what? I rarely spend money on myself, and when I do, I often feel bad about spending the money. Maybe I should be a little self-indulgent, since Erica is being a narcissist, my brother rarely calls, and my grandparents continue to degrade my parents and I.

Life is bloody beautiful.

On the upside, Doctor Who and Don't Forget the Lyrics! are on tonight. And I still have time to volunteer for the Holiday Music Sunday if I want to, although I might not. I really want to sing 'Walking in the Air' from The Snowman, but at the same time I'm pissed off that our minister isn't coming back.

Oh, and I watched another holiday movie - a version of A Christmas Carol. It was a black-and-white version, although it wasn't the version I'm familiar with. This one was an American version, and the one I had seen before was a British version. It was still good, though. Elf is going to be on soon - Sunday, I think - on CBC, although CBC has a nasty habit of butchering movies to fit commercials in. They did that with Love Actually last year. Well, now we own Love Actually, so we'll probably watch the DVD.

I watched a Christmas movie! I watched a Christmas movie!

I watched one of the movies on my Holiday Movies to Watch list - the original, black-and-white version of Miracle on 34th St. It was on after the National Dog Show, which was on after the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends on Ravelry :)

One holiday movie down, 27 to go. Am I being a bit overambitious?

Perhaps.

Oh, and I watched Rosie O'Donnell's holiday variety show yesterday.

Holiday to-do list.

I got the idea from AJ's blog. Hope you don't mind, AJ :)

Holiday To-do List

1. Help Mom clean up the house for Christmas. This includes sweeping, dusting, washing the couch covers, maybe vacuuming the couch (ah, the joys of having a Jack Russell Terrier!) and washing the dog bed.

2. Play lotsa Christmas music!

3. Help Mom with the holiday baking.

4. Get Justin's scarf finished.

5. Start and finish Breanne's Calorimetry.

6. Buy Mom and Dad's Christmas presents.

7. Wrap presents.

8. Make sure my room is relatively clean. This is a bit difficult, since my room is the basement!

9. Watch as many movies off the Holiday Movies to Watch list I made (see this post).

10. At least finish the pockets for my vest.

11. Attend the Christmas Eve service at the Unitarian church, even if Reverend Barrett isn't there. I miss her :( I hope she DOES come back in January. At first I thought she was forced to resign, but now they're putting the minister down as 'parental leave (January)'. So hopefully she'll come back. If they DID force her to resign, I might cut down on services.

12. Put up a post on Christmas Eve with 'Happy Xmas/War is Over' by John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band in the post - via YouTube, of course.

13. Hopefully put up a post on Christmas Day.

14. Put up that video of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band playing 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' in the Bruce Springsteen group on Ravelry.

15. Hopefully hang out with Holly before the new year.

16. Every year, the youth group volunteers at a place that is a food bank and a place for the poor to get Christmas presents for their families. If I can, I'll volunteer there with the youth group, but last year I didn't because of Dad's work schedule AND the fact that there were no permission forms.

17. Set up the tree, of course! We got a red tinsel tree last year with lights already on it, and it's really pretty, so maybe we'll put that up. We would have to stick with mostly silver-coloured ornaments, though, because gold would be too much for our yellow-painted living room! Actually, we have some pretty cool straw ornaments that would look pretty on the red tree.

18. Put on the Galaxie Traditional Holiday channel on December 1st. This also falls under #2.

19. Sort out my sister Katie's birthday present. Her birthday is in the first week of December, so it's a bit difficult!

20. Find out where Christmas dinner is going to be, so I can prepare myself for any bullshit.

21. If we're going over to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas dinner, I want to put together a punk outfit ahead of time, to shock my grandparents and my least favourite aunt.

22. Play Grandma and Grandpa's piano, if I can. Usually they have a table in the way, though. Or then there was Grandma's 70th birthday party, when Aunt Patti (my least favourite aunt) got all pissy and wouldn't let me play the piano because it was annoying her. Well, it's not my fault it's out of tune, Princess Patti!

23. Stand up to Grandpa if he decides to be a complete asshole to someone I actually care about.

24. Hopefully go carolling, even if I go alone.

25. Send a Christmas card to Holly. And maybe one to Erica if I feel like it. Even though she usually sends me one, and I always forget to, we're still not as close as we were. But sending her a card would be a good gesture, I think.

26. Say 'happy birthday' to Holly on Facebook. It must be a real bummer to have a birthday shortly after Christmas.

27. Hopefully finish my fingerless gloves, but they can wait. Gifts come first.

28. Go with Dad to the Italian bakery we love on Christmas Eve to pick up some cannoli for our Christmas Day breakfast. Cannoli are Italian pastries, and they're GOOD!

Oh my god, 'Stuck in a Moment' by U2 just came on iTunes. I love that song, but it always reminds me of 9/11...

Because I'm bored, and I need to write a new post...

I just posted a comment on Dianna's blog to add to the blog comment train, so I need to write some fresh material for someone to comment on.

So, how about another list?

Holiday Movies To Watch This Year

1. Love Actually (not for younger audiences)
2. Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! - the original, animated one. I don't like the one with Jim Carey.
3. It's a Wonderful Life - just 'cause.
4. Elf
5. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Gotta love them Griswolds :)
6. The Snowman. Who says I'm too old?
7. Scrooged (Again, not for younger audiences.)
8. A Christmas Story - "You'll shoot your eye out!"
9. A Christmas Carol - if the black-and-white version is on, I'll watch it.
10. The Muppet Christmas Carol - because, although the black-and-white version is great, I love the Muppets. And Michael Caine was good in it as Scrooge.
11. A Charlie Brown Christmas - again, who says I'm too old?
12. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
13. Meet Me in St. Louis, which is a sort of multi-holiday movie, really. I might have to really hunt to find it on TV.
14. The Santa Clause, if Mom lets me watch it. We have the VHS tape somewhere.
15. The Santa Clause 2
16. White Christmas - my mom put her name down on for a copy from the library!
17. The Family Stone (not for younger audiences)
18. Little Women
19. Olive, the Other Reindeer
20. The Holiday
21. Mole's Christmas (The Wind in the Willows)
22. Miracle on 34th St (the original, although I don't mind the newer version)
23. This isn't exactly a movie, but I wanna catch the Mr. Bean Christmas special :)
24. Last Holiday
25. Shrek the Halls (another Christmas special)
26. The Polar Express
27. Not exactly a movie either, but I'd love to catch Robbie the Reindeer: The Lost Tribe
28. And the other Robbie the Reindeer TV special, if it's on.


That's all I can think of at the moment. If you have any other holiday movie suggestions, feel free to comment on this post with ideas. Thanks! :)

edited to add #18
edited to add #19
edited to add #20, #21 and #22
edited to add #23, #24 and #25
edited to add #26, #27 and #28

The Holiday Weekend in a Nutshell, Part 2

Time for part two, folks! :)

Sunday (yesterday)

Dad had to work again. Katie and Dan went to IKEA to eat the breakfast and look for stuff, so me and Mom had the house to ourselves. We watched SNL. Katie and Dan came back in time for the four of us to go to Len's Mill Store to buy yarn. We were there early - they weren't open yet. So we went to the nearest Tim Horton's to get something to drink (Mom and I got tea, Katie and Dan got chocolate milk). What was really funny was that an older couple drove into the Len's parking lot, and the woman got out to check the hours on the door, and was motioning to her hubby to park. It was cute. We were all laughing.

I bought some S.R. Kertzer On Your Toes and some marked down Patons Be Mine, using my money from The Other Grandmother (or, as I called it, 'The Angela Money'). It cost less than I thought, actually. I thought I'd have to pay a little over $10 for the On Your Toes, because I thought it was a print. It was actually considered a solid, so I had about $2 in change, plus the coins already in my changepurse. I might have just enough change to pay my library fines, but Mom said she'd pay them anyway. Katie got some Patons Decor.

Katie and Dan left for Grandma and Grandpa's before Dad came home, because they were eating dinner there. Dad came home at around 6:00-ish. We left shortly after. I was in casual clothes - my denim cargoes, my toothpaste green t-shirt with trees and stuff and 'Vernon Canada' printed on it (I got it from Katie), my green-and-blue plaid flannel shirt and my fluffy pink socks. Juno chic, with a touch of super-cute anime girl. Mom made cupcakes, but we didn't bring them with us because they were too warm to travel.

Aunt Patti and Becca's dog, Chelsea greeted us when we arrived. She's one of Bailey's puppies (Bailey, in case I haven't mentioned before, is my uncle's yellow Labrador), and she's rather cute. Everyone was still eating when we arrived, actually, so we sat by ourselves until they finished eating. I spoke with Justin for a bit, and Dad paid Chelsea some attention, which caused the coffee table to flip over. Justin's sock got covered in some kind of dip, but luckily, my pink socks were spared. I thought Patti was rather rude when she moved Justin's dip-dipped foot onto his lap. When he pointed out that his sock was soiled, she said, "Are you renting those jeans?" When he said he owns them, she replied snidely, "Then they can go in the wash." Uh, you don't talk to someone like that, Patti. Either before or after the table-flip, Patti said something about a fan being in the basement years ago for ventilation when they'd smoke in the basement, to which Uncle Brent replied, "That was only at your parties." ZING! And Dad said something like, "Is that what this burn mark here is from?", and he pointed at a spot on the carpet. Patti must've said it was at a New Years' party, because Mom said to Dad quietly, "It wasn't New Years', it was her sixteenth birthday party!"

I love having a blog that my extended family doesn't know about :D

So anyway, we ate some of the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard Cake, which had candles on it for my grandma's birthday. I'm not sure if her birthday was that day, or was coming up, or had already passed. I was feeling too bitter to sing 'happy birthday'. I later found out that Jack, our family friend who is in his nineties, told Katie, "You deserve a medal", because Katie made the cake. I thought that was so sweet of him.

I didn't get to talk to Breanne much, because she felt sick and went upstairs to lie down, but I did get to say "Nice shirt" to her, 'cause she was wearing a 'The Wall' shirt. I actually had a conversation with Becca, which was a bit surprising. She said she was reading Twilight, and I said that I liked it, but I would've liked it better if there wasn't such a hype, and that I don't think I'd own it (I might own it, but I'd rather buy other books first). Anyway, she told me that she's liking it, and that she's going to continue reading the series.

Grandma had these bags that someone she knows made, so she offered them to us. I picked one with lots of pockets, perfect for knitting projects. It has a flowery design on it, kinda like an old fashioned table runner, but I like it. Mom got a bag made out of fabric with saddles printed on it, and Katie got the bag with leaves printed on the fabric. Becca wanted Katie's bag so bad, and she didn't like the other ones. We went out to the car shortly after, and it was quite foggy. The car was slightly damp. I found out, to my disappointment, that I'd missed the beginning of The Legends of Classic Rock. I'll have to catch it on Saturday morning. When we got home, Dad moved the table downstairs and we ate some of the cupcakes. While everyone else was watching True Blood and Dexter, I went downstairs and read with my headphones on.

Monday (today)

Katie and Dan left close to noon. She took some of the cupcakes with her. Dad washed the dishes, and I dried, but when I opened a cupboard to put a muffin tin or something similar away, we had a slight avalanche. So that cupboard has to be reorganised. Yay. Other than the muffin pans and things on the table, the kitchen is clean. Dad deflated and packed up the air matress, and then moved the elyptical so I could get to my computer! Yay! I have eaten:

Two slices of pie (one pumpkin, one cherry)
Two strips of bacon
A bowl of mashed potato casserole mixed with gravy.

I have drank:

One glass of water
One glass of chocolate soy milk
One can of Pepsi

That's just today. I don't want to list everything I ate on Saturday and Sunday...