It's not Christmas until Chase loses a hand

Oh, A&E... showing a traditional 24 marathon... I guess 24 can never have a Christmas episode, because then the whole season would have to be Christmas. I'm quite sick of seeing ads for Rollergirls, though. What an irritating-looking show.

So, Christmas. I got my brother a pair of elaborate noise-blocking headphones for when he's listening to music on the subway (off-topic, he apparently walked to work one day last week during the transit strike... 130 blocks or so). I got seasons 5 and 6 of Seinfeld for my dad (and I think season 4 will be his birthday present, so he'll be all caught up). My mom got the knitted presents (Branching Out and a matching hat), along with a magnetic notepad and a package of fizzy bath things. Let's see... she didn't realize that the knitted things were handknit until I pointed out that I had included washing instructions. I'm pretty sure she loved them--she asked me after dinner if I had ever considered selling any of my finished items, so she thinks they're nice enough that people would want to pay money for them. :)

What did I get? My brother gave me American Gods and Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman... I told him a while ago that I had liked Good Omens, so I don't know if he remembered that, or if this was a lucky guess... regardless, good call; they were both on my ever-growing list of things to read.

From my parents (and yes, I'm aware of how obnoxious this list is):

• A couple of shirts/sweaters
• A wool/angora cardigan (I've been wearing it pretty much since I opened it, even though it's causing me some minor itchiness... and how much of a knitting geek am I: first, I admired the general pattern, and then I checked the fiber content)
• A bottle of champagne and a wine-carrying bag.
• A 6-pack of these ridiculously adorable Snapple lip balms... they're shaped like little Snapple bottles.
• Bath stuff from Jaqua... Pumpkin Papaya Puree enzyme face mask, Buttercream Frosting body butter, and Orange Vanilla scrub. The stuff smells fantastic.
• A big red faux leather bag that I feel has "knitting bag" written all over it. Seriously, it's huge. And has lots of pockets. And it's bright red.

And

• An iPod nano! It's so TINY and absolutely adorable. I have to start working out now, so I can be one of those people who listen to their iPods while they work out. I'll have to take some quality time and load music on to it tomorrow... I'm so prepared to love this thing.

Anyway, Friday night, my parents and I watched The Day After Tomorrow. Kind of silly, and fairly implausible... but if you're a knitter, it's worth it for the sweater porn. EVERYBODY in this movie wears big knitted sweaters and scarves and hats. I love stupid disaster movies anyway, regardless of the presence or absence of knitted garments.

On Christmas Eve, we watched the beginning of the Christmas Story marathon on TBS, and then we watched Bad Santa, which my parents discovered last year on their flight back from London. This is why the Brits rule; there's no way in heck they'd show that on a US airline, but Virgin Atlantic had it available and basically said, "You might not want to let your kids watch it."

Christmas, aside from the giftage... Dinner was very good (and my mom was fairly unstressed about the cooking this year). After dinner, my dad and I took my grandmother back to her place, which included our annual trip past the big Christmas tree at the Commerce Bank office on Route 70. It's at least 50 feet tall, and is pretty darn impressive. Dad and I got back, and we all watched a couple of Seinfeld episodes, and then I introduced my parents to Office Space. They laughed through the entire thing.

Drove back today... hit a little traffic on the Del Mem, but that's normal for a big travel day (and I've seen it much worse than today). And I saw a pretty ugly accident in Cecil County... it seemed to be mostly police and fire vehicles, and not so much ambulances, so hopefully everyone was ok.

Here's wishing everyone peace, love, and happiness.