Christmas!

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and happy Friday to those who don't.

I don't actually believe in the religious aspect of the celebration, but in modern America, well, for better or worse, that belief isn't exactly required to celebrate.

I like the presents and the food and visiting the extended family who we don't see all that often. I like the time off of school and the decorations and the music and the shopping. I like Christmas, the non-religious aspect of it.

Every year, we celebrate for a few days: first, usually on the 23rd, we visit one set of grandparents, a great aunt, and an uncle plus family (his wife and kids) in a city about two and a half hours a way. We have Christmas dinner, exchange gifts, and stay the night. We go home Christmas eve, and don't have any set plans; sometimes we open a present, but no set plans. On Christmas day, we go visit the other set of grandparents, and an aunt plus family (fiance and kids and my cousin's girlfriend), in a city about forty minutes away. We have Christmas dinner and exchange gifts, again, and often play some kind of game (Apples to Apples this year). Finally, my other aunt plus family (husband and kids) get into town on the 26th, and there is yet another big dinner and a smaller exchange of gifts.

This year, I got mostly practical gifts, just things I needed, from people who understand my need to live out of a suitcase while in school--a case for my laptop, a planner for 2010, a new messenger bag purse, one of my favorite miquelrius m8 notebooks, and a bunch of consumable packaged food that they don't actually have (or is not easy to find) in Germany (because I have stuff there I'll need to take back in June, so I have more luggage allowance than I can actually use in January with things I'll need to take back in June). Plus a few things that I don't need and won't even have room for in my suitcase, from people unable to appreciate life out of a couple of suitcases. It wasn't a big Christmas--gift aren't usually big and expensive in my family. I know it frustrated me as a kid, when all my friends got fancy electronics, and I never did. But, I got over it, mostly.

In other news, I am pretty sure Kwanzaa is a made-up holiday that no one I know has ever celebrated.

Happy Hanukkah/Christmas/Friday!

Dinner Conversation With My Family

We were snowed in this afternoon, and I got my mother to watch Across The Universe with me. This may have been a mistake for a couple of reasons. One, she asks lots and lots of questions while watching movies. Two, she is usually unable to recognize any of the characters and asks who they are every time they're on screen. Three, she makes comments: "I can't believe those kids are doing that!" "This could never happen!" etc. And, four, this conversation.

We sat down to dinner, and she was talking about the movie, telling my dad about it. He'd never seen it, but after she tried to explain it for a minute, he said, "So, like Tommy?"

"Yes!" she said. "A lot like that."

"What's that?" I asked. Because that move was made more than fifteen years before I was even born, and I've never seen it.

"It's a movie. Like that one. But with The Who, not the Beatles," my dad explains.

"Who's Tommy?"

"He's a deaf and blind kid who plays pinball. He never loses. He's a pinball ninja."

"Um, how is that possible? You can't play pinball if you're deaf AND blind, and everybody loses sometimes."

"Not Tommy. He always gets a replay. He's a pinball wizard. He plays by feel."

"...."

"It's true!"

"Does he have some kind of supernatural power?"

"No, he's just REALLY good at pinball."

"You can't play pinball by feel. It's not possible."

"That's what you think! Anyway, it's a movie. You watch movies with impossible things. Like VAMPIRES. Those are ridiculous."

"Even a fictional universe has to have rules and logic. And from what you're telling me, there is no logical reason why Tommy is a pinbal wizard. Ninja. WHATEVER."

"It's a great movie."

Yeah, that's my family.