Warning: the following will be quite boring to anyone other than myself.

Seriously, this is going to be very boring. We had the usual Christmas. We all assembled at grampa's house the night before. Everyone who still lives was there except for Eddie and Jeremy. I haven't even seen Jeremy since he married, so that was a disappointment. It was a nice night, though. We mumbled and laughed our way through it. Grampa told me of when my dad was little. One morning he was the first of the six boys to get up and went into the kitchen where his mother was cooking breakfast. She told him to go wake the others. When he did he also told them there was a robber in the house. I have no idea why. They crawled through their windows and went to a neighbor's yard. They stood under an awning in the rain until they were called back. I know I'm the only one who finds these things interesting, but what do you expect from my journal? I put this stuff in here so I won't forget.

After we had had enough of each other we went to our homes. It was 10:30 by then. Carlyn and I watched Ernest Saves Christmas until we went to bed, which was around 12:30. I woke up a little after four. I heard something in the living room (I wonder what) and decided to stay up. After the footsteps ceased, I went in and placed the presents I had wrapped only yesterday under the tree. At 5:45 I made my way back to Carlyn's room and checked to see if his camcorder (which he received last Christmas) was charged. He had attempted to start the charging process before he went to bed, but it somehow was set to the Player mode, so it hadn't charged at all. So we used it by plugging it into the wall in the living room while presents were opened.

After that was done, my parents rushed to cook breakfast. They were set to arrive around 9, which they did (Grampa first, of course). Everyone was there except Eddie, Jeremy, and Sue. The food was really good. I think everyone had a fine time. Since Grampa arrived first I had time to squeeze some more tales of the past out of him. I asked him what Christmas was like when he was young. He described a time during the depression when the best they could hope for was fruit, nuts, and maybe candy. Once they each got a 25¢ toy. He and another brother, Carl, I think, got cap pistols. Ralph received a toy banjo but later tried to shove it up the chimney back to Santa Claus because he didn't want it.

I actually have a new picture of ordinary old me.

My new digital camera can record crappy video as well. Here's a short clip of a game between my brother and I that I made just to test it out.