onefixedstar (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
onefixedstar) wrote2006-12-22 01:08 pm
onefixedstar) wrote2006-12-22 01:08 pm
Holiday time!
Of my four siblings, three have birthdays in December. When we were kids, this provided a great build-up to Christmas. The first birthday marked the beginning of the holiday season--and was usually accompanied by the decorating of the tree--and after that we had parties and cake and gifts nearly every weekend, leading up to the grand finale on Christmas Day. Of course, it also made my birthday in early January seem rather anticlimactic. Looking back, I pity my poor parents: four birthdays and Christmas in six weeks must have been awfully expensive. I also admire my mother's determination to see to it that we each got a separate and complete birthday celebration, with our own birthday cake and birthday presents wrapped in birthday paper. (Rather ironically, my youngest brother--who had the good sense to be born in late March, well away from the holiday season--is the only one who does not get a complete and separate birthday celebration every year. He shares his birthday with our father.)
Today is the last pre-Christmas sibling birthday, which means that Christmas is almost here. I think I'm actually ready. I finished my Christmas shopping yesterday, save for the one gift that was ordered online with the guarantee that it would be here by today, and which hasn't shown up yet. (I'm still hoping my empty mailbox means that the mail delivery is late today, and not that it's come and gone with not gift in sight.) I made truffles yesterday to take up to my parents' house on Christmas Eve (if I don't eat them first). I've mostly finished cleaning the apartment for the guests who will be staying here while I'm gone. Only a few more things are left on the errand list. Today and tomorrow are for marking exams and doing the final bit of cleaning, tonight is for dinner with the brother who lives far, far away, and Sunday night I get to hang out with all of my siblings in the same house, something we do far too rarely. I'm looking forward to it.
Today is the last pre-Christmas sibling birthday, which means that Christmas is almost here. I think I'm actually ready. I finished my Christmas shopping yesterday, save for the one gift that was ordered online with the guarantee that it would be here by today, and which hasn't shown up yet. (I'm still hoping my empty mailbox means that the mail delivery is late today, and not that it's come and gone with not gift in sight.) I made truffles yesterday to take up to my parents' house on Christmas Eve (if I don't eat them first). I've mostly finished cleaning the apartment for the guests who will be staying here while I'm gone. Only a few more things are left on the errand list. Today and tomorrow are for marking exams and doing the final bit of cleaning, tonight is for dinner with the brother who lives far, far away, and Sunday night I get to hang out with all of my siblings in the same house, something we do far too rarely. I'm looking forward to it.