December 24, 2007 | | Personal stuff

We got in late last night. The trip wasn’t that bad, but I think it’s shortness was the key. If we had stayed longer, it would have been pretty bad. My boyfriend’s parents are ok in small doses.

Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way:

1. I HATE their bathroom. They have ZERO water pressure, so taking a shower is like trying to wash your hair under Chinese Water Torture. Ugh. Both his parent have REALLY LONG hair (yes, even his step-father) and I just don’t understand how they deal with that. The toilet is equally fucked and you can’t put toilet paper in it. Helpful.
2. They invited the WHOLE family over for a “dinner in your honor” and it was pretty much how I described including the added bonus of his niece (cousin?) announcing her pregnancy. She’s maybe eighteen years old? Her sister who is only a few years older already has two kids. They ALL still live with their mom/grandmother. So yeah. You may think the Spears’ family is fucked up, but this is not an uncommon thing in the South.
3. Two words: No internet.
4. Along with canceling their internet (it way too expensive at $32 a month, don’t you know (BTW- I would kill to only pay $32 a month for internet)), they also canceled their cable. So they sit around and watch DVDs over and over and over again. We watched this one movie with The Rock and Stifler (from American Pie) about 3 times. If I NEVER see a movie with The Rock in it again, I can die a happy person.

The Good Stuff:

1. The Present situation was better than I expected. I mean, I could be all nitpicky and bitchy about it, but I’m not. I still would have rather they got us nothing at all, because we did get a bunch of random things that we’ll never use, but we got a few nice items (on sale at Walmart, which we know because they forgot/purposely didn’t take the tags off): a large grill/griddle, a DVD we wanted, some clothes that actually fit (that’s never happened before) and a webcam (not sure we’ll use it, but considering both of our careers, it’s a thoughtful gift).
2. They seemed to really like all the stuff we got for them. I think we wound up spending more than half of that money they sent us on their presents (the other half on gas), so now I don’t feel as bad about taking it. His mom collects Santas, so we found a neat Santa statue for her. We also got her a pretty turquoise vase that matches the Native American theme of her kitchen. We went down to the Harley Davidson store at the airport and got the most expensive t-shirt ever made for his step-dad. Seriously, $40 for a freaking t-shirt! WTF Harley Davidson! We also got an equally over-priced key chain. Whatever. He liked it. Lastly, we stopped at Barnes and Noble and got a bunch of coffee table type books that were on sale. The funny thing is that they thought we spent soo much money on those books! They don’t have a B&N anywhere near (and have probably never been to one) so they have no idea how cheap those things are.
3. My boyfriend found out they hadn’t seen the newest Batman movie (which is weird considering all they do is watch movies, but I guess since their idea of a good movie is one that stars The Rock, it makes sense) so we went over to Walmart and picked up a copy for them. We all watched it together and they agreed it was really good.
4. They had gotten a new mattress since we last visited and put their old one in the guest room, so we got to sleep on a real bed this time as opposed to an air mattress. SOOO much better.
5. The food at our big dinner was really good, which made the whole thing almost bearable. They made about a million kinds of cookies and deserts and a really good ham and all the other holidays basics (potatoes, green beans, etc.).
6. I made white chocolate peppermint bark and brought it up as gift and while I don’t think my boyfriend’s mother liked it, his step-father LOVED it and lots of his family commented how good it was and asked me for the recipe. So I’m happy about that as I wasn’t sure how it would be received. I think I will start making it every Christmas.
7. We went up the mountain and drove around my old town and I took lots of pictures. I also visited my mom’s grave, which I haven’t done a LONG time. Then we went over to our high school and walked around (it’s changed soo much, but in a lot of ways it’s the same old place). We ran into our old art teacher (art class is one of the reasons we got together and we were both fairly close to her) and caught up with her. It was good stuff. I’ll probably write another post about that later.
8. It wasn’t as cold as I wanted it to be, but it was still cold enough for a coat. That’s better than Florida. Of course, it got really cold on Sunday when we left, though. It looked like it might even snow.

Now we’re back here and it’s 70 degrees out. Merry Christmas, indeed.

I just got back from the grocery store, where I think got the last parking space in the lot. It was insane. But I’m making my second attempt at baking a pecan pie for my boyfriend this year. Hopefully I won’t fuck it up this time. I’m also making a cheesecake.

Other than that, I’m having a quiet, relaxing Christmas. We’ll probably just watch all the DVDs we bought each other and hang out together. I think it’s about to get pretty crazy around here if this new job for my boyfriend pans out, so we definitely need this.

Tags: baking, christmas, family, gifts, Tennessee, trip

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