the aftermath

so, christmas is over: the presents have been opened, the left-overs are glad-wrapped and a whole of people are going to have a bit of trouble getting out of bed this morning. not me; i'm on antibiotics, so no alcohol for me (not that i drink much, anyway).

usually my family opens the presents before breakfast, then our half-brothers matt and mick, grandma, nan (dad's mum), uncle laurence (mum's bro - not dad's family, there are a few issues) and his partner, her son and (as of recently) her sister come round and we have lunch. (mick's girlfriend yuko would've come also, except she's in japan at the mo'.) then open more presents.

instead, we slept in (signs of children growing up, sleeping in on christmas day), waited til ally (older sis) came back from work (red rooter opens 'til 1pm on christmas day), then had a massive present-opening. takes me back to the old days when we used to see our extended family on mum's side - 2nd cousins and that - at christmas. i like having cousins. frank (uncle's partner's son) is a fun kid (especially when his attempts at bluffing give me all his money in poker), and his english has gotten pretty good in the past 12 months or so, if he is still shy.

so yeah, we played poker and rickety kate (another name for microsoft hearts, only you can - not that we do - play with different rules), ally and i did garlic prawns for dinner, and dad went out on christmas day to get my repeat of antibiotics for my deafening ear infection. i feel so loved.

this post has entirely too many parentheses.

anyway, i cleaned up alright, what with various crafty things and books and such (1 of 6, my older bro matt's getting pretty good - he bought us jewellery!), and more beads than anyone could possibly need in their lifetime. i don't know when i'll have the time to sort through them all. the bead co. shop up at hursty changed to empire beads, so they chuck out bags of beads for $16. if you saw what was in those bags, you'd realise the bargain that it is; some of the beads in their cost a fortune. and i have 37 (38 but i gave one to grandma) miniature (thumbnail-sized) gold handbags. yes. handbags. i dunno what i'm going to do with them. maybe decorate someting. like a handbag.

oh, yeah, and money, which is especially useful. it should keep me going until i get a job, which i'll have to really start looking for even more when i return from mission. yes, i'm going on a christian beach mission (third year) down the coast, ministering to and running activities for kids in years 3-6 in the caravan park. there are other groups catering for littler kids, high school kids, year 12 and uni age peeps, and ladies' craft and s[ecret]m[en's]b[usiness]. it'll be a hoot. i miss them more than i thought i did. hopefully the bad-will in sydney hasn't spread down there - the campers are there to relax, mostly, so they'll probably react angrily towards trouble-makers. wondering whether that's good or bad.

so, see you in a few. 12 days. whatever.