Bah, humbug!

[ellenscult]

Well, Pa picked ravenlas and me up and took us back to his and Mum's, on Christmas Eve. My brother Simon was there, too. I spent rather a lot of time with my Mum on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day cooking. We made a boiled fruit cake, trifle, bread stuffing, and turkey, roast veg, mashed veg, sprouts, gravy (from scratch). My haul includes a small pile of books, some dvds (including Dr Who season 2, currently being ripped so I can watch it on the train on my iPod), some cds, a scarf, gloves and some Lush stuff. So far, so much fun.

Alas, Christmas Day included the obligatory blazing row with my Dad, who is now pretty much not speaking to any of us. ravenlas was so angry that he joined in, and then took himself off for a walk to calm down. I knew he'd intend to be back, probably for dinner-time. But still, he was in Huddersfield, which he doesn't know, and didn't have his mobile phone, and can never remember my phone number, anyway. So Dad did go out in the car looking for him, and I worried like mad waiting for ravenlas to come back. Which he did. I reckon he'd walked around 10 miles, from where he seems to have gone (a rough check on Gmaps Pedometer says it must have been about 12 miles...).

Anyway, my Dad's friend, David Blackburn, came round for Christmas dinner, so we had to be all civilised. Really, it's a good thing he comes over every year we have Christmas at Mum and Dad's, or we'd never actually sit down to eat together. So, the food was great, and there was lots of it. And then I did more washing up, and went and sat with ravenlas and David in the living room. And eventually David went, and Dad put on a tape of a Horizon programme about near death experiences, which was very interesting and put me in mind of Passage, which is a truly excellent book. After that, Mum came in, and we watched the Dr Who Christmas special, and it was very silly, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And it was late, so we all went to bed, and Pa wasn't speaking to any of us.

He still gave us a lift back to York on Boxing Day, though.

Next year, I swear I'm staying home for Christmas, and I'm only celebrating Chanukah. For those of you who are a bit confused by all this, here's how come I do both... My family are all atheist/agnostic, and not christian. So Christmas has always been a time for a secular family get-together, to eat, row and swap presents. I celebrate Chanukah because I'm (still) working on converting to Judaism, as it's where my heart and soul are. My brother Simon's dad is Jewish, but non-practising, and Simon celebrates Christmas too, in the spirit of our family tradition (no God, presents, seeing family). So anyway, I think I'll give Christmas a miss next year. I'll probably still take part in the Secret Commie Santa, though, if st3v3's still running it.

Back in York, ravenlas and I went sales shopping. I bought: 3 pairs of pyjamas, 4 towels, a lamp and some monster furry slippers from BHS. And then we went to Monsoon, and I bought a pair of trousers. ravenlas bought me a silk skirt and a jacket, and the jacket wasn't even in the sale! He's so good to me, and I don't deserve him. We called into Game, and ravenlas got a computer game, and I did too, only mine was only £1.99, so I'm not expecting great things of it. Then we had dinner at Russell's Carvery, went home, came back into town, gave said monster slippers to a_crow for his birthday, saw his flat - v. envious as it's in one of the Georgian town houses on Micklegate, and it's a gorgeous building - and went out for a drink. Various folks were there, and I got to see Vicky's Peru photos, but all too soon we had to head home as we're at work today. Only... when I got home, I opened a bottle of wine and sat and watched Pretty Woman, which is still a darned good film. So I got to bed at 1:30am, rather squiffy, and though I could catch a later train into work, I'm still tired and a wee bit achey. Meh. That'll teach me... Oh, and I have done No Writing. At all. I will have to rectify this state of affairs.

So far today, I've done no work whatsoever. I suspect that state of affairs will continue until next week... *heh*

Comments

[ianoneill.livejournal.com]

What's christmas without the occasional blazing, drag out row?

And next year it's time for Chrismakuh! Much more fun. You get the eight days of brightly wrapped presents.