Sheep Guarding Llama

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! Christmas is finally here and Dominica and I are REALLY happy that we decided to drive out to Frankfort last night instead of waiting until today… 30 inches of snow fell this morning and nothing is moving anywhere. We won’t be leaving this neck of the woods for a while. Good thing we brought all of our laundry with us! 🙂

The presents were laid out under the tree with care (sounds like the beginning of a poem.) I have never witnessed anything like it. It sure blew me away. So many presents. I always thought that Christmas was a big deal in my family but it was never anything like this! And so much candy too! It is all more than I can take.

A short recap of some of the Christmas loot (so everyone doesn’t have to ask me later – this is just the big items from today, there is a lot that I haven’t cataloged yet! Min got a Game Boy Advance with Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, Yoshi’s Island, Rayman and Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secrets. She also got a new Uniden 2.4GHz Dual Handset phone (just like John has) and a new wool blanket with a ton of international flags on it that her mom knit for her that she has wanted for a while. She also got a lot of knitting supplies including some books and a “Needle Master” which is a “pro” set of needles that give her a huge variety so that she can knit almost anything now (although we will see how long it takes for her to make me those fingerless typing gloves…) I got Lord of the Rings RISK (Josh and Bob are going to be SO jealous), a TON of clothes, Smart Mass (again, Thinkgeek), Linux Pilsner glasses and a four person wine and cheese picnic backpack that I have wanted for a long time. We both got WAY more candy than any human can eat (but we are trying.)

Happy Christmas Eve. Min and I are celebrating Christmas at my parent’s today. We started the day by heading up to Rochester with my parents so that my mom could get her chemo and then we ran off to the mall to do a little last minute shopping (good thing that we did because I manage to find a couple of things for Dominica that I had been looking for!) Dad and I also had to stop by the University of Rochester to do a littel bit of work installing a new workstation there because the one that they had been using just died on them and they needed something right away. We made it back home just in time for me to do some last minute wrapping before my relatives came over for Christmas Eve dinner. We ate and hung out for a little while and then we went down to Leicester’s Union Presbyterian because my cousin was singing and playing the trumpet in the service. After the service, we came back to my parents’ to open presents. Dominica got a new watch, SimGolf and a Land’s End “snuggle sack” (which she was REALLY excited about.) I got some new tools (for my in-car Network Tech tool kit), a new Eclipse Computer Workstation light (Thinkgeek.com is the coolest place to shop for geeks) and some clothes (including dress clothes.) I also got some spending money to get more stuff with. 🙂

Min and I drove out to my parent’s today. We are celebrating Christmas at my parent’s on Christmas Eve and then traveling out to Frankfort to celebrate on Christmas Day with Dominica’s family.

Christmas is over. I never thought that there could be so many presents at Christmas as there were yesterday. I was overwhelmed with the holiday activities. We were planning on heading over to see Min’s relatives today but the snow is still really deep and the flu is starting to hit so we decided that it was best that we didn’t all get together again. Bennie started rebuilding Min’s parent’s kitchen today, it will keep him occupied while he is in New York. After looking at what it was going to take to install the dishwasher and the garbage disposal, he decided that he would install some new cupboards and a new countertop while he was at it.

I did go shopping today and got some stuff with the money that my Grandmother had given me for Christmas. I got two more GBA games – Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Metroid Fusion as well as a new soft side tool box for my new tools that are going to go in my car.

Min and I drove back to Ithaca from Washington this morning. I have been away from home for a long time and I am looking forward to my one night of sleep in my own bed before hitting the road again.

Before leaving to head back to New York, Min and I decided to exchange our main gifts due to logistical concerns. We ended up (not TOTALLY by coincidence but the story takes too long to tell) getting each other 17″ MAG Innovision flat panel computer monitors. We both really wanted them so this works out really well. They are a little bigger than standard 17″ monitors (as flat panels usually are) and are 1280×1024 at 75Hz. Not really very good for fast first person shooter games but really good for slower games and normal computer work. Perfect for what we will use them for. I will still use my 20″ Sampo for Quake2!