winter holiday recap
Whatever you celebrate to mark the winter solstice (summer solstice, if you're in the southern hemisphere), I hope you had a good one. Even though I'm an atheist, that doesn't usually exempt me from the annual gift exchange. This year, though, what exempted me was poverty. I scored loot anyway:

• green towels, which match other towels I already own.
• snowflake pyjamas
• a black cocktail dress and two purses
• an exercise thingy for ab crunches (apparently, mistakenly given to me. I'll get my real gift-- a Pilates string contraption -- in the mail.)
• a huge king size fuzzy comforter with a tulip design on it
• $100 cash money

I suppose it's not a surprise that all these presents are from my family, and if you're creative, you can invent your own interesting narrative that would serve to illustrate my family dynamics.

I don't know if you could tell, but I'm pretty Scroogey, because of some crappy Christmases past. This year surprised me. I hung out with my aunt on Christmas day, and we just casually let people know we had stuff that they could eat. More than a dozen people showed up at the same time for dinner, which meant I had to go out and search for food. The only full-service store that was open was the Asian grocery, but that was not a problem, given that we're Asians and all.

Our Christmas was eating Chinese roast chicken and deep-fried tilapia in shifts, because there wasn't enough room at the table. Then we spread our butts on on every available surface, including the floor, because there wasn't enough chairs for everyone who showed up. We spent the evening watching "World Idol" together and opined on the high-rent karaoke singers who performed.

It was nothing anyone could have planned, but I'm probably not so Scroogey as I was a week ago. I think it means a few less "Bah Humbugs" next year.