Xmas. Wow. Nothing evil happened, nobody got into a fight and everything went far smoother than expected. I was in town, I hosted the holiday, my family showed up, and then...it was all good.

To quote Adam Sandler's buffoon character, it blew my fuckin' mind.

End quote.

I thought Zoe would just go all to pieces over the Cabbage Patch stuff I got for her. I was in my teens when those things came out and I would have wept with gratitude if someone had given me one. She kind of just glanced at them.

"Why that's fascinating, Meemee, but only for the time it takes me to look at it."

What really caught her attention was a crayon that came with a gift I gave Trent. It was part of a Blue's Clues set, Joe's Handy Dandy Notebook. We gave him the nature notebook that Steve used to use on the show too, and it's a good thing we did, because after he opened Joe's Notebook, the two of them commenced to fighting over the crayon. I popped the crayon out of the nature notebook and gave it to her. She stopped screeching and was immediately happy. Had I known that would happen I could have saved a lot of freaking money (LOL).

Go figure.

She crawled around with that darn thing clenched in her drool-slicked little fist for two days. At one point I thought I had it hidden (a step I decided to take because of the new art work that mysteriously appeared on the living room wall - Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah, like I wouldn't notice), but unfortunately the hiding place I chose, though out of Zoe's reach, was within Trent's.

Trentboy himself turned out to be pretty easy to please too, because in spite of the outrageous load of stuff he was showered with by both his parents and mine, the two things he has played with the most turned out to be a Spiderman shirt and this weird toy my SIL gave him that has Spiderman in a uniform and driving a dump truck.

Given his penchant for nudity I'd have never guessed that he'd be so thrilled to wear a shirt, even one that has his new hero on the front. But he does. Then he remembers that he doesn't like clothes and strips it off. Then he remembers that it has Spiderman on it and demands that it be put back on him.

The Spiderman on the dump truck thing, which at first seems like a weird toy, is actually dead awesome, mainly because of the imaginative scenarios it brings to mind.

"Okay, how about this? Spiderman's going undercover at a construction company to bust a mob ring that deals in stolen spools of copper wire."

"Um, he's still wearing his Spiderman suit. The work clothes have just been put on over it."

"Well maybe it's cold in the fucking warehouse. Didja ever consider that?"

It makes me laugh too because there's a pocket on the uniform that has pens in it.

PENS.

Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!

Also, the feet on this thing are HUGE. Almost ski-like. That's functional though because they help him stay on the dump truck.(Hahahahahahahahaha!!!! again)

I had as much fun with the kid's stuff as I did my own, and I got some pretty cool stuff. Larry bought me Twisted Tatum and the Guess bag I so desperately wanted. He also got me some awesome assorted goodies from Hot Topic, a PowerPuff Girls video game, a Spongebob video game (the new one that I didn't already have - woot woot!!), and the Spiderman DVD.

My parents gave me a little bear on a swing. The bear is wearing a crocheted dress that looks like it has frilly edges and the swing part is made of wood and has a heart shaped base with rosy pink lace accents and ribbons. It is without a doubt the single girliest object I have ever seen. I love it! The swing really works, too, which I found especially cool.

John's work with his new camcorder really impressed me. When he came to me last night and asked if I'd like to see what he'd done I enthusiastically agreed, thinking it would just be some boring footage of his friends doing something stupid. I'd never tell him that because I want to be supportive of the things he does and if he's developing a new interest I like to encourage him in doing so. What I saw surprized me to no end.

He's been watching the CKY box set I gave him a few weeks ago almost daily. He and I even watched them together and I have to admit most of the skits and stunts are pretty funny. CKY is the precursor to the show Jackass, shot by Bam Margera and featuring the same group of assorted goofuses that appear in the show. Bam summed it up best himself when he said, "All I did for like, a year and a half was shoot skits, skate and act like an asshole."

Okay. But some of it actually made me laugh so hard my tummy hurt.

And John has taken more than a passing interest in the process that went into making those DVDs.

True, what he had on his first tape was two of his friends, one of whom was practicing moves on his skateboard, but he also added titles and a soundtrack. He rigged up his boom box so that the music he was playing ended up on the movie he made. The best part was that through simple (yet accidental), good timing, the guitar solo came on when one of his goofy friends picked up his skateboard and played air-guitar on it.

I was holding my sides laughing.

It was way more interesting than I thought it might be. It would have been a drag to just see his friends screwing off for five minutes but John mixed it up so that it was lots of fun to watch. I told him over and over how good it was and encouraged him to make more. Larry knows how to run the feed from the camcorder to the PC, so John can have his own DVD when he gets enough material. I'm really looking forward to seeing it too.

My boy has talents we didn't even know about and he is so happy with the things he is learning how to do. I consider that camcorder to be one of the best investments I ever made.

So the holiday went off without a problem and marked some firsts for me. My first hand decorated stockings. My first time making oatmeal cookies. My first time making fudge. All turned out really well so I was a happy girl.

That's so weird for me. Usually this time of year I'm sitting around wondering if just one cigarette will be enough to get me hooked again. I always decide against it, but for a little while the thought is so tempting.

I'm looking into getting a domain and the more I learn the less it seems I know. I thought that if I bought a domain the website and email would come with it and it was like having an all-inclusive little package. Now I'm not so sure. It's looking more complicated than I thought it might be. I need to do some reading up, I guess.

My MIL sent me a hundred dollars for xmas. She saves money for xmas gifts all year then splits what's left among her family. It was a wonderful gesture because it allowed me to buy gifts for a couple of DiaryLand friends I didn't think I'd be able to buy for, get a calendar and buy the Ya-Yas boxed set. There's still enough left over to renew my gold membership and if it's not too expensive, maybe get my domain established (depending on how much it costs to do all of that).

The only bummer I'm having right now is that with everything I'm now involved in at home and online, not the least of which is the fact that I may very soon be running a fanlisting, I don't have the time to devote to reviewing journals here like I want to. If something doesn't give within the next couple of days I may have to give the sites I review with notice. I hate to do that though, so I'm going to see what I can do to get my reviews done and still do the other things I'm involved in. I don't want to stop reviewing unless I have to because I really love it.

I think some sleep would be nice now. :o)

I'll have to fix any typos tomorrow.