I Survived!

Well I made it through Christmas, without too much mental scaring....I think.

I felt awful Friday night, and was really sick, but luckily I woke up feeling much better. This year we all slept pretty late, got up around 8:30ish, and didn't open presents till after 9. My sister Nikki got the most presents, but that is always the way. Since we got some new Wii games, Nikki and I played till our traditional crossiant breakfast was ready. After breaky, I got ready to head over to Nan and Pops in Bundoora. Nikki ended up coming with me, cause Dad and Scott went earlier. -I needed more time to get ready, and was planning on coming back earlier, so I took the extra car. Mum had lunch with Grandma and Grandpa down at their place, so she skipped the Sheehan lunch.
I never go to Nan and Pop's, and hadn't been for a year, so I got lost getting there, taking a wrong turn somewhere past Heidelberg. But after reading the melways, I managed to get us back on the right track and turned up with plenty of time to spare before lunch.
It was a pretty small turnout this year, with Me, Scott and Nic being the only grandkids there. My uncles were there, and my aunt, and my uncle's girlfriend. My Nan's brother Brian was there also. I didn't have much for lunch, just some chicken and veggies and garlic bread. There wasn't much for dessert.
My cousin Marcus and his wife Mirka turned up after lunch, and we chatted to them for a while. Then Nikki and I came home.

We relaxed, changed, and played a little Wii before heading down to Bentleigh. Scott came with us, and we got there just after 5:30pm. Mum's brother Neil and his wife, and my cousins Tracey and Jay were there when we got there. We chatted for a while. I was prety exhausted, but after some snacky food, felt a little better. My uncle Geoff and his wife turned up by 6. Then my cousin Luke and his wife Reagan turned up.
We had dinner around 8pm. I spent the night talking to Tracey about my trip - cause she was over there at the same time - only never in the same place, and playing Donkey Kong with Nikki, when things got boring.
For dinner I ate a lot of Turkey, some chicken, and other veggies and bread.
Tracey, Mum, Nikki and I got into the crackers - which 1 box had all the same joke...it was crazy, and not even a good joke! The other ones had a little more variety - and some actually cool prizes - like cards, measuring spoons, dominos, pencils etc.
All night my Grandpa wasn't looking very well, so he went to lie down. They ended up taking him and Grandma back to their nursing home, and the nurses took care of him. Hopefully he will improve, but they say he has pneumonia.
When my mum and Geoff got back from taking them, we had a little slide show. Neil found the slide projector and a bunch of slides in the garage, with great and hilarious pictures of my mum when she was little, and other family stuff. It was a lot of fun to laugh at the hair, the clothes and stuff.

The biggest issue all night, was that my mum's 2nd brother is fighting with the rest of them over what is happening with my Grandma and Grandpa. So he and his family didn't come over this year. Then the family spent all night bitching about them. Now I accept that people shouldn't be abusing or harrassing other family members, but bitching about stuff people did when they were little is just rediculous. I mean....move on, people change!
But I feel bad for my mum, she used to be pretty close with her brother, and now they are all fighting all the time, and my cousins are getting involved where they shouldn't...and I hate that my mum is forced to unload all her crap onto me...it sucks.

Overall it was a good day. I got some nice presents and most people were generally happy. I got some good presents.
-My brother got me a present, which I didn't expect. He got me a little pack from The Body Shop, which was very nice of him.
-My mum got me some PJ's with Gingerbread men on them from Peter Alexander, and some other stuff.
-We got Donkey Kong, Super Mario All Stars and The Sims 3(which is technically Nikki's) for the Wii.
-I got Valentines Day and Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory on dvd from Nikki
-I got Its Complated and a Pink cd from aunty Maree.
-I got some bath stuff from Lush and movie vouchers from Uncle Terry and Kim.
-and I got chocolates from Uncle Alan

Skipped the sales yesterday, but went down to Camberwell today and bought seasons 12 and 13 of ER with my JB vouchers since everything was 20% off. I also bought a top and some shorts from Just Jeans with the voucher I got from Jacinta for my b'day.

Not a bad couple of days!

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Carlie

Christmas Countdown

So less than a week till Christmas. I'm not really that excited. I think I'm officially in that slump between being too old for the kiddy stuff, and too young/unequiped to have control over my own stuff. But for some reason this year, I'm just not excited anymore...about any of it. I think the main thing is the family thing. -The family has become so split within the one house that even the simplest of old traditions no longer seem to happen.

I think part of the loss of the family traditions have come about because my sister is no longer little. I mean, when she was young enough to still believe in Santa and stuff, we all tried harder. We liked to do Christmas for her. Now she is so anti Christmas half the time, that it drives me crazy!

It wasn't just Santa that made Christmas fun in the old days...we had a bunch of things we did. -Now we were never big light people. I think that was all me, I try to get lights up every year, and this year I put up 1 set, and haven't bothered to put up the other 2 that I have sitting there yet. (To be fair the wet weather is not helping the situation)

Another tradition was to go to Myer and every family member would pick their own decoration for the tree, and we would all decorate the tree with the old decorations and finish with that years new collection. -They even had their own special section at the top of the tree. This year Mum and I picked ours, and we bought one on Nikki's behalf. Then my parents argued over how to put up the tree, and Nic and I decorated it ourselves before she gave up.

At least we will still probably have our breakfast tradition. Not that we EVER sit down to a meal as a family, but on Christmas morning, after presents, we always have crossants and whatever else people want at the table with crackers and everything. It was a nice little thing with just the five of us, before a day of extended family meals.

Okay so enough with the depressed Christmas Carlie.....This year will still be good, just different.

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Carlie

Christmas is Coming

So I've been busy the last few weeks. I was working for the State Election, which during election weekend I had to work both Saturday and Sunday...I did NOT love working all day on my Birthday.
I did manage to get to go out to dinner with Mum and Nikki, but it was a pretty pathetic dinner...I almost wonder why I bothered. Also the cake I got was dissapointing, not awful, just not what I was expecting from a cake called 'cookies and cream cake'. I did get Glee's Christmas album, which I listened to all day, and that cheered me up.
Because of Election week, I had my little b'day dinner with the gang the weekend before. Ness, Jacinta, Brett and I went to dinner at Michaelangelos. It was fun, good food, and then good cake.

The Friday after Election weekend, they didn't need us at work, so I tried to sleep in...but it didn't work. I still woke up early. I was so tired all day, that at one point I almost fell asleep...but my body doesn't let me nap. Saturday I slept in a little later, I think till 8...but I was still exhausted. That night I went to see Harry Potter with Jacinta. We had dinner at the Pancake Parlor, but they took forever with taking our order...At least we finally got our food - with plenty of time to spare, but who wants to wait around for food for ages?!
The movie was really good! But as usual there were some annoying people who would not shut up. I wonder if everyone has to deal with this ALL the time, or if I'm just a moron magnet?

Sunday I finally got a decent sleep in, but I was up late talking to people on twitter the night before...But for the first morning in days, I felt awake.
That night Ness and I did Kristin Christmas Movie night. We watched some Everwood of course, then watched Four Christmases, and Deck the Halls. Each time we watch those movies we marvel at how bad Four Christmases IS, and yet we keep watching. Damm our devotion to Kristin Chenoweth!

Monday morning I had to be early for work again, so my head was a tiny bit fuzzy all day, but not that bad really. Mum couldn't work because she had to do stuff for my Grandparents, so it was just me - which was fun. We had a lot to do, and were packing up all the stuff, when we found a whole bunch of stuff we hadn't gone through in one of the cupboards...so that was a little late afternoon frenzy. But once that was done, I was out of there at 5:30pm, and that was the end of that. So now I'm taking a break till after Christmas, when I start looking for jobs again.

Thursday night I went shopping at Chadstone with Mum for my Christmas present. I was looking for doona covers, but I just never like anything. I found a pair of shoes at Myer, so mum bought me those...with I guess more stuff to come later. lol. Chadstone was weird. I haven't been there since August! Things have changed! I was also trying to find the Glee calendar...for some reason no one seems to sell it here...which I find crazy! Its such a huge show, that I can't believe they wouldn't try to sell it here....especially when they sell such other crappy calendars here....I mean who would buy a Cougar Town calendar?!

Friday night I went to Ness' and we watched The Music Man, Everwood (finally into season 3...its progress :D ), then we did season 1 and 2 of The West Wing Christmas episodes. Such goood eps!

Yesterday we got our tree, now my house smells like pine. Almost all the decorations are up now. Just a few more sets of lights I can put up if I can decide where to put them, and if I can be bothered putting them up.
Still not sure what is happening Christmas Day...hopefully that will get sorted soon.


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Carlie