Merry Christmas And All That Stuff

Last Updated on: 23rd December 2014, 11:01 pm

Since I’m’ posting this today, this song makes a good soundtrack.

Yeah, it’s December 23 and I don’t know where the time has gone. Somehow, despite my battles with the captain, I still managed to get my Christmas shopping done, although it was a little closer to the wire than I would have liked…and the one gift Steve ordered that hasn’t shown up, curse store who cannot be named yet, he ordered nice and early. It’s all their sloppy fault that it’s not here yet.

One thing that’s weird this year is the lobby of our apartment building doesn’t have the usual singing tree. I can’t decide if I miss it or if I’m glad it’s gone. It was our saving grace our first December, and last year it was a reminder of how far we’d come, but now, would I just get annoyed by the repeated melodies?

Going through the malls, I noticed something weird. Are Santas not allowed to ring their bells and go “Ho ho ho!” any more? I can’t count the number of bits of directions I got that said “Go around Santa and the store is right there.” That’s great, except Santa’s not making any noise! I swear I have passed his area many times and had no idea he was there. The same at the other mall. I know where Santa’s at, and I never hear a sound. Are all the santas just sad or hung over, or are they under orders to not make any noise? I’ve heard about this Sensitive Santa initiative, but I don’t think this is what this is. Can somebody tell me why Santa isn’t ringing his bells and announcing himself anymore?

Man, Tansy is a trooper through the mall zombies. That’s what I call the Christmas shoppers who are staring down at their lists, only thinking of their next destination, and not watching where they’re going. They come from every angle and run every direction. Tansy walks, stops, waits for the path to clear, then goes, then stops, every now and then she nudges one of them when she can’t see a way around them.

One guy really illustrated to me that he was in Christmas zombie mode. I asked him where a certain store was, and without a moment’s hesitation, he responded “No I don’t, but there’s a mall map right there.” I first thought he was going to go look, but then I realized he was directing *me* to consult the map. I stood, mouth agape, and then asked someone else. I wonder how long it was before he realized that he just directed a blind person to look at a map.

I can’t really say this year’s Christmas shopping had a theme like the last couple of years, and maybe that’s a good thing. I guess the only theme was I went from 0 ideas to a whole bunch, to the point where Steve’s probably going to laugh when we exchange gifts tomorrow. I guess the only theme, predictably enough, is I can’t keep a damn secret. Steve knows what all of his main presents are because I can’t keep a secret or lie, so if he asked me point blank if something came from insert store name here, I would just say yes. Yup, I suck.

We exchange gifts here tomorrow, then head to Toronto to see the rest of my family. Yup, I’m stealing Steve this year. It’s so nice to be able to spend Christmas together.

But I hope I didn’t make his birthday suck. We went out the day before to this pasta place downtown that I keep raving about. He agrees with me, so this is good. But we did that the day before, and then didn’t manage to open his presents until the day after. How lame is that. But at least he got lots of phone calls, emails, texts and tweets on his actual birthday.

We did manage to squeak in some Christmas fun with Steve’s family on Sunday, and we got lots of cool stuff. I also got to see Steve’s sister’s house for the first time.

On top of that, I got my Trix fix! I haven’t seen her since August. She still looks awesome. I finally got to give her a few pets, and she gave me a slow lap to the face. She’s definitely getting more reserved…or I’ve just gone way down in the pecking order. Anyway, it was good to see her. I have some Trix pics that I want to put up, so I’ll probably be able to write even more about her then. She even made it into a calendar that’s being sold to raise money for the Farley Foundation. Aww Trix, you continue to be a star even in your old age.

It was weird buying Trix Christmas presents because, in her old age, she has decided that if she can’t devour it, it’s no fun at all. On her last birthday, I bought her a duck toy. She loved toy ducks when she was younger. Not so much anymore. So it’s things that can be chomped or nothing.

But I think my best Christmas present I’ve gotten so far is I due believe I’m winning the battle against Captain Nameless Illness…who, judging from the success of the prescription I’m taking, I think has a name now. I will reveal the captain’s name soon, I think, but the most important thing is it doesn’t rule my life any more. I’m headed back to work in January, even if I start off with a lighter schedule. But I’m headed back! Yes!

I hope everybody has a super holiday, and an even better 2015. This year hasn’t been very kind to me, in fact I feel like, between the horrible winter, the gallbladder surgery and the captain, it has been stolen from me. It had a couple of high points, namely my brother’s wedding and Steve’s sister’s wedding, the second of which I still haven’t written about, but other than that, holy barrel of suck batman! I don’t know if Tansy will ever forgive me for not giving her the amount of work she signed up for. I asked for the energizer bunny and then I fell over. So far she seemms to be dealing with it pretty well, but sometimes I feel like I’ve cheated her. Hopefully 2015 will let me make up for it. Ready to walk your face off, Tansy?

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