"Fuck Christmas this year. More than at any other point in recent history, Christmas was literally just a Wednesday with turkey. Granted not the worst ever Wednesday, but yeah, fuck Christmas 2019."Aha-ha-ha-ha-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAH-HAH-HAH...
Oh you sweet Summer child... you knew nothing.
Honestly though, having said that, this year felt... both more like Christmas and less like Christmas. Less because all those things that makes Christmas special or interesting or feel like Christmas, for me at least... the picking of presents, and then the giving of same... making Christmas goodies... all of that isn't happening right now.
I realised yesterday when I was getting ready that that is the thing I miss most over the last... four years... without the income to splurge on Christmas gifts for the people I care about (and, you know, honestly, myself as well), Christmas doesn't feel like Christmas. And yes, it's not about the gifts, commercialism, blah blah blah.
But the way I show people I care about them, at least in a holiday (or birthday) context is to pick up on things they've said during the year and get them either a thing they absolutely want or a thing that they didn't even know existed but would still absolutely want if they had known.
It's not a "buy your love" situation, it's more how I say "I hear you, I see you, I understand who you are as a person". Even if it's some dumb tiny thing... like the year I did a Secret Santa at... I dunno, somewhere I worked... and I'd been having a conversation with the girl who was my Santee (you know, I'm the Santa, she's the Santee... is that not a thing... fuck it, I'm making it a thing) about particular calendars (probably beefy men ones or some TV show, I dunno), so I went and got one of those for her. Because of course.
Anyway, enough of the nostalgia wander through my psyche.
I think maybe it felt more like Christmas because it wasn't just the one day, it wasn't just yesterday. This year there was also Boardgame Christmas on Tuesday with my Friday DnD group, where we got together in the actual day time and played boardgames all day, did presents (all of mine were food what I had made, because of course) and hung out and had a lovely time. So, you know, being around other people who give a shit about Christmas (as much as anyone does right now), instead of just being on my ownsome and then, boom, Christmas, may well have made a difference.
For the record, we also were supposed to do Friday DnD on Wednesday... instead of my regular Wednesday DnD (which had we attempted that would have invariably been called off)... but we didn't really do DnD... we mostly talked through our plans for what comes next since and our assumptions and expectations. So not a total waste of time. And probably useful for the DM. Certainly better than trying to push through when people weren't feeling it.
So our next, action packed, oh no, oh no, why are you doing this, fun filled game won't be until New Years Day.
Otherwise my week up until yesterday wasn't much of anything really.
I made bread again this year. I set it going on Christmas Eve (and for, I think, the second year in a row, I watched not a single Christmas movie in the lead up to Christmas, not even my usual Christmas Eve staple, Arthur Christmas, not that I dislike it or have watched it too much, I'm just not feeling it right now) and then got up just after 5am to prep it for the oven and leave it to proof for another two hours, all during which I caught up on Christmasy YouTube videos, and I'll admit, went back to bed, not so much for a nap as to futz with my phone... and maybe a little nap.
But I threw the bread in the oven, myself in the shower, packed up the car and headed down to Ma's around 8am, listening to the My Dad Wrote A Porno Christmas Special, as has been my Christmas morning tradition for the last several years. I honestly didn't track when I got there, but I hadn't quite finished the first MDWAP episode, so, inside of 40 minutes I'd say.
As usual Ma was finishing up ham hearts and mince tarts... so while I did have a loaf of fresh, warm bread with me, I also absolutely ate several fresh out of the oven ham hearts. Because I'm only human.
But eventually we sat down at the table and breakfasted on fresh bread. Honestly, I think maybe I feel the same way this year that I did last year. Not that "special". Compared with when we used to do croissants, which felt more special, mostly because it wasn't something we did on the regular. Again, Ma's mileage may vary, because I make fresh bread weekly at this point, and she only ever gets a piece the day after and not the fresh out of the oven stuff.
I fully expect that I will 100% forget I had this opinion again by this time next year, because I had the same opinion last year and didn't fucking remember. Somebody remind me mid December, yeah?
Once again, there was a dearth of Christmas movies on during the day. I mean, seriously, it's not that hard network programmers, look at the list of available Christmas movies from overseas companies. Is there a man and a woman on the cover? Are they wearing red and green in some orientation? Does the title have the word Christmas in it? Does it star a woman who was famous or slightly famous on TV in the 1990's? Is it by MarVista Entertainment? If the answer to at least 3 of these questions is yes (you get a bonus point if it's by MarVista), then get them to send them over by linear measurement ("give me three feet of Christmas movies please!")... because, seriously, I have no doubt that they'll totally do it. And given the quality and the sheer number, they cannot be that expensive.
Anyway, I digress, and I'm fairly certain that there are no Australia TV network programmers reading my blog, more's the pity.
But there was interesting enough stuff on SBS World Movies (Fifth Element, a German version of Heidi, something wacky about teenage witches from Denmark)... the latter two we left on with no sound, but subtitles, and I sassed them as appropriate.
We did presents first... after I showed Ma the stuff I got on Boardgame Christmas, and she showed me other stuff she'd gotten.
- Tasha's Cauldron of Everything book
- Out of the Abyss book (from Fluffy, to run for the Friday group, probably not until 2022 tho)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home DVD double pack.
- Typo 2021 Fuck Yeah calendar
- Here To Slay board game (from Mr and Mrs, the other half of the Friday DnD game)
- Critical Role Don't Forget To Love Each Other mug (also from Mr and Mrs)
- Chessex Borealis Royal Purple and Gold dice with glow in the dark glitter (Mr and Mrs again)
- Kiki.K notebooks and fox head pen (Mrs really couldn't help herself)
- L.L.A.M.A. card game (for "winning" Boardgame Christmas, because, sure)
- New canvas shoes, basically the same as the last four pairs I've bought
- Smash A5 holographic cover notebook
- Scentsia Tealight Holder with Spinning Silver Snowflakes
- Primrose Hill Set Grilled Peaches and Honey candle
- Aeroplane Jellies (Lime, Raspberry and Purple Grape... I have no idea why, except Ma)
- Hersheys Chocolate Syrup
- Coles Gingerbread Man/Iced Biscuit
Ma enjoyed her calendar, which was something of a relief. Like I knew it was good, I knew I liked it, I wasn't 100% certain it would be her aesthetic. She loved it. Phew. And this year, as opposed to the last... two years I wanna say... I didn't forget to get her the nougat she likes. So she was pleased with that.
I got a Merry Christmas message from Fluffy as we were finishing up, so I took that usual 5-10 minutes that happens at some point on Christmas to relay my Christmas wishes via text and social channels to the folks I care about. And then my phone did the random beep dance on and off for like the next three hours. Not that I texted that many people, some of them just took their time LOL.
Anyway, eventually I did the present photo... I forgot my camera yet again (doubly annoyed at myself because I remembered I needed to take it when I was in the shower this morning, but forgot as soon as I got out), so I was doing the iPhone thing again. Not bad, but never as good in the quality department honestly.
This year at least we got the BBQ and the lunch timing right... and put the potatoes in to roast with the turkey and sausage meat. I honestly don't remember what we did in the hour the turkey was cooking... but we did something, I prepped everything else for Christmas Day Salad, and we went from there.
So we did the lunch thing. And it was... essentially it's the same thing we do every Christmas at this point. It's nice, we always make way too much of it, it's never as good as left overs, and it can vary massively depending on the dressing. This year wasn't bad, as per the above.
After lunch we tidied up, and then I taught Ma how to play Here To Slay. When I say teach... we played four games, I accidentally won the first (I didn't realise I'd gotten enough heroes until like a turn and a half later), she kicked my ass on the second and third games (while still not completely being sure what she was doing) and I barely squeaked in a victory in the last game, otherwise I might not have been speaking to her for the rest of the afternoon... lol.
Then, several hours later we had dessert. Not quite our usual, only because we didn't do melted chocolate things this year (I mean, I did, but we didn't do it together), so no leftover chocolate shards to stab the dessert with. Otherwise it's basically the same, meringues, mince pie flavoured ice-cream and fresh berries. A decent effort.
It was a little after 6:30pm by the time I gave up, we packed up my car with various and sundry goodies and presents and whatnot, I left Ma's place at 7 and had a pretty decent run home. Where I unpacked but didn't immediately put all my presents away.
So yeah... not the worst Christmas ever for the yaniism household. It's just this year that makes everything worse and harder.
Today, being Saturday, and the shops being open albeit later than usual, I went and did some shopping. I did go on my own, because it's supposed to get hot today (it's starting to now, but isn't quite there yet), and I saw Ma yesterday, so it didn't make a lot of sense for her to come down just to do minimal shopping and then drive home again). I didn't buy a ton of stuff, but I needed a few essentials, like milk, sugar, that kinda stuff. And weirdly, for going to the supermarket at 10am on the day after Christmas, it felt remarkably like the usual Saturday crowd.
No clue what I'm doing with the rest of my day though. So, you know, same as every Boxing Day really.
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