Dec. 14th, 2009

mellicious: Quote from Buffy the Vampire Slayer's 1st episode: "The earth is doomed." (Xmas excess)
This was the Holidailies prompt for yesterday:
Tell us about an odd-but-beloved holiday tradition you or your family celebrate.

And I wasn't intending to write about ours because I was sure I had written about it before, but if I did it's gone - at least, I couldn't find it on Livejournal, so if I did it was on Diary-X or some other mysterious place, no idea. I checked every Christmas Eve or thereabouts back as far as my LJ goes - which is 2004, although really I didn't move over here full-time until 2006 or so, I think. And it's a Christmas Eve tradition so that's when I would have thought to write about it. It's the only weird holiday tradition I can think of in my family - so I guess that means I get to tell this story again, after all.

It's not really so much a story, anyway; it's just a thing. This little random thing that I've never heard anybody else anywhere mention as a family tradition, so I don't know where it came from or anything about it. It came from my maternal grandmother, as far as I know, and I would guess that possibly it's Czech, because my mother's family was from there, except that it was the other side of the family that came over from Moravia - that is, my mother's father's side, not her mother's. My grandmother didn't pick up on any other Czech family traditions that I know of, so I can't imagine that she would have just picked this one up and run with it. It's a mystery.

Well, anyway, all it is is this: on Christmas Eve, my grandmother and mother would go around kissing/hugging people (they did primarily stick to family members) and saying "Christmas Eve Gift!" Because - I guess - the kiss was the gift, you see. It got to be this family joke. And now that both of them are gone, my sister and I say it to each other, and maybe to Aunt Linda and some of the cousins, because they're the only ones who know what the heck we're talking about. It's this weird little stranded tradition, and it's sort of sad and sweet and funny, all at once.


My parents, 1960 (which would also have been my first Christmas)


Note: apparently I was asleep, or something, when I looked to see if I had posted about this before. There's a much more concise rendition of the story right here, from last Christmas Eve.

mellicious: Quote from Buffy the Vampire Slayer's 1st episode: "The earth is doomed." (Xmas - Mr Darcy)
(Written during the wee hours last night.)

I have a cold so I am an unhappy camper. I am sneezing and sniffling and hoping I don't have the flu - although I'm not all achy and stuff so probably not.

I am still not getting much studying done, but at least being sick gives me a bit of an excuse. I watched the last episodes of "The Vicar of Dibley" last night, which I got it from Netflix and I had never seen before. I think the disk was called "Holy Wholly Happy Ending" (or was it "Wholly Holy"? I dunno) and it had the last two episodes on it - although according to IMDb, there was also apparently a Comic Relief special which aired after these, so they weren't technically the last. Anyway, I have watched scattered episodes of this show over the years but I hadn't seen these. And actually, apparently scattered episodes is all there are, really - I didn't realize it but they only ever made 24 episodes (in over 10 years) including the various specials. Actually it looked like it got to be like Dr. Who has been lately - all specials. British TV is weird sometimes.

I knew I recognized the guy who played the Vicar's love interest but I had to look it up to figure out why he looked so familiar. His name is Richard Armitage, and he plays Guy of Gisbourne on the BBC version of "Robin Hood" - which I have been watching again lately, somewhat to my shame. I decided the reason I didn't recognize him even though I saw him on the (very) last episode just last week was because Guy of Gisbourne never smiles. Seriously, I really honestly think that character never smiled once in the whole series. Very angsty - so when I saw him smiling and acting like a normal guy I couldn't make the connection.

I have also watched Wall-E several times in the last few days. And the commentary. And also Enchanted. I think I want happy endings at the moment, or something.

I have done some more cards but I still haven't put the tree up. I did sort of clear a space for it just now. (I am having a fit of semi-productivity. I also changed the toilet paper and plugged Rob's cell phone into the charger for him, because it's one of those things he never does himself.)

On the cold front (so to speak), I keep taking more and more pills:
Besides the antidepressants and sleep aids I take all the time, I have had:
a Zyrtec 24 hour
generic Sudafed (2)
a baby aspirin
an Aleve
a Mucinex

(OK, most of that is stuff I take all the time, really. I guess it's the Mucinex, and the way I keep adding more, that makes it feel over the top.)

I have also been attempting to study, but I'm reading the section about the nose, which is just making me more aware of how itchy/runny/miserable my nose currently feels. Ugh.

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