As I'm writing this, it has now been Christmas here in the UK for just under an hour.
The day's hardly begun - but I already know this year is going to feel a little lonesome for me. Whilst most will be spending this special day with their loved ones, circumstances have sadly worked against me this year: I've not had sufficient time to travel to see my family - by which I also mean that trying to do so would have been a nightmare. For perspective: I was working right up til Christmas Eve, and am expected to be working again on the 27th. This would mean that, had I wanted to try undertaking the 150-mile journey down to Dumfries, I would have had to catch a train yesterday. Christmas Eve, as previously noted. Any fellow Brits will by now already be shaking their heads over that one, as I would have had to get a train (I've not yet had sufficient time or money to learn to drive, and I certainly don't have the financial reserve for the cost of ownership of a car). Assuming that I had managed this journey unscathed, I would then have had to travel back up on the 26th - Boxing Day. Another bank holiday. This, again, would have been pretty much impossible.
So it is I find myself sat alone here at my PC, in an empty house, writing this post primarily for something to do. I don't expect to have any gifts around for me to open either - any my family may have sent would have had to arrive yesterday, as the postal service doesn't run on Christmas. With that said though, I have received about four or five Christmas cards, and I do at least have a functioning internet connection, so I should be able to talk to my family at least through that.
Sadly, the prospects for seeing any of my relatives at New Year look bleak as well - although I have from the 30th onward as leave from work, I am expected back on the 2nd. So I would have to travel back up (assuming I make it down in the first place) on New Year's Day itself. I haven't yet completely ruled it out as an option, although I don't like the prospects of it.
...but enough about my (frankly somewhat depressing) situation. How's your Christmas been? Good? Bad? So-so? What sort of gifts have you gotten?
~SilverShadow
Well, my Christmas is gonna be an ordinary day for me. I won't be taking leave until the 29th, so I'm still here in San Diego, on my ship. I'll try and find something to do, but it probably won't be anything much. I have to work this weekend, so tomorrow's my only free day before the weekend and when I go back home on Monday. I need to get my laundry done immediately and get my stuff packed for next week. On the fun side of things though, I'll probably go to the liberty center on base and just chill there all day. However, I WAS gonna take the train to Los Angeles to see my friend who used to live in Dallas. He's trying to make it big in the movie business, so he resides somewhere in San Fernando Valley, which is where the bulk of the film industry is located. Anyways, yeah....I come to find out I have about $60 left in my checking account, so I GOTTA make it stretch by next week.
To summarize, it's gonna be just another day for me on Christmas.
My Christmas has been pretty good so far, I either slept through my alarm or it didn't go off, so my family were stuck waiting for me to arrive, after that it was opening gifts and eating pretzels =3
Currently my plan consists of reading Nation, eating more pretzels, drinking and wondering why I don't have a hangover.
Oh wow Silver, i'm sorry about that. =/ And Super Shadic good luck to you man. I'll tell you why you don't have a hangover Crimson...because...well, yea. But my Christmas hasn't really started yet, my mom is cooking and the presents are there under the tree just waiting for me. 😛 Should be a few hours though and then the eating, present opening, etc will begin.
Oh my chirstmas has been good, I got an Xbox 360 and some games for it my little brother picked the game for the Xbox though and he picked Sonic 06 *shudder* thank goodness it didn't work! It was a used copy =P. Other then that I picked up Animal Crossing (Yes Animal Crossing) I'm actually enjoying it, and Pokemon Mystery
Dungeon: Explorers of time. Sorry about you being home alone Ash but, you still have us! =P
I got the Dark Knight and had chicken and duck with my family, I'm happy. 
My family is obnoxious as ever. Can't wait until this is all over.
I'm also working those days SS, but luckily for me my parents can drive and they drove us up to the family do.
Which consisted of my cousin bragging about her 3-4 month old baby all the time as it vomited everywhere. This baby got a pile of presents up to my waist and it won't even understand what receiving presents is. Everyone was cooing over it and ignoring everyone else, except me and my parents and my grandad who were too cool for school.
I was pretty annoyed at being ignored. I've even been replaced as the family artist (replacd by cousin's best friend D: ). Other than that it was cool though.
Oh man, i'm sorry Toby. That sucks. =/ Give 'em a chance! Come on. Haha so I got some clothes and gift cards and a game. But the big thing...is my PS3. Yays!! Yippee! About to download SSFIIT HD Remix, once these system updates finish. Hahha lucky you PhilKirby, it didn't work. XD! Hope everyone's Christmas ends up being wonderful. 
aaaah the pain, I had to comb my hair 
About to visit with family in like ten minutes >_>
I can't complain this year, for once, managed to dodge most of the irritating relatives. The new family in from Cali seem to actually know what things I'd find fun. My nephews pooled their allowance and got me a camo shirt for paintball. And I did get to spend 3 hours with the little turd that's invaded our board, that's more than his mother's afforded us for the last 3 or 4 months. No luck being able to do anything with the other cousin yet, his father is still being some sort of over sized rooster.
Oh and SS? Move to mexico and jump the border. I'll meet you at Dallas and bring ya the rest of the way. Then you'd be an illegal so you'd get free healthcare and welfare untill you got a job.
~Rico (Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go drink my 'present from the favorite uncle.)
Other than finding a leaking ceiling in our bathroom (over the bathtub at least, thank goodness), knowing that we STILL have mice in the house after thinking we had successfully rid of them, and now randomly seeing ants start to come in (from somewhere?), Christmas was pretty chill.
Gifts in the morning, cuddling in the noon, quick nap before heading over to the mom-in-law's to eat Xmas dinner. S'all good.
Unfortunately, I gotta wake up at 4am and traverse through this lovely Illinois freezing rain to get to work at 5am and open the store at 6am because WALMART is opening up their doors at 6 like a bunch of re-re's. F'eh.
Merry Xmas.
I got Sonic Unleashed for the 360. Twice!
So I'm probably going to return one to wherever my aunt/uncle got it from and get Left 4 Dead, so I can have MORE than 1 new game this holiday season.
Also Dark Knight and Indy 4. Contemplating watching with Rifftrax, despite that costing $$.
I got mostly clothes, but I also got a Carl Sagan DVD set, a couple games for my N64, (and one for my Gamecube) a 2GB jump drive and wireless mouse for my laptop, and 5 mini-bottles of different kinds of liquor.
But in terms of how it's been in general, it worked out better than I thought it was going to. After finals last semester I had a bad feeling about my marks and I knew sooner or later I'd have to admit that pretending to be on top of things was all an act. I had no idea how my parents would react and even imagined scenarios in which I'd end up choosing to run away. It's almost crazy how extreme I let my thoughts get, but after a while, I sort of let it down gradually, and when marks came out and I showed them, and said why, they didn't react near as angrily as I expected, and it even didn't affect celebrating Christmas as much as I expected. To say it Watterson-style, we die a thousand deaths before we even get in trouble.
i mainly got a kettle, bath products, a jumper, chocolate and a DVD.
i gave will a 5L beer keg, he loves me much for it. :p
christmas was interesting. customs aren't too much different, but i did miss my family, my friends and the people i know at church. ^^; still, i had a nice time. too sleepy to think of more.. but christmas without the christ is odd. oo and it lacked party hats. ;-;
Eh, Christmas went as expected. Eve is the big family get together, with all 8 families typically converging on one house. Unfortunately, since Grandma passed away things just aren't the same. Christmas Day is spent with the immediate family, generally assembling my sibblings' lego sets
Basically knew exactly what I was getting before hand. Got the complete Firefly series, a pretty kick ass designer Star Wars shirt from Macy's (yeah, who would have thought?), some jeans, a new electric razor, a Columbia jacket, a pair of slippers, and a The Office quote calendar. hurray for getting old.
After typing that last post my traditional Christmas flu kicked in so I spent the rest of the day how I spend Christmas every year.
Curled up shivering and sweating and feeling horrible =D
Sorry you had to spend yours alone and down, Bryan.
Mine was spent with Tricia's family, it was very funny and low-key, which was nice. Tricia and I exchanged our gifts weeks ago (She got me a stainless steel kettle, I got her a 192 page Zelda song book) so it was mostly about the family.
We actually had 3 days of Christmas. Housemates Christmas, Tricia's family and Tricia's mom's side of family-family. Tricia's dad's side will be on Saturday.
Trish made nice bits of jewellery for gifts for her family and got some DVDs for her brother and dad.
Housemate Christmas included a secret santa. I got new housemate Dan who is a comic nerd and had never seen Superman I or II, so I got those for him. My secret santa was housemate Kristin who got me Clerks II. Tricia's was housemate Steve who she made a hemp necklace and he got her a Hobby Lobby "GIFT CARD!" we also got a pair of large mugs, some hot chocolate, she got a Eric Whiticare CD from housemate Amber and music earrings from ex-housemate Robin. I got Memento DVD from Amber and nice coffee from Robin.
We spent Christmas Eve at her parent's place where we opened our gifts (I got Castlevania: OoE, Dragon Quest IV and Guilty Gear on DS and Dark Knight DVD m/. She got Wall-E, Picross DS, DDR Super Nova, a Dream game for PC, a Hobby Lobby gift card and a full kitchen cutlery set) and we laughed as the family opened their stuff, which included cute jokes about coffee maker and everyone "just about to buy" a gift they ended up getting.
We then watched Furry Critter Christmas and about 5 more episodes of South Park. It was great.
At Tricia's aunt's place, on Christmas itself, we grazed a selection of healthy snacks and sweet treats while making talk about all kind of things, Tricia's dad being a hilarious jerk making fun of my accent and scoring an ice burn on Tricia's brother. Twas a very pleasant day and Trish got $20, I got a London calander and we were given a cute salt and pepper shaker combo.
Also called my dad up on Christmas morning. He had a ... rough day. Laid it all out for me, which kind of put me in a sad mood for some of the day.
All in all, though, it's been a nice few days.
I didn't get much, but I did get Samba De Amigo and Ghost Squad for Christmas. Well I just pulled the Wii out of storage (yes, I had to put it up to make room for the Saturn) and I found out that the sensor bar's wire was cut in half. A few minutes later and some electrical tape I had it working just enough to start Samba up. Luckily for some reason Samba doesn't actually need the sensor bar, so I was able to play it. I really like it, better then I thought it would be from reading reviews. Sadly I wasn't able to play Ghost Squad without the sensor bar working properly, so I'll be looking forward to getting a new sensor and playing Ghost Squad.
I also got some money, so I might get a used PS2 since I already have Persona 3 and have not been able to play it yet.
I wasn't expecting to do anything for Christmas other then relax and rest. Turns out my family was invited for a holiday party at my cousin's house. Also turned out to be pretty damn fun; it was my first time playing Rock Band (who knew I was good at the drums) and I got tipsy from the alllleee---key---hol (my second cousin is training to be a bartender).
My sister and I watched the Santa Claus Conquers the Martians episode of MST3K on Youtube. It was awesome. =D
On Christmas Eve, my oldest brother and girlfriend drove up from college, and we opened presents after dinner that night. On Christmas morning, we left to visit the rest of the in-state family, and came back today.
I gotz:
--a fancy new camera! + accessories
--DVD's: Cannibal! The Musical (I let out quite a squeal when I opened that); Horton Hears a Who; Hairspray; WALL-E; Kung-Fu Panda; Prince Caspian; Sonic Underground vol. 2; Boondocks season 2; and Prison Break season 2. My uncle who bought me PB season 2 also got me South Park season 11, which I already have. So, he's gonna see if he can exchange it.
--CD's: Gnarls Barkley - "St. Eleswhere"; Flogging Molly - "Float"
--DS games: Sonic Chronicles, Guitar Hero, and a set of Littlest Pet Shop-themed accessories
--clothes (of course); some perfume; and a purse
--an adorable set of South Park Christmas ornaments (these) ; a Simba pen; a mini Domo plushie; a glass dragon; a glass kitty, and a wooden kitty
--the Death Note: Another Note book
--photo frames, a photo album, a watch, a nightlight, a sketchpad, a couple Target gift cards
--nothing Eminem-related, but plenty of M&M's! =O I got six M&M-shaped cases with candy inside, and a computer screen duster in the form of a plushie of the green M&M
Add to my list a broken down car, towing and repair bills now. HOORAY. *shoots himself* x__x
My Christmas was as boring as bats**t.
Merry Christmas you guys
I got:
From my sister:
- Top Gear DVDs
- Diecast Marvel Figurine Keyrings
From my Dad:
- All Star Batman and Robin
- Halo: The Graphic Novel
- Mirror's Edge
- Golden Axe Beast Rider
From my Dog (Its just to avoid "To John Merry Christmas From John" Really)
- QI Annual
- Nemi Vol 2.
Plus I got £50 from Nanna and Grandad which is probably going to go on a DC Universe Encyclopedia and Left4Dead.
Our Christmas was nice and quiet. My mother was trying definitely to clear her horrendous cold before my cousin's wedding on the Saturday. She managed it, but my dad did start coming down with it on the Friday! We didn't over-eat, I did actually watch Doctor Who and at one point my brother and I were both on the wireless broadband.
Boxing Day I dashed round a friend's house to give her her present and card, then after lunch we hit the road for Harrogate. Not as quiet on the roads as I expected, but still OK. A pleasant night was spent at the Best Western with dinner at an Italian restaurant in town. My cousin's wedding was at 1.15pm on the Saturday and I managed to survive the second Catholic wedding service of my life - I don't know what it is with my cousins and Catholic weddings My mother complained at me later for not even trying to follow the service, but I call it disrespectful to pay lip service to someone else's religion. If you don't mean it, you shouldn't say it.
My cousin, three years older than me, had a nice selection of 80s songs at the reception. I managed not to hurt my Uncle Karl after he started telling me it was my turn for the next big family get-together in the form of a wedding and that I should hurry up In retrospect I should have told him that I must have at least 3 years...
Next morning I met up with a friend from York who's back from Japan for the holidays, had a good wander round Harrogate, a pot of tea and some toasted teacakes etc. Then it was time to head back to Gloucestershire and an evening with a friend and her husband drinking mulled wine, eating snacks and watching The 39 Steps. Then I realised I had to drive the next day and put a stop to my mulled wine! I'll definitely need to get some more white mulled wine from M&S, that was superior to the red stuff for sure.
I have now escaped back to Bristol - too much interaction with my family is not a good thing. My brother and I had started sniping at each other, which I took as a sign that now was the time to go. I've spent my iTunes and Play.com gift vouchers and look forward to an evening spent catching up with the Mark Gatiss ghost stories and Wallace & Gromit that I recorded over Xmas. The latter will, I suspect, be cut off, since BBC was deliberately running about 7 minutes behind its schedule, but I presume that's to make people use the iPlayer.
Tomorrow will be boring stuff like getting the washing done, hoovering etc. etc. But at least no work until 5th January!
DW
Weee, just now noticed this thread. >.>
Anyway, what did I get? Uh..., better question is, what I didn't get. And explaining all this nonsense would require an essay on my life the past few months, something I don't care to do. So I'll just say this, I'm lucky just to have a roof over my head right now. XD
