Dad and Mom loved the gifts I gave them and that is all that matters to me. Merry “foot” Christmas. Yes, I told my sister, “You’re Sorry? Sorry my foot!” All in all though, it was a great day. I laughed to the point I got hiccups, got smacked in the face with a germ, dirt and slobber infested chew toy and my parents were apparently moved by my gifts. All is good in the world.

Monday night I wrapped my mom’s presents for my sister, my E. brother’s girlfriend and my dad. Usually it is my second brother wrapping up the gifts. This year it is me. I couldn’t help but think with a grin, “Damn… I feel like Santa’s little helper.” Except I doubt Santa’s little helper curses… Bad me. Oops.
After everyone went to bed I went back to a simple drawing I started a week or so ago. I added in the background and what not. I found it a bit ironic that it was a winter scene. After that I might have worked on a concept story I started a long time ago.
Tuesday afternoon I worked up the nerve to call a place I ordered two gifts from. Sadly what they say on the site and what they say on the automated voice machine are two different time zones so overall I think I missed them. All in all I found it nerve wracking since I pretty much am nervous using phones and the automated voice made it even more difficult to follow what was being said.
Tuesday night I helped my mom think up things to put in a gift basket for my brother. It was a basket of necessities like soap, shampoo, tooth paste and such. There were also stocking stuffers to get and what not. I commented she went against her intentions to do no gifts this year. She said it was hard to break tradition.
Late into the night I decided to grab the scanner and load the finished picture onto my computer. Since the two gifts I ordered were apparently not going to happen, I decided to do the next best thing. I scanned it in, colored it in shades of black and white and in the end really liked it. It was now a card. I think after that I worked on that story a bit more.
Wednesday morning my dad went to Wal-Mart to pick up a gift for Mom and get the stock stuffers. I was a bit put off. I wanted to get stocking stuffers. Oh well. I also mentioned to him later that going that early was a waste of time since we would end up stopping by there later in the day for other things.
Around eleven thirty I try calling the place again and to my luck I understood what was being said better, dialed in an extension line and happily got a real person. It seemed one of the things I ordered was no longer manufactured. So, taking time, the lady helped me the best she could, I found another item of similar qualities and asked if it was in stock. it was. I ordered that, changed the note and hopefully it will be shipped by next week. Sigh… late Christmas gift. After the call, simply put my nerves and anxiety left me feeling rather sick.
Around noon my dad came home. We had to put off going to get groceries to one he said. My brother was borrowing the car. It changed to two however because of troubles at my brother’s workplace. In the time between I put the stocking stuffers into order.
Well, my brother came by; we filed into the car, dropped him off at work and headed out to shop. We went to Albertson’s to get groceries. It was a maze for us since we rarely ever enter the place. We got supplies for Christmas dinner and other things simply needed for the rest of the week. After that we left to the outlet mall here. I bought my mom some slippers. In the end she apparently decided she wished to have house slippers, a sewing machine and a collage of the family. This was decided on Monday or Tuesday night, of course.
Dad and I then headed to Wal-Mart to get what was left on the gift list. I got my brother fourteen pairs of thick socks since he wears his out quickly from standing all the time at work. Dad got a picture frame for that collage my mother wanted. After that we headed home and put up the groceries around four.
Once that was done, I wrapped the three gifts we got. Dad left to get ice. I finished the work around five and my mom came home. By then Dad had left to bring my brother back from work. Brother was to stay over for the night. The two of them stopped by Wendy’s and got us dinner. I ate my fill and then decided to lie down. My sleep was not decent the night before and then there was the nerve-wracking phone call, shopping, lights, sounds and what not… I expended more energy than usual.
I suppose I hit the bed around five-thirty or six. I woke again around eleven-thirty. I did some chores, drank the rest of my watered down Diet Coke, read, let my brother borrow a frozen pizza from me, ate some toast and eventually saw Shred on messenger. We talked a bit and caught up on a few things… It was nice.
I stayed up the rest of the night. Around five-fifteen I sent the email card. I meandered out of my room around five-twenty, checked on my cat and said hi to my parents. My mom talked to me a moment and she thanked me for doing all I’ve done – gift wrapping and such. She then slipped though. She said, “It’s a shame you don’t-” I smirked and finished for her, “I don’t have anything to open?” She was caught. I told her she should make up for it by making me good food to eat and left to take one of my “five minutes or less” showers. After that I was becoming considerably hungry and fixed a bowl of cereal.
Now I am here. I might go back to sleep after eating the rest of this cereal before me.