December 25, 2015

Today was Christmas and it was a good day. I'd like to say it was the best Christmas in recent years. To be fair, without going back and reading my entries from past Christmas days, I can't accurately recall my feelings. But I do know that I enjoyed this Christmas.

I went to bed late and woke up early. I moved one of my TVs out to the family room (or living room, I can never remember) and hooked it up to my laptop. I downloaded several Christmas-themed wallpapers and then set it to a slideshow and had that play on the TV throughout the day. On my laptop I had Spotify. Then I took a shower and started working on figuring out a cross stitch pattern for my grandma. I made one based on a pattern I found online and then worked on tweaking it until it was time to open presents.

With my Christmas tree lit up, the fireplace going, the slideshow on the TV, and the Christmas music courtesy of Spotify, it felt very Christmasy. Last year we didn't get to use the fireplace because it still wasn't working, but this year I really think it made a difference.

We took a break halfway through opening presents to go up and eat brunch. Then we came back downstairs to finish with the presents. My mom and sister both really liked their cross stitch gifts, which made me happy. The unofficial theme for my mom this year was the Minions because along with the movie and the cross stitch from me, she also got a calendar and stuffed toys from my sister. My sister's unofficial theme was Linus from Peanuts because she got a few things related to him. My unofficial theme was Eeyore, which tends to happen, because I like Eeyore. I got a small stuffed animal and two ornaments, which I added to my collection beneath my tree.

Two of the coolest gifts I got were from my sister. The first was an old card from a library card catalog for van Gogh, with a a portrait of van Gogh painted on it, in the style of van Gogh. My sister found a person who does this and it is really freaking cool. The library thing was a given but my sister also knows that one of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who, possibly even tied for first, is the one where they meet van Gogh. It was kind of the perfect storm of a gift. The second gift was a small hand loom because she knows I am always on the lookout for another hobby. She's the one that got me my first crocheting book years ago. I've actually spent some time looking into looms because I have always thought it looked really cool. And now I have a tiny one that would be perfect for making coasters and possibly other things. The instructions it came with were pretty sparse so I'll need to look around online, but I'm exciting to play with it.

I also look forward to messing around with my sewing machine, which I finally got to take a proper look at. And I like it. All the knobs and bits and bobs are a little intimidating but hopefully it doesn't take too long to figure out. Little kids learn to sew all the time so surely I can figure it out. Little kids also pick up second languages without much effort, and I do not, so lets hope sewing isn't like a foreign language.

My mom got me a new green hoodie, which might be too big, and my sister's husband gave me a hoodie he bought for himself but it wasn't quite long enough in the arms. It fit me pretty well and it is really nice. It is designed for colder weather and to block the wind, so now I have another options if I don't want to wear my coat.

In the break before dinner I came up with another possible pattern for my grandma's cross stitch. I found a silhouette of a bird and turned it into a silhouette of a Cardinal. Then I couldn't make a decision on what color to make it. I asked my mom and she proposed something completely different. That had me double guessing again and she suggested something else, like a flower. I have a silhouette of a rose I did a long time ago so I thought maybe I would recreate that pattern but not do the entire stem so it would fit in a hoop. Right before doing that, however, I switched to a flower pattern I found yesterday or the day before. I got that laid out before dinner. I also had enough time to install the new micro SD card I got for my mom's phone.

For dinner we had homemade pizza, which has kind of become a tradition. My mom made her mushroom and olive pizza, which is a sure-fire way not to have to share her pizza. I had my usual: artichoke hearts, fake hamburger, tater tots, and a creamy garlic sauce that my sister makes. It was delicious as always and I wish my stomach would have allowed me to eat the entire pizza.

Along with making the pizza crust and sauce, my sister also made me biscuits, apple butter, pitas, and hummus. And she made my mom fruitcake based on our grandma's recipe. It was heavy as a brick and my mom loved it. I did not partake and we'll say it was because I didn't want to rob her of fruitcake, not because they idea of fruitcake grosses me out.

Before dinner I did a little research about Linux because my sister's husband asked me about it because he was thinking of putting it on his laptop. I put it on my netbook many years ago so I had a rough idea of what was going on. After dinner he gave me his laptop so I started the process my downloading Linux Mint onto a thumb drive. I put Ubuntu on my netbook because I liked the look of it and it was the most popular version or distribution at the time, and I think it still is. Mint seems a little more user friendly, especially for people coming from Windows, thanks to having a more traditional desktop look. I plan on installing it as a dual boot option so he can mess around with it and see if he likes it, rather than wiping the computer and fully committing to Linux only to find out he doesn't like it.

Most of my night was spent cross stitching. I went until just after two o'clock after using up around twelve feet of string, possibly more. I'm getting closer to finishing but I'm a little worried I'll have to do the whole thing again tomorrow. The dark red I chose for the flowers is rubbing the cloth around it and turning it pink. I'm worried about what will happen when I wash it. Best case scenario, I can get the pink color out of the cloth. Worst case scenario, the color just bleeds more and doesn't come out of the cloth. Possibly okay solution, washing it turns the entire cloth a pinkish color and it looks purposeful. I should be able to finish it in a few hours tomorrow and we'll see what happens. It would be nice if I didn't have to make a completely new one but I'm not dismissing that possibility.

Now I'm going to go to bed because it is three o'clock in the morning and I am tired. With all the cross stitching I can't really afford to sleep through the day. My Navy friend is also in town and we're going to try and hang out sometime tomorrow. Hopefully not too early in the morning because I plan on sleeping in at least a little bit. We'll see.