New Years eve eve

December 30th, and 2009 is almost over. I had completely forgotten that this is the end of a decade. Apparently the whole novelty of being in the 2000's overrides the whole concept of 10-year increments having some sort of significance. Before I get into the last decade, let's just talk about the past week.

There was a nice little gathering on Christmas eve, although it was different than normal because many of my cousins didn't come to the usual Christmas eve gathering, so there was no long-into-the-night game of Scene-It or Simpsons trivia or anything like that. In fact, everything was over by 9pm. So while I usually find myself going to bed really late on Christmas eve, I was actually in bed earlier I think than I had been all week. That didn't stop me from sleeping until 7:45 on Christmas morning, which for me is quite late. And obviously a far cry from the 5am I would get up at when I was a kid. I was one of those kids who was so excited for Christmas that I couldn't sleep at all that night. And, maddeningly, it was the one morning of the year that my father did NOT get up at 4:30 in the morning. So my brother and I would be forced to sit around and wait, knocking on my parents door every 15 minutes or so until they decided it was finally time for us to get up. My older sister typically had no trouble staying in bed.

Anyway, Christmas morning has definitely lost its excitement for me. In fact, I've found this whole year I wasn't really into Christmas at all. I wasn't so much anti-Christmas as I was more or less indifferent. I hardly watched any of my typical Christmas movies. But anyway, I went to my sister's on Christmas morning, which is more fun because my niece and nephew, at 7 and 3, are at prime Christmas ages. Except that it freaked me out when I realized that if my niece follows the timeline I remember from when I was a kid, then this is her second to last Christmas believing in Santa, which just seems impossible. But we'll try and make her hang on as long as possible. Anyway, they were lost in a sea of new toys and both seemed to be enjoying themselves thoroughly.

Later on we all went to my grandmother's for the big gathering. It actually turned out to be pretty fun. There was a yankee swap which I chose not to participate in because first of all, I hate those things, and second of all, given the participants, I can't imagine a gift that I'd end up with and actually be happy about. Plus, my own name for that game is the Christmas-ruining gift stealing game. After that was some singing of Christmas songs, which I wisely opted to watch from afar. Then we busted out an old home movie. Actually, two movies that I made with my cousins about 12 years ago. This is serious stuff that was edited, music, chase scenes, and credits written on a chalkboard. That was a lot of fun, especially since I don't think a lot of people had seen them in a very, very long time. And later on, I went with my cousins to my brother's apartment where we spent an incredible amount of time playing the video game Rock Band. If you haven't tried that, you really need to, because it is seriously fun.

Oh, and other than that? Training, biking in the basement, running in shorts on Sunday only to be reduced to nearly freezing to death on my run yesterday with below-zero windchills. Weather can be annoying sometimes. And I'm still trying to figure out what I want to watch while on the trainer. My brother gave me Netflix for Christmas, and after having it last winter and browsing their selection again, I am reminded that yeah, I've seen almost everything. I've rated over 1400 movies on there. So yesterday morning on my trainer ride I went with old classics that just happened to be on Encore. Die Hard and Spaceballs. Which only serves as evidence that I have the same taste in movies as a 12-year old boy.

Tomorrow I'm going to post what has happened in my own life over the past 10 years, and it is more for me than anyone else, so don't read it if you get bored easy!