Christmas!

Christmas just kind of sneaked up on me this year, to be honest. I organized a family gift exchange again this year, and I didn't buy gifts until a week before. They didn't get to my brother on time. Well, one did, but his 9 pound cast iron skillet didn't - it's supposed to get there tomorrow. I'm still working on presents! My dad came to get me on very short notice due to weather conditions, and I went back to my parents' house. I cooked and baked for three straight days with my mom - I love cooking, but it was REALLY tiring. My dad was being kind of immature about things on Christmas Eve and so we ended up opening presents the morning of the 25th at his request, and after that he got better. I got an external hard drive from the gift exchange (yay I can back up my stuff!), a pink, brown and white plaid cashmere scarf (from when my brother and sister-in-law honeymooned in Italy), two pairs of much needed pajama pants from my other brother, money from my parents (it's going toward new clothes), and a DVD of Base Ball Bear's music videos from Ty (with an unreleased song on the credits!!), plus a few more surprise presents he's bringing home for me today. He also said he found me raspberry ginger ale, which I have fond memories of drinking when I was a little girl, and which I have not been able to find in any grocery store (but he did when he went home)!

Best part: Nobody made me go to church. I did hear about how my parents don't like that none of their kids buy into being religious despite their best efforts. My dad doesn't understand, though...he thinks "all those liberals" are out to "destroy Christmas" by calling it "the holidays" instead. I asked him if that was more Fox News brainwashing. I think my dad feels like he can unload all his political baggage on me because of who I work for. Just because I work for government doesn't mean I'm interested in hearing you talk about your political beliefs, especially when you don't let me explain why I believe what I do (which is very different from what you believe). I want to tell him that I don't subscribe to religion because it kills people - people do horrible things to each other in the name of beings that probably do not exist and that we have no way of proving the existence of. Everyone thinks their belief system is the best, and especially in the case of Christians, many try to push it onto everyone they know. Religion does not instill morality or control in society. People are dumb, but nonetheless smart enough to know that the wrath of an invisible man in the sky will not be wrought upon them the second they violate rules people have made up for themselves - and those who do believe it are scared. Take a family I know: the daughter is by far the most religious, and also the most disagreeable, maladjusted, and angry. My older brothers have proven to me that you do not need religion to be morally sound, have healthy and meaningful relationships, and enjoy life.

I read the majority of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood over the break - a typically sort of depressing Japanese novel, but I couldn't put it down. Now I get to start on Mother Tongue! I've always liked Özdamar's writing since a professor translated part of one of her books from German and read it to us in his class. Her writing includes a lot of the mundane but cute and happy things - the happiness of living in the moment, even in foreign surroundings. I think another reason I like her writing is that she writes about the experience of being foreign and exploring and adapting to a place new to her (she's Turkish but permanently moved to Germany when she was young).

It definitely felt like Christmas outside, with a foot and a half of snow on the ground and arm aches from shoveling the driveway. Ours is long and narrow, so we really don't have anywhere to go with it except the sides, which I realized yesterday is not even a good idea because I came back from my parents' house and found some of the musical equipment sitting in 1/2" of water in a pretty unlikely place. Thankfully nothing was powered on and the important parts were not wet, so I just got them up off the floor, cleaned up the cold water and hung up the rug. That's the nice thing about electronics - if they aren't powered on when they get filled with water, most of the time they will be just fine if you let them COMPLETELY dry out before powering on again.

I have been fascinated with Perfume lately, and am really glad they'll be on Kouhaku Utagassen this year (along with Mr.Children and a surprisingly large number of artists I like)! I may actually download and watch it this time! I do wish they'd picked a different song to perform, though. I think that I will always like Electro World. What I like about them so much is that they went through a LOT of hard work to get famous (as opposed to being entirely manufactured), and happened to catch some really good luck just as they were seriously considering throwing in the towel. I also like that they're pop stars who do their own dances for everything, unlike so many others that should dance and don't. I can sort of understand if you don't dance for live performances because very few people can breathe hard and sing well at the same time, but come on! You don't even have to sing well (if at all) for a video and you can't be more entertaining than standing still and doing those horribly contrived hand movements? In short, I believe Perfume has a lot more genuine credibility and talent than most singing groups out there, and they're a lot more deserving of attention, which I am glad they got before they decided to give up. In any case, you have to be decently tough to dance like that in heels for an entire evening. I'm glad they got some fashion direction (90% of their earlier outfits and costumes were crazy in a bad way), and they have one hell of a guy writing their songs. Now if only they would get their hands into writing some of their music or lyrics...

I will leave you with some pictures from Thanksgiving and Christmas at my parents' house.