Now, I'm not going to get all materialistic on y'all or anything, but I wanted to mention a few of the particularly sweet treats I received from loving friends and family yesterday. My mother-in-law got me the complete Calvin and Hobbes, a massive three-volume set of wonderful goodness. Mmmm. Heather got me the complete animated Aeon Flux DVD set (we watched all the Liquid Television shorts last night). Best of all, Heather made me a Rangergirl scrapbook, with the cover, various reviews, my editor's first e-mail to me, interviews I did about the book, etc., all very craftily made and embellished with Western elements. Basically a record of the past year's worth of Rangergirl. Such a sweet thing for her to do, and a beautiful object. I've got the best wife in the world. (She also got me Book Lover's Trivial Pursuit! My new favorite game, even if I am clueless about most of the mystery and romance questions.)

I also got some good books (oddball non-fiction, natch, because I've increasingly discovered that such books are the fuel on which my fiction runs), lots of t-shirts Heather got me from Threadless, tiny little carnivorous-plant-growing kits intended for kids -- a Venus Flytrap, a Watertrap (AKA pitcher plant), a Body Snatcher Plant (heh, also known as a sundew), and a Dracula Plant. My mom got us the last two seasons of Buffy, so that completes our collection! There was also music, some nice clothes, an awesome scarf from Holly, some kitchen stuff... lots of wonderful things.

So I guess I did get a bit materialistic in my description there. Sorry about that. But I'm a creature of the material world.

Xmas day itself was nice. We went over to Holly's around 10 a.m. Wound up sitting around and waiting for Aleister's father, who arrived about 3 hours late, but after that things went smoothly, with presents being opened, a nephew careening around, food being consumed, eggnog with brandy flowing, etc. We played some trivial pursuit. We dozed stuporously. Etc. A fine day.

We've got today off. Tomorrow, it's back to work. On Wednesday, though, I get my usual day off, so next week should be a breeze -- only three days in the office. We get the day after New Year's off, too, so it's another three-day weekend ahead. Life is good.

Hope you all were merry, festive, productive, or whatever else you wanted to be!