christmas day

At midnight, when superparents around the world (or the block) were climbing onto their roofs in faux reindeer hooves and sleigh bells to create the magic of the real meaning of Christmas for their kids, I was in church, getting burned by wax, at a candlelight service at my mom's church.  I tried to get out of it this year; I was annoyed, tired, and cold, and my sweatshirt and sweats were so much more appealing than pretty much anything else I could wear.  Alas, I lost that battle, because at Christmas, my mom gets what she wants, at least, she does from me (hence, my solidly cemented "golden child" status).

I woke up this morning just after 7AM to a dog barreling through my bedroom door that doesn't close all the way, activating the winds chimes that are inexplicably hanging on the back of it, after which, he stood extremely still at the edge of the bed, stared me down, and waited for me to open my eyes, move or grunt.   And with a very slight shift of my foot, the mutt pounced on my bed and started licking my face and hand.  I don't ever remember being that obnoxious on Christmas morning; I certainly never licked my mother, though I also never waited until past 6AM to wake her up, so I guess it's give and take.  He escorted me into the living room where I was pleasantly surprised that I was, in fact, not on Santa's naughty list this year (hooray!)...I guess Santa isn't always watching, kids (*wink*).

However, before the traditional gift distro and opening was tackled, I had two very important items of business to take care of--find an open Starbucks, and find an open grocery store.  Sacramento is not like Los Angeles, things actually shut down on Christmas, and I had to travel outside of the neighborhood to find a Starbucks.

To take care of this second very important thing, I had to travel outside of my comfort zone.  Those of you who know me (not biblically), know that I do not typically shop at places that have any of the following in their name: a number, "Sav-" "Valu-" or "Mart."  However, desperate times call for desperate measures, and when no other place is open and a key ingredient needed for the holiday is missing, one must do what one must do, and SaveMart, the double whammy of grocery stores, was what I had to do.

I was only slightly mortified when at 8:20AM, the checkout clerk called out, "Can we please get assistance for this lady right here at the liquor cabinet?" over the abnormally loud PA system.  I say "slightly" because the people that were shopping at this one store didn't seem to be the type that would care too much about such a request at such a time of day.

And PS, check out that sale price!  SaveMart, indeed.

I came home, gifts were opened, and everyone was pretty happy.  Wondermutt got some new squeak toys, bones, and the poop bags he's been eyeing, and my gramma seemed to be pretty excited about that IHOP gift card I got her; I'm pretty sure that was the pièce de résistance.  Although, I did get The Neverending Story on DVD and that's like getting a part of my childhood back (Falcor!).  Kinda hard to top that.

Here's hoping your Christmas Day is shaping up to be just as FUNderful...or at least you, too, have a bottle of something that can make it FUNderful.  Cheers!