(no subject)

[zana16]

I am feeling surprisingly domestic these days.... The stollen is rising, the rice pudding will soon be simmering, the tree (well, juniper bush) is cut, the table it goes on is repaired (carpentry!), the trailer has electricity, most presents are bought (though not wrapped), laundry is going, grocery shopping is done, and next I need to clean the house. Oh, and maybe put up some insulation in the attic. My dad also wants us to sort through all the old computer parts (some of them run QDOS, and some are even older!). More relatives have arrived, including one who I had never met. The car, as usual, is on the verge of breaking down. Going to the bookstore to buy books as Christmas presents resulted in me buying a lot of books for me. Everyone keeps asking me what I'm going to be doing next year, which is most annoying. The tree is trimmed, the stockings are not found--oh, the joys of not having had a house for six years: it is impossible to find anything because invariably the Christmas stuff is in a box marked "brewing supplies" and the brewing supplies in a box marked "kitchen--fragile". More relatives arrive after Christmas, so my parents are running around like chickens with their heads cut off, and to top it all off, it's pie season. Chip wants blueberry pie, there have been requests for apple, blackberry, pumpkin, strawberry rhubarb, pecan, green tomato, and who knows what else. My dad wants to make a Shaker lemon pie (sweet, sour, and bitter, just like life), and I haven't even voiced my vote for cherry because if I do my dad'll throw his hands up and not make any. If you can't tell, my father makes very good pies, and the relatives take advantage of this. Forget Christmas dinner--in my family, it's the pies that are the course that everyone looks forward to. Everything continues to be a flurry of mess and noise until early January, after my brother's birthday and New Year's have passed. Meanwhile, I keep running over to the neighbors (my grandparents) for powdered sugar, short grain white rice, milk, butter, what have you. Then there is the age-old "You can't use the tapwater, you need filtered water!" and "This tap is unfiltered, this one is filtered, this one is filtered when it's cold water but not when it's hot water" and "Damn it, the water pump still isn't working, we have no water pressure" and "You do realize this cottage cheese expired over a month and a half ago?" "Taste it, maybe it's still good" "You taste it" and "where's the rum?" (making stollen) and "Granddad, the expiration date on these eggs is last May" "No, they're still good, I just had one the other day", to which I do not voice the the other day when you had to be hospitalized? and try to discreetly compost the eggs without them noticing. We have enough food to feed a small army but not enough dishes for all the relatives around the table. Apparently last Christmas at the family reunion there were 26 people; I have no clue how they managed. I get stressed just thinking about it.

Update: one squabble and two near-squabbles with my father; stepmother is being surprisingly good about my brother being home; I sang the "I'm bringing home a baby orliphaunt" to my baby brother and he decided I'd gone batty. Baby brother has gotten even taller. Will he never stop growing? 6'6" is definitely enough. He still doesn't really talk, except about odd TV shows, and of course he managed not to buy a single gift for anyone until yesterday.

Should go now. Must find the gifts I so cleverly hid from their recipients, and no longer remember where I hid them. Am rather limited on the count of "what do you mean, I can't use this bathroom?" "Your present is in there" count. My family is nuts.

Merry Christmas, all.