17 December 1999

I had a lovely day yesterday with my brother. He had to drop off his truck at the shop to have some routine maintenance done, so I picked him up there and dragged him shopping with me. We went to Sam's Club, Barnes and Noble, and a card and party good store, and then I took him out to lunch at Applebee's.

After lunch, I dropped him off at the mechanic's to pick up his truck, and we went back to my parents' house and made moon cookies. It's a pretty tedious process, and with only the two of us working, it took something like four hours. Mom was home from work shortly before we finished.

We talked with Mom for a while until Dad got home, and then Mom and Dad went out to Dad's office Christmas party. Oops. We'd sortof been hoping they'd volunteer to feed us. Oh, well, Matt had called to say he was working late, so I took John out to Cheddar's for dinner. After dinner, he remembered something that his finacee had hinted strongly that she'd like for Christmas, and Cheddar's is just across the parking lot from the mall where he could get said item, so we walked over and I helped him pick it out.

All in all, we spent about twelve hours together. And we didn't have one argument! It's an amazing record for my brother and I, really. (Which is not to say we didn't disagree. But we did it civilly and calmly. It was really quite astonishing.) We talked so constantly that my throat is a little raspy this morning.

Today's plans are much less glorious. Laundry. A grocery run for a few things that we can't wait until Monday to get. I'm going to call around to see if I can find this present I want to get for Matt, or maybe search for it online, though it's a little late to be ordering things online and expecting them in time for Christmas. Printing and mailing New Year's party invitations. Depending on how Matt feels by the time he gets back from D.C., we may go pick up my brother and maybe my parents and go see the Christmas House.

It'll be good to have a day to relax.

I need to post a correction. I misquoted Matt yesterday when I said that Santa stopped loving you if you opened Christmas presents early. What he actually said was that Santa smites you if you open your presents early. When I asked him exactly how Santa smites naughty children, I was told that a giant candy-cane - the size of a telephone pole - comes rocketing in from orbit (at at least Mach 4, he assured me) and obliterates the person in question. I asked him how he knew, and he said he knew a kid who'd tried to peek... They'd found his nose clear across the state line.

So be warned, kids, sniffing around the Christmas tree! And beware of falling candy canes.