The good morning, good night thread

[fnord33]

Shit happens. What is the point of letting things get to you?

I had an even more awkward Christmas than normal. My whole family sat around for an hour and a half trying not to make eye contact while my one cousin's adopted kid was savaged my other cousin's crack babies. My senile grandmother was in the dumps because of roy's recent death. My other grandmother was aghast listening to the morbid obese trailer slut give parenting advice. My parents avoided me (not that i mind). At least it was short. After that i went to Christmas with the inlaws and got nice and drunk. I now have my own preserved sheep brain. My wife rocks.;-)

[Rev. Austin]

Cor blimey!  And I went to a friend's party, got a bit tipsy, got home, woke up early(ish) yesterday morning, spent the whole day indoors with my immediate family.  Oh, and played Monopoly and won, for the first time ever haha also, the best thing about Christmas at my parents: Tia Maria coffee! mmmmm!

Hope y'all had a root-tootin' time, yeeehaawww! 

[Ed]

Wow -- what a mixed bag. Luckily, my family left us well alone, as did my wife's so we had a nice quiet day. Went rough shooting this morning with some friends (-12 degrees C), but didn't get anything. Winged a pheasant, but not enough to bring it down, saw loads of duck, hare, rooks, but they were all out of range. It didn't matter, though -- it was a beautiful morning.

Now we're off to the pub for Boxing Day lunch, which means I'll probably be asleep by three. I intend to relax as much as possible over the coming week, so I'd say I'm off to a good start

[jsorensen]

Wow... who was accepting/rejecting manuscripts on Christmas? 

Static Movement

[jsorensen]

To Fnord--sorry about your holiday adventures, but sometimes the best thing in teh world is to knock back a few and be appreciative of your wife...hope everything else turns for the better...

To Rev--I've never won at Monopoly, I hate the game...hate it, hate it! (I'm just a sore loser)

To Ed--Our holiday was reasonably quiet as well--my wife and I enjoy that very much.  Quiet times together are the best...

Hopefully everyone else had a pleasant time...

[Pharosian]

We had a lovely quiet two days for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Today my stepsons are coming over for our traditional Boxing Day gift exchange (they spend Christmas with their monster mother--always). They're great kids.

I managed to get a little more writing done yesterday. I'm up to 1600 words on a new story, but it's looking like it's going to take three or four times that to finish. Unfortunately, I discovered that playing Blackjack on my Kindle is addicting...  I was familiar with the general rules, but now I'm learning the more subtle facets of the game. It'll be interesting to see if that improves my overall performance.

[delph_ambi]

We had a quiet and civilised Christmas day. Me, hubby and son popped over to see eldest daughter, then back here. Watching telly and eating leftovers today. Younger daughter and her boyfriend will have set off from France sometime today, and should turn up here late tomorrow, so we'll have another 'Christmas Day' the day after.

My car's still snowed in, and the compacted ice outside my front door is at least an inch thick. Minus five out there at the moment. brrr...

[desertwomble]

We had a quiet and civilised Christmas day. Me, hubby and son popped over to see eldest daughter, then back here. Watching telly and eating leftovers today. Younger daughter and her boyfriend will have set off from France sometime today, and should turn up here late tomorrow, so we'll have another 'Christmas Day' the day after.

My car's still snowed in, and the compacted ice outside my front door is at least an inch thick. Minus five out there at the moment. brrr...

Took the kids to the park today, where we ran about in shirt sleeves, kicking a football around and throwing a frisbie.

DW

[Geoff_N]

My preference is to become quietly sozzled at Christmas, in my own comfy armchair, leafing through graphic comics or somesuch. This year we more-or-less had to up and go rellie visiting. The biggest smile for me was reflected in my 22-month-old grandson who spurned big boxes of expensive pressies and spent a long time with our gift of playdough-with-a-dinosaur theme. I helped him make assorted monsters and he invented roars for each one. Haha.

[Ed]

Well, so much for falling asleep by three -- we've only just got in. Had a few at the pub, then a neighbour asked us back to theirs for some grub. Had a few more there and now I'm at that sober stage of being drunk -- you know the one where you feel pretty normal, but you're really not. I could happily drift off to sleep now, so I think I will

[Rev. Austin]

Just reading these posts makes me feel Christmassy and cosy  also, congrats jsorensen!  I forgot to say before 

Got the week off so I intend to do absolutely bugger-all.  Yippee!

[delboy]

And so that was Christmas...

I think I drank less than I do in a normal week - I've managed two cans of beer, a glass of wine and a glass of whisky so far. Seems like most days I was driving somewhere so the drinking never really happened. Might finish off that four pack of London Pride this evening if it all goes to plan - but I might be required to go and pick the boy up so care needs to be taken... At least I have enough alcoholic stock to last me several months.

Ate very little, too. But then I never eat much - and always less at Christmas. Not really a fan of turkey, cold turkey, turkey pie... We bought enough provisions to feed the masses for a week and haven't broken into hardly any of it. Strange how it goes.

Santa brought me a bunch of guitar CDs so that was most excellent. Got a book token, too  Managed to sit down today and spend several hours mapping out some ideas for the next western. Still a way to go, but I'm determined to try plotting out a book in its entirety before sitting down to actually write, and a short western seems like a good thing to practice on. Loads of research needed - already learning a bunch of stuff about mining, and extracting silver from ore, and what machines were around back then to crush and pound the ore. All I really want to do is start putting proper (i.e. fictional) words on paper. Nice to have the time to kill, though. Watched several movies, too, which is always a rare pleasure. Might get another in tonight if all goes well.

The river is still frozen, depite the snow all around having gone. If the sun comes out and / or the rain stops I might get in a bike ride tomorrow. I could get used to this not-working!

Got some PC connectivity problems (see my message elsewhere) and also, after I've been logged on a while my keyboard starts missing out letters - it must be a heat thing, but the lappy doesn't feel hot. It makes writing a bit slower and more challenging than it already was - better than quill and ink though!

Hey ho. Off for a cup of tea 

Derek

[Geoff_N]

Del, much a similar picture up here in Chester. Except I ate too much of the bought-in and baked extra food for the masses, who didn't come cos of the weather. Our river has large ice packs (bergy bits) even though the land has mostly de-snowed. Water has a high specific heat capacity so takes a long time to warm up, and cool down.

[starktheground]

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, or at the very least a tolerable one.

Mine was wonderful, children spoiled, bellies full, all that good stuff. We did all get sick, and are just now recovering, but it didn't interfere with the festivities thankfully.

[jsorensen]

Stark---

Our family also got sick through the holiday--something like a flu without the fever--but we were still able to enjoy it.  Glad you didn't let it spoil yours either...