To end 2011, I have a late post (surprise) and a few family stories. Again, vacations aren't as conducive to blogging because I'm not procrastinating anything and not on any kind of routine. But still, I didn't forget, just put it off :)
For Christmas, I put off shopping until the 23rd, did all my shopping at like 3 stores, required my sister to help me find the gifts for the women in the family (except her), and struggled through wrapping gifts, opting to use bags after I failed at my third wrap job. In short, I fulfilled all the guy stereotypes I could hehe
I feel like I've talked about my Christmas traditions before, so in quick recap, there were tamales, gift exchanges, ugly christmas sweaters, tamales, singing, laughing, drinking, wine, whiskey, brandy, tamales, ham, awkward innuendo gifts, bad gifts, good gifts, expected ones and surprises, candy canes, cookies, and lots of great food, including TAMALES!
I will expand on one point, awkward innuendo. So maybe its a sign we are getting older, or maybe it was just the mood people were in, but this year the innuendos were abound. Naturally, I don't ever have the mind to think of them, but I definitely am all for laughing at them. First, at the York exchange, we had three little kids running around for the first time in a while. One of the themes for the day was wear an ugly Christmas sweater. My cousin-in-law, who brought his one year old daughter, wore a red sweater with candy canes hand-tied to it. Because he was with the kids a lot, and he's 6'5'', we couldn't help but chuckle at this giant many luring kids to his side with the candy canes on his shirt.
Flash forward to the Santiagos (my other side of the family). First of all, after a little drinking, the term "Wetneck" was dubbed for all white hispanics like us. Since all the cousins are halfies, we found this quite amusing. Sometimes its nice to not have to be politically correct and in a safe space with family. Then, my mom, Tia Favorita, and another cousin (who technically is just a friend of the family) started laughing really heard during the singing of the carols. It got so bad that Tia actually had to walk away cuz she was laughing so hard she was crying. Apparently, one of them pointed out that lots of the lyrics are like "oh come oh come" or "oh come all ye". This is really funny after a little alcohol and a joking environment, especially when the next line is "joyful and triumphant". Yea, it was bad.
But naturally, the master of that's what James said was teh winner. My cousins and I do a gift exchange, but it changed a few years ago when we were all short on cash. Originally, we were going to scrap it, but I suggested instead that we do a $5 gag gift yankee swap. We've done this three times now and this was the best yet. I was out with Yellow Piggy and Chai Ducky (more on that later) and wandered into a random asian nicknack shop. There I found a ball in cup game and a plastic cover to hold a banana in. It was yellow, shaped like a banana and really random. Naturally I bought it. My cousin, who we were already teasing about her flavor of the week boys, ended up with the gift. Picture a yellow, smooth banana shaped object being slowly and suspiciously lifted out of the bag. Laughter ensues. Anything my cousin said from that point on was innuendo. "What is it" "This is a weird shape" "How do you get inside" "My hands are too small to hold it" "How do you open it" "It's a gift I can eat" etc. And she kept holding it on her lap, leading to rather incriminating pictures. It was amazing. I could not have planned that, nor did I plan it. The whole family, parents, kids, everyone was laughing so hard. Add that another person one of those just add water things that grow, except it was a grow your own boyfriend, and the jokes kept coming. "Warning contains small parts" "choking hazard" "Grows to 600x original size" "Not intended for children under 3". Yea. The adult christmas! Haha
This week had lots of catching up with friends. I had dinner with Yellow Piggy, who just recently returned from South Korea, and my old staff member and friend Chai Ducky. We had good Asian food, which I miss in Ohio and caught up with the highs and lows of their life. It was good to see Yellow Piggy in good spirits. She's had a rough few months. We've decided that we must hang out more. Too bad I live in OH and Chai Ducky's leaving us for law school. I guess that's going to make the reunions even better!
I also hung out at the local irish pub with Brock, Nemesis, Kareem, Mama G, Green Suited Pastaman, Diet Lemonade, RC Tequila, and Alejandro. We visited Clark and Sunshine Knives with her Ninjabread Men and had funny moments with pictionary telephone (where one person writes a sentence, the next person draws a picture, the next person writes a sentence based off that picture and it continues). Quotes of the night, when Nemesis and Diet Lemonade couldn't sing a Jewish song for the first day of Hanukkah but I could (granted mine was a passover song) and when Clark was declared the Straightest Man in the rankings of all men present, regardless of sexual orientation (I managed to pull in second, but only cuz Spam Boa wasn't there). Enjoy speculating about the rest.
I also had a cooking and drinking night with Dungeon Daddy, Micki Granger, and Heavy Spy at Tenshi's apartment. We put Spotty Sister and Mother Mapster on Skype and had a reunion of our own. We played Quelf, ate tamales and guacamole and chicken and potato wedges and made video game drinks from Drunken Moogle (well Spy, DD, and I did). Sonic the Hedgehogs and Warp Pipes were good, Bulbasaurs were not. I made a Sonic again with my brother the next day.
Overall it was a great week. I made it over to University and had lunch with Santa Claus, who caught me up on University happenings. I also saw Banana Slug and Whedon Watchedit briefly but Naysayer was off campus and I left before he came back. I'll try to see him later this week. It just hasn't worked out yet. Soon Naysayer! Maybe if you showed up to our last planned evening!
OK off to play The Old Republic. It owns my life. It really does. See you all next year!
-JTY
Listening to: Bing Crosby songs after watching Holiday Inn. His voice=Christmas
Reading: Nothing because no book for Christmas, but I should be reading books for school...
Playing: TOR. Lots of TOR.
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