Happy Christmas, everyone!

It was a good day. I got to sleep in, a little (until 7:45am), and then I got up, cooked breakfast for the parental units (who are staying in my bed; I’m sleeping in an empty dormitory room), and we unpacked our stockings. Then we drove to my cousin Megan’s house in Providence, where we opened presents, drank champagne, ate shrimp and oysters, and eventually sat down to a roast beef dinner.

After dinner, I ate four amazingly good chocolates and curled up with one of my new books, Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling. It’s almost enough to make you want to run a Renaissance artists roleplaying game. Thick with intrigue about who should paint what rooms in the Pope’s palace, it’s a history of a roof we all think we know well, and probably don’t.

Also received the History of Everything, which is the story of the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, and a book I’d place on my Thumping Good Reads of 2003 List. Leah gave me Neil Gaiman’s new Sandman book, Endless Nights, and a new notbook that looks like a grimoire, and a leather shirt (!), and some other cool stuff. My Aunt Linda got me some kitchen equipment which looks pretty good, and Dad got me some new shirts and cufflinks and a pocket knife. And Mom got me a new set of drawing pencils and a sketch book, and a book about drawing for beginners. Looks like I have my work cut out for me in 2004.

Mom wants to watch Dogma by Kevin Smith tonight, so that’s probably what I’m going to put on the TV in a bit. She also just read the poem I wrote on visiting Walden Pond, and her brow creased, which is about as close as she usually gets to passionate thought. She said it was good, and she wanted to analyze it in great detail, but I’m not sure my explanation pleased her. I’m still looking forward to performing it at a reading or in a slam sometime soon.

Happy Christmas, again, everybody!

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