Sena's DW :: Watermelon Life

I hope everyone out there had a great Christmas! ^_^

My Christmas was good, I'm happy to say. All of December had been really stressful and depressing and I've been having a lot of trouble, so I wasn't really looking forward to Christmas because the 24/25/26th are always the most busy days for our family. But I was actually able to relax and enjoy things, which was nice.

On the 24th I did very little, just hung out around the house and cleaned, played with the cats and finished last-minute gift stuff.

That day a package from Maddie and Chloe came in the mail, which made me really happy. ♥ It had Cheesy Enchilada Hamburger Helper (♥!!), some lotion that I wanted for Lois and my Christmas gift in it; some pretty beads, and a bracelet with matching earrings that Maddie made-- they are gorgeous, and I LOVE them, and they even matched my Christmas outfit perfectly, so I wore them to the family get together on the 26th, where I got lots of compliments on them. :3

The next morning Mom picked me up around 11 and took me and all my gifts for everyone over to her place, and we finished up the last bits of cooking/baking for the family gathering. Then Grandma got there around 1pm, and we all exchanged gifts.

I gave Grandma her souvenirs from my trip to the US in the summer (finally lol) and her Christmas present was a glass vase with decorative butterflies and a candle. I got Lee a wall clock shaped like a guitar (a Gibson, which is the one he uses most out of his actual guitars), and some blank VHS tapes because the ones he's using right now are old and wearing out. Then I got Mom a decorative 3D wolf plate, two scented oil infusers, and copies of The DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons on DVD. I also got two gifts that were for both of them; a wall sign ("Pomeranian Crossing" haha) and a bag of goodies (chocolates, cookies, etc.). And I got my brother three couch pillows (I got them at Matsuricon from the wonderful and insanely talented NeonDragon) and a copy of Gwenhwyfar by Mercedes Lackey. ♥

As for me, I got a whole set of new bakeware (two cookie sheets, two round cake tins, a loaf pan, a rectangular cake pan, a muffin pan and a pizza pan!!), an electric mixer (eee!! ♥♥), a DVD copy of Independence Day (to replace my worn-out VHS one), a zombie movie DVD set (Last of the Living; Grave Mistakes; Awaken The Dead and I Am Omega; my brother tells me I'm supposed to tell you all "HEAD NOMMING GOODNESS!"), money from Grandma, and a notebook that is my favourite thing I got this year. It's completely handmade including the paper, and free-trade. It's cover is etched leather with intricate designs and a pentagram on the front. X3!! It's going to be my recipe book, but Imma call it my spell/potion book lol.

And my brother got me the first season of Xena: Warrior Princess, but I already had it, so it's got to be exchanged for something else. Ah well~

Then we had dinner and everyone else played cards for a while. I, meanwhile, dyed my hair back to my natural colour so it would look nice for the family gathering, and also because I was sick of having the huge dark stripe down the middle of my head lol. XD

I went to bed pretty early that night because I had to get up early-ish the next morning to make the dip for the get-together (it took an hour in the slow cooker.) Then we all got dressed and ready and packed everything up, and headed out around 11am.

Now, a couple days earlier I had been surfing Kijiji, looking for a new terrarium for Aya because he's starting to outgrow his current one. I found one for $45 (as compared to $250 for a brand-new one), but it was in Barrie. But we were driving right through Barrie to get to my Uncle and Aunt's place for Christmas, so I asked if we could just stop to pick it up on the way past.

So I got it and brought it home last night after everything... and then kind of thought about it and it's kind of tall and thin, which is much better for an aquarium for fish than a snake terrarium. So I decided to set it up as an aquarium (I miss having fishies anyway) and found another terrarium that's more suitable for Aya's needs. It's being delivered tonight. :)

Anyway!

We got to the get-together around 1-ish and set up all the snacks and appetizers and everything, and then sat around and visited and just generally caught up with everyone until it was dinner time.

THEN THERE WAS TURKEY. ASDGH YUMMY!! X3 ♥♥♥

lol and after dinner we set out the desserts (there was a TON of delicious stuff!) and started the gift exchange (we all bring an anonymous gift, then we draw numbers and each of us can either open a new gift or steal someone else's.) There was a lot of good stuff this year; a couple nice blankets, a box of chocolates, a tea set, a set of glass bakeware and etc. I ended up with the glass bakeware (which I do kind of need for doing casseroles and that kind of thing, but Lee had ended up with a set of china popcorn bowls that he would never use (and neither would Mom or my bro) so I traded them. The bowls are actually good sizes; the big one can be used as a mixing bowl, and the smaller ones for a variety of things. Plus I can always borrow the glassware if I need to. XD;;

It was fun and very enjoyable. The only semi-bad part was that I had a run-in with a peanut butter cookie. =/

Aunt Clare had brought a tray of desserts, and most of them she had made but she included a few that a friend of hers had made too, and some of them turned out to have peanut butter in them. It was my fault too, because I'm so used to not having to worry about peanuts at family functions (because they all know about my allergy), I wasn't as careful as I normally am. But as soon as I bit into it I knew there was peanut butter in it, and spat it out without actually swallowing. Then I rinsed my mouth out. A LOT.

Poor Clare felt so bad about it, but it wasn't her fault. And I was fine (with the exception of a headache from it later; my peanut allergy actually gives me migraines) so it wasn't a big deal. I just took some aspirin and that was that. :)

Soooo... we all visited some more, and then around 8pm we decided it was time to start heading home. We packed up (I took some desserts home with me because I'm baaaad lol), and on the way out the door Uncle Alec and Aunt Brenda gave me a couple of Cat Cubes for my kitties to play in. THE CATS ARE IN LOVE WITH THEM LMAO.

Once we got back to Orillia, we went to Mom and Lee's place and unpacked what we had to, then packed up the rest of my things and Lee drove me home, where my cats were waiting to AMBUSH me because it was after their dinner time and they were STARVING TO DEATH.

So I fed them and put some things away... then decided screw it and just shoved everything into a corner so it was all out of the way and went to bed. I was exhausted, and besides that my head still hurt from the Peanut Encounter (tm). I slept really well, though 'Dion spent all night insisting on being cuddled up under my chin. He has separation issues. >>;

Then today I went downtown to pick up some more reptile bark (for Aya's new terrarium) and a bunch of river rocks for the aquarium. I also got a fish net and a larger hide for Aya since he's outgrown his old one.

After that I spent a couple hours cleaning the apartment and setting the aquarium up. I also called and talked to my brother for a few minutes, and we ended up deciding he was going to come over and hang out for the day. So he showed up a while later and we watched the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still and now we're watching 2012. And I made lasagna and garlic toast for dinner. Yay! :D

And that's about it.

Oh, except that the landlord for the apartment I'm moving to sent me the address today, so I looked it up on Google Earth. It's in a really nice neighbourhood, only two blocks from a grocery store, and only a couple blocks from the park/lake. X3 It's so awesome!!

I still need to go and actually look at the place, but what the hell, it can't be worse than where I am now, right? I'm 99% sure I'm going to take it. ♥

I do need to call Mom and coordinate with her a day we can go and look at it, though... hopefully in a couple days. Hmm.

EDIT: New Terrarium has been delivered, and Aya is all set up! ♥ His new home is much bigger and perfect for him, and will be for the rest of his hopefully long life. :)

And the pet store I got him from has already ordered my new Kenyan Sand Boa, which I will be picking up in February. Her name will be Nyoka (an African name meaning "snake"), and she will be moving into Aya's old terrarium. Since she won't get as big as Aya will, it'll be fine for her and I won't have to worry about upgrading~