My Better-Late-than-Never Christmas Post

I have to squeeze in a post about Christmas while it's still 2013!*

*(Bad news: it's now 2014. I never published this, damn it. But I'm still counting it).

For Christmas Eve we had our usual pajama-party slash breakfast-for-dinner extravaganza (why did I write out 'slash'?) with Teri, Carey, Amanda, Mike, and all of the kids. It was the usual fun. The gifts were super nice this year. I think my favorite was this set of "Sunrise" iced-tea glasses from Teri:

The glass is thick and textured, with bright glass bits embedded. I loved them so much I went to the website she had purchased them from (One Kings Lane) and bought another set of four.

My other, bigger favorite was this gorgeous Damask Parsons chair for my art desk (also from Clint's parents):

My favorite part of the night was drinking two shots of Blueberry Moonshine and trying on Carey's guille suit. I wish I had a picture. I looked like the Swamp Thing. After the Moonshine, Trin and I had the following conversation (her green, me red):

Are you drunk Mom?
No. Ask me any tricky question and I'll answer it.
Okay (glances at nativity set on side table).  What did the wise men bring as gifts to Jesus?
Incense, myrrh, and...um...lemons.
Really? You're going with lemons?
Yes. Lemons. They were a very rare commodity back in the B.C. They were like gold. Instead of lemonade back then, they had gold-ade.
I'm pretty sure the wise men didn't bring baby Jesus LEMONS.
You're just upset because you know I'm right. Cheer up kid. When life hands you lemons, make, uh, gold-ade.

I only have this conversation memorized because she's repeated it back to me over and over. And her dad. And her best friend. And her grandma.

Yeah, moving on.

So Christmas Day we all woke up and opened up our stockings. My stocking was loaded with chocolates, patterned stalkings, bikini undies, glitter nail polish, etc. The biggest surprise was this necklace:

It's sterling silver with a fire opal in the center. I couldn't believe Clint put that in my stocking. That could have been its own gift.

After stockings we opened up our gifts. My favoritest (like I still get goose bumps) was this Gusti Geniune Leather Messenger Bag:

I love it. It holds my laptop, my charger, my manuscript notebook, my kindle, and my pens. But as if that weren't enough, inside the bag was a confirmation for the San Diego Writer's Conference, a four day event that starts on Valentine's Day. I would never have dreamed that Clint would come up with this idea. It's a $350 event, and he's not a writer. But he understands my passion for writing, and he told me that he knew whatever he got me for Christmas was going to support that. The dude is seriously the idiot savant of gift-giving--this is his one amazing talent.

Oh, during the conference Clint arranged for me to have a one-on-one appointment with an agent who will be going over chapter 1 of my manuscript. Can you believe that? Granted it's not for promotion purposes (it's not being submitted for publication consideration), but I am super excited because I get to receive feedback from a real agent. I have to mail the chapter out this week, so thank God for Ifeoma who has helped me go over chapter 1with a fine-tooth comb and get it as smooth and tight as possible.

Okay, back to Christmas. After our own little Christmas was done, we headed over to my folks house. It, too, was awesome. Opening presents took about three hours, but when you have my parent's delicious spread of appetizers and egg nog the way it was meant to be dranken (WITH brandy), you never get bored. My favorite gift from my parent's house was my annual outfit from my sis. She got me cream colored jeans that fit perfectly, a maroon-colored sweater that hugs me in all the right places, and a gorgeous beaded necklace. My other favorite gift was a drawing from my dad. It wasn't a drawing he composed, it was one I did in high school--1994. The background of the drawing is sort of a long story, so I'll just skip ahead and say it was simple and childlike and eventually I threw it out. Well my dad found it in the trash, pulled it out (without telling me), and kept it all these years. He framed it and gave it to me for Christmas to show me where my "art" had begun. What got me the most was back when he pulled it out of the trash, we had a very volatile relationship. Back then, I felt like he despised me. The fact that we were in that rocky period of our lives when he salvaged the drawing is what touches me the most. I can't even say how much I love that man today. He's a prime example of how family has nothing to do with blood.

I just realized I wrote the word "dranken" above. And I teach Language Arts. This is the kind of education your precious offspring is receiving, people.

Okay, next up: New Year's Eve. Hopefully I get that one banged out before Easter.