Current mood:	tired
Entry tags:	blog, family, holidays

Well, I survived that holiday. And so I must blog.

My parents made it down and back, despite the less than optimal weather, though it took them nearly twice as long as normal to drive back, thanks to the snow on Sunday.  I wish they lived closer so I could spend time with them more often.  We had good food and hung out and talked, since it was too cold to really do much out of doors.  (Or we're wussy, take your pick.)

But we did have a good time talking about a book my mom's reading about how exercise is good for the brain, as well as being good for the body and good for one's mood.  And about politics, and religion, and all those other things you're not supposed to talk about.  My parents are nice people, despite being raised by crazy people.  I'm not quite sure how that happened.

 

On Saturday, we helped my grandparents decorate their church for Christmas, which was pretty fun.  It helped that the minister (or whatever it is Methodists have) and a number of other church-goers were there, so it wasn't just us and my grandparents.  I still have sore thighs from crawling around putting tree skirts under all the trees - who knew that was such good exercise?

No one asked me about my religion or what church I went to or anything, even though it came up that I live in town.  I figure they just assumed I lived in a different part of town or am something other than a Methodist (which I am, though not, perhaps, how they assumed).  And the minister was a nice guy and very down on Focus on the Family (funny how nice religious folk tend to be).  Aside from a quick prayer before the terrible canned soup that they surved us (and the tape of Christmas music that was playing while we worked), there was no religion for my mom to have trouble with.  (And the minister kept trying to end the prayer before my grandmother, who was chosen to lead it, was done.  Which was odd and rather did in the religiousness of that moment.)

I genuinely like Christmas trees and secular-type decorations (As long as it's not Santa.  I hate Santa.  Creepy perv voyer who breaks into houses.  Yuch.) and a lot of traditional Christmas music.  The trees and wreaths and colored lights and colorful ornaments and music was always part of the holiday growing up, even though I was raised by two atheists. The fact that most of that is left over from pre-Christian midwinter festivals might explain it, or it might be a little like how some Jewish people celebrate their traditional holidays, even though they aren't religious.  I don't know.  But I did have fun decorating the church.

(I've considered finding a not-terribly religious church - Unitarian, perhaps - just to expand my social circle.  But that seems a bit sacreligious.)

For some reason, my parents felt obligated to eat the nasty canned soup.  I suppose it's social courtesy, but after spending a year sick, any urge I might have had to eat food I know will make me ill is gone.  So we had to go get me a snack and them stomach remedy before going over to my grandparents to play cards.

Playing cards is the only thing its possible to do with my grandparents, and its barely possible to do that now that my grandmother is losing her hearing.  And let me tell you, there is nothing worse than a person who has never listened to anyone anyway who's going deaf.  She has no desire to get a hearing aid because she now has the perfect excuse not to listen to a damn thing anyone says.  I have no idea how my grandfather puts up with her.  (For so many reasons.)  But even the card game related conversation was almost impossible - we kept having to shout at her.  I swear, I'm bringing a chalk board next time and just not bothering to talk to her.

We did manage to go out to eat with them, though, avoiding their horrible and possibly harmful food.  (How my grandmother hasn't killed people with food poisoning is beyond me.)  And my grandmother, aside from the deafness, was on decent behavior.  Although, after dinner, she foisted desert off on my parents - who ate it. -_-  What is with them and eating bad food?  I don't get it.  For me, my health outweighs social conventions.  Also, my grandmother has spent her entire life ignoring social conventions, so why the hell should I have to "be good" to someone who never is?  (Seriously, she used to bring my parents tons of half-rotten fruit they bought at roadside stands whenever they'd visit.  She never bothered to learn that her son hates walnuts and would bring walnuts and baked goods with walnuts.  She eats off other people's plates.  She asks people questions and walks off before they answer (before she was deaf).  She used to go into my room and go through my stuff.  She opens other people's mail if it gets misdelivered, before giving it to the people.  She went through a wallet she found in the church parking lot and gossuped about what she found in it, before giving it back to the person it belonged to.  She brings home anything not nailed down that she passes on her walks.  Seriously.  Kids toys, furniture, even an expensive leather jacket.)  So, yeah, I'm not bothering with social conventions where she's concerned.

Still, for a visit with them, things went pretty well.  I hope Christmas manages to be equally...passible.