obligatory xmas post

we barely made it to canada yesterday. lot of ugly on the roads, especially once we hit burnaby. tried to claim my usual parking spot on the side of the in-laws house, and found my shitty little hyundai couldn't handle eighteen inches of powder on the ground, snow tires be damned. so I parked in the driveway whilst bro-in-law and I carved a little spot out on the corner. damn near had a heart attack doing it too. finally got the car parked, only to find last night some assface decided to park RIGHT behind me, justting out partially into the main road (I was on a side street) and completely blocking me in. as soon as they left, I made sure to back up a bit to prevent that from happening in the future.

there's certainly been a low of snow. and while I love snow, and really have no problems driving in it (see above mention of snow tires mixed with a healthy dose of common sense), I was disappointed to learn my employer changed their snow policy. used to be if you showed up to work and they closed early, you got paid for the whole day. now, if they send you home early, it's unpaid. seeing as Iw as sent home three hours after I got there friday, I didn't bother going in monday or tuesday, and instead had to burn vacation. I instead spent much time bonding with my xbox.

for the xmas loot...

sister bought the babies some cat toys, and the cats love them. felix got a green stick thing with a feathery ball on the end, he goes APESHIT over it. they also got some treat balls that roll around and drop treats. felix monopolises it, but isn't smart enough to figure out where the treats come from. saku just waits til felix gets bored and eats the rest.

mom and dad got me mass effect and saints row 1 for xbox, stuff white people like and dilbert 2.0, and jpod books, and some dvds: forgetting sarah marshall, dark knight, and wristcutters.

mom- and dad-in-law got me guitar hero world tour for xbox and the office season 4 dvd.

bro-in-law got me iron man dvd, a little simpsons robot dude (I got apu) and a really disturbing looking johnny cupcakes t-shirt.

sis-in-law and her boyfriend are due over for dinner... don't know if I'm getting anything token from them. boyfriend gets four bottles of fancy imported beer (german marzen and belgian delerium), I imagine I'll get something similar. beer = good.

it is funny how tame xmas seems the older I get. I went to bed about 11 last night, had no problem whatsoever falling asleep (all the shoveling snow surely wiped me out), and despitemom-in-laws concerns about the basement being too cold, I slept just fine. I woke up around 8am, realised no one else (except mooki) was up yet, and went back to bed for a couple hours. twenty years ago, I never would have been able to sleep, would have been too greedy and excited.

I imagine being near kids changes the tone of things considerably. bro-in-law is the closest thing to a kid in this house, and he's college age.

we'll be holed up here for another couple days. need to try to get out for 'foo on saturday and then head home, hopefully the weather is better then than it was yesterday.

sunday we're supposed to go out househunting again, but I'm not optimistic the weather will cooperate. our current frontrunner has already sold. that's three now that have been swept out from under us, mostly because we haven't been willing to act quickly enough. we're hoping by the middle of january we'll be more comfortable to offer on something we like almost immediately.

so how was everyone else's crimbo?