Tuesday, December 28, 2004

So This Is Christmas

Best. Christmas. Evar. We headed down to Medicine Hat for Christmas again this year, and I have to admit it started out slow. We were commenting on how nice it was going to be to be in Australia away from the same old, same old. But boy were we wrong! Things picked up quite a bit over the next few days.

We played volleyball, which was fun. Becky, Dann, and I, were on the same team. We won 26-24. Things didn't look so good for a while then we ended up winning after getting a ton of serves right at the end.

The dinner on Christmas eve at my Aunt Celanie's was great as usual. We played pictionary, boys against the girls, and the girls cheated again as usual. By cheated I mean picking up new cards when they didn't like the first one they got.

Christmas morning, we went to my parents first to open presents. It was really fun. Tracie said that she was going to wake my parents up at 7:30 by jumping on their bed, but chickened out because she didn't want to see anyone naked by accident. She started playing Christmas songs on the piano at 8:00 and it worked just like my Dad playing "Turkey" in the Straw on his violin would have worked. The gifts were fun, if a little modest. The thing about my family is that we have everything we need, we buy the things we want, and we don't want other people to waste their money on us. That being said I loved all the presents I received.

After my parent's, we went to Tracie's parent's house to open presents. They had a DIY Christmas. Which I think I can safely say now, that I had originally thought was a dumb idea. I now know that it is a very good idea. The thing is you don't have to go to the mall at all if you are doing it yourself. The presents are just as good, and they are a lot more personal. I really hope they do it again in two years when we are back from Australia. It made the whole presents thing a lot more stress free for us.

It turns out that I am still jealous of other people's presents. Tracie's Dad got a free MP3 player with some purchase that he made, and he gave it to Becky. Just so that everyone knows, I am the nerd in this family, not Becky. I will also always be the nerd. Non-nerds like the rest of you should use CD's not MP3's.

After breakfast at the Daniels'z, we went back over to my parents'z to have Christmas dinner. It was amazing. Having a beautiful young wife, I don't get to eat a lot of roasts or turkeys and so I really enjoyed the turkey dinner at my mothers. The only sad part is that because I have changed my lifestyle I can only have one plate of food.

Speaking of diets, I have lost 25 lbs. It looks like I may have bottomed out at 220, so close yet so far from my goal. I guess I need a new goal. 210 by the end of March. I think that it is a reasonable goal. Especially since my New Year's resolution is no more soda pop. The success I have had over the last few months has really motivated me. I don't gorge myself anymore, and I went from size 40 pants to size 36.

Anyway, this post is getting a little long, so watch out tomorrow for my new philosophy about the purpose of board games.

-Gary Milner, internet superstar.

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