Your Haul

For me (and my brother, and my nephew) it was also a birthday thing, so got a couple movies, a few gift certificates, and a few items of clothes. Pretty much the usual. Although my mom got me a pretty nice carving knife. So clearly I need to cook more stuff that requires carving. Also, this year Christmas was at the flaky sisters house (famous for arriving 2 hours late one year with an uncooked lamb, and the time she made tofu pie instead of pumpkin, and the time she went on a "no sugar" kick and made some kind of berry-based pie that was completely inedible, the time she cleared the already made and waiting for her to arrive for an hour or so table to have room to make the salad she'd brought, etc, etc, etc...). I knew things were going to go slow when I called saying I'd be late (was supposed to be there at 3, which is already a bit late), and she said that others wouldn't be arriving until like 4:30. Then around 4:15 (still being the only person there), interrupted her clearing the mass of stuff off the dining room table to ask "aren't you cooking a ham?".

Ah yes. Good times!

For me though, this years fun was less about what I got than what I gave. Got all the info and mass of paperwork done just in time for Christmas, and was able to open up college funds for my nieces, nephews, and goddaughter. Spent about half the money I got back from the IRS and felt great doing it. It's not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, but every bit helps.