It's the most wonderful time of the year

I'm home from school, and I've spent the majority of my time doing absolutely nothing but fucking around on the internet and watching tv. It's glorious. I really need to wrap Christmas presents, but I keep putting that task off. I HATE wrapping presents. Actually, I enjoy picking out paper and ribbon, but putting it all together into an attractive package is difficult for me. I'm not very mechanically savvy, and wrapping presents is just not in my tool bag. I swear, I need a tutorial. Gift Wrapping For Dummies or something.

I'm dreading this Sunday, because we're doing Christmas with my brother-in-law's family. Not that I don't like them (well, I like most of them), but his mom has insisted we go to church. I'm not religious. I can count on one hand the number of Sunday church services I have attended. I know I'll just have to suck it up and sit and suffer, but I'm particularly worried about Nathan. He's not good about sitting still and being quiet (what two year old is?) and we'll have to leave the service and go to lunch, then get presents, and all this is happening during his normal nap time, which could spell trouble. Last year, Christmas was a disaster, because Nathan's older cousins (much older--18, 16, 13, and 11) all freaked the fuck out in anticipation of their presents, yelling and hollering and insisting on getting their gifts first, leaving the toddler to cry in frustration. It was chaos. Poor Nathan, wailing, looked across the room, saw me standing there calmly and quietly, and immediately made a bee-line in my direction. I had to take him into the kitchen away from everyone to get him to calm down. Alli and I were NOT happy with the situation. His cousins were acting like spoiled brats, thinking they were more entitled to their gifts than a tired, confused child. That shit better not happen this year.

Our neighbors have put up their Christmas lights, which we call H.U.B.B.L.E.--Hideously Ugly Blinking Blue Light Extravaganza. It's blue icicle lights (I hate icicle lights, especially when people leave them up year round, like a lot of people here in Redneckville do), but they are two different shades of blue. Half of the lights are also clear icicle lights, and half of the lights blink while the others don't. It's the kind of display that makes you wonder how someone could step back and think, "hey, that looks good." And it's a shame that their Christmas lights are so ugly, because their house is beautiful, nicely landscaped with an incredible pool.

Also, I don't know what I'm getting for Christmas except for one thing (new perfume) and for once I'm not inclined to go present hunting. My sister always "hides" the presents in her closet so it's super easy to snoop, but I'm not going to. I haven't asked for anything in particular, so I'm willing to be surprised by whatever Alli gets me.

This is off-topic, but why is the radio playing the same twenty songs over and over again? There is more in this world than Nickelback and Akon. I think it's time to break out my ipod, which I got for Christmas three years ago. Hey, I made this point on topic after all!