I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas, and got to spend a lot of time with their families. This year was the first year that I can remember in a very long time where it was just my family, and not extended. That may not seem like a good thing, but it was really something special just to spend the holidays at home without a lot of traveling, no need to entertain, and just six of us at the table instead of 12. It was something exceptionally special to have both of my brothers there.
So enough of that mushy stuff, was Santa good to everyone? My father got a brand new computer a few weeks before Christmas, along with his 9800 graphic card (that he can install THREE off into the machine and apparently link them together or something? I have no idea that’s too technical for me) and three monitors. My Dad doesn’t game aside from flight sim (he built his own rudder one year) but it’s a dang nice computer. Of course along with that computer comes a brand new desk, so that’s what he spent most of Christmas day putting together. Of course he got other things (smaller) from us kids. Hopefully he likes them all. My mother got herself a brand new gaming number pad thing of some sort, where she can program all of her Call of Duty 4 short cuts into it, I forget the name off it right now. She also got a brand new wireless headset, it’s *really* nice, so she can scream along with her other clan members while she’s blowing things up. Smaller gifts were included of course.
Some times it’s really great to have parents who game. My grandma sent my Mom and Dad three wii games, so that was pretty nice. One of the traditions I have is that since my parents still do stockings for everyone, I do stockings for them. I bought my Dad a little plastic egg and inside of it was a volcano. You put some water in it, and it erupts, and then a dinosaur is left behind after 72 hours (and it grows). We had a blast making jokes about it and watching it erupt. The day yesterday was spent with the scent of turkey wafting through the house as Mom and me played Super Mario 3 on the wii (a game filled with memories, we used to play it in Germany when my Dad was away doing his radio show on Saturday nights) and playing the new games they’d gotten.
On TV in the picture is a show we watch every Christmas day called “The Yule Log” and it’s just a video of a log burning, haha. We make fun of it and laugh, they even change the log periodically which is a huge deal to us. *grins*
Anyhow. I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas, and have many more to come. I’m so thankful for so many things in my life, and this was certainly one of those things.
stargrace 
