2010-12-30

Short Post, For Once

Wheee!!!! Leaving today to go see my grandparents for their 50th wedding anniversary, which just happens to be on New Year's Eve! Heading out the door very soon to do last minute prep.

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day

I'm fully aware of the lateness of this post, but here it is:

Christmas Eve:
Echo worked open-to-close (1100-1800) and I stayed home and played Reach for about half the day, after which point I took up the mantle of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Gopher. Turns out Target has a better selection of women's scarves than Walmart and Kohl's combined, no two Walmarts have the same merchandise in the event that you're looking for something specific, No Frills changes out the little crappy toys they hang along the aisles on a daily basis, Walgreens is the only place anywhere near this town that carries unsalted cashews, and even they only have the house-brand and it takes knowing someone who's working there (B's brother) to find them on Christmas Eve.

Frustrating day, amazing night. Once Echo got off, we headed straight for her family dinner at Americana Bistro, which their clan (not an exaggeration, as their extended family makes up 1/4-1/3 of our town) had rented out for the night. I met her mom's side of the family, some for the second time, but most for the first. The exception to this is one cousin with whom I graduated but never spoke. From there we went (without eating, as we had been too late for the food) to A's house to get... something, I forget what, and then to Walmart for Zicam. Walmart was closed, so it was back to Walgreens, and then home to my house for the most epic homemade beef enchiladas EVAR!!!!! After dinner it was time for my brother to go to bed, which left us free, at 2330, to start wrapping presents. We finished at around 0330, and I took Echo home, came home, and crashed.

Christmas Day:

Epicness. That is the short version. The long version is as follows. Up early to pick up Echo from her mom/stepdad's house after their Christmas. Her mom gave me a necklace that I will probably only ever wear when trying to get something from her. Then to my house, where Christmas Morning hijinks ensued, complete with tons of presents, stuffed-to-bursting stockings, and tons of cash-flow; Echo got a total of $600 from various places, as well as the keys to the car that she had been promised for her 16th birthday, and I got my massive monetary debt to my parents coletely forgiven, alongside $100 from my aunt/uncle, $50 from my grandma, and a $20 gift card to GameStop, which got me Splinter Cell: Conviction with $0.75 to spare. From there, I took Echo to A's house, where her third Christmas celebration of the day then commenced. After that, A went to B's house for Christmas dinner, and since B lives just down the street from me, she brought Echo with her and dropped her off to us. We then proceeded to frantically handle all the dinner preparations that magically all had to happen at the same time. Somehow, it all managed to work out, and we had a massive dinner on par with Thanksgiving, then we watched It's A Wonderful Life. Wonderful day. My first Christmas with Echo.

Boxing Day:

Just when we thought there couldn't be any more hecticism in one weekend, Echo and I went down to [name of city has been redacted], [so has name of state] first thing in the morning to meet her other grandparents for church in the morning. After an hour long drive, before which we had to overcome the previous night's L-Tryptophan, we were able to make it just in time for the 1000 service. I also got to meet her old best friend from prior to people moving away. This friend's facial expression can only be expressed textually as "!", unless one were to make it "!!!!!!!!!!". Her estranged father also showed up, and at one point in the evening (we ended up staying all day) he and I got into a (verbal) fight over how he was treating Echo because of how her mom and that entire side of the family had treated him. To skip the boring, uninteresting, and irrelevant (by which I mean exciting, scandalous, and course-of-my-entire-relationship-with-Echo's-family altering) details, I won, which mqde him suddenly infinitely more civil and outwardly loving (see: car keys), and also made Grandma (mine now, too yayz!) be nicer to Echo than she has a history of being. I love that town.

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED:r
"Tic Tac Toe"
Blog three times in a single post
Reward: 3 Christmas cookies