Christmas

So that stupid snow storm totally delayed me by a day so I didn't get to leave Ames until December 22. Once I left, everything was fine, but it was incredibly lame to lose a day because Ames can't freaking plow their roads properly. But I got home and it was all okay in the end. I got to spend Christmas with my parents, see my grandparents, and meet my nephew Jebriel for the first time! Christmas morning was with my parents and their kitties. Then on Christmas afternoon we went to my grandparents' house and had dinner. My aunt Dani and my cousin Jessica were able to come too, which was cool. My parents and I went to the Detroit Art Institute to see their special Faberge exhibit. It was really neat to see that stuff up close, including six of the surviving fancy eggs. Then we went to the best used book store ever-John K King bookstore in Detroit. It's four stories and full of used and rare books. I found a first edition Ray Bradbury novel that was signed! And it only cost twenty bucks! I was so excited. That night we went out to eat with Granny and her new boyfriend. He's nice and that was cool, but it is still weird to think of my granny as having a boyfriend. The next day I was able to go see my best friend Jasmine and I met Jebriel for the first time. He wasn't home last year when I came home to visit.
It was a really good visit and I just wish I could have stayed longer. I hated having to leave. I always hate having to leave because I never know when I'll be able to come back. Since this year I don't have to move in the summer, I should be able to come home for a summer vacation. Then it won't be a whole year in between visits.

Christmas

Right, so now I'm going to write a post about the stuff I got for Christmas to take my mind off of all the familial health-related issues at the moment. So.
My granny gave me a ring that she has had for years. It is sterling silver, with turquoise and another kind of stone that I'm not sure what it is. It was made by a Native American friend of hers, which is awesome because I like having the legit stuff that's been kept in the family.
My grandma and grandpa got me a lot of stuff, which I'm not sure they're supposed to do anymore but they do anyway and I'm not complaining. My grandma is the master at finding little local shops to buy things in. This year she found a tea shop in downtown Plymouth of all places and got me some of their tea. It smells amazing! She also got lots of little candies from local artisans-chocolate covered pretzels and stuff like that. And true to form, she got me a Wii game-Kirby's Epic Yarn.
My immediate family still does normal Christmas. I got about a thousand DVDs-seasons 6-10 of Stargate SG-1, the first season of Battlestar Galactica, the 10th Dr. Who specials, and the best of Beakman's World! And then I got games-Rune Factory Frontier, Guitar Hero, and Chrystal Chronicles for the Wii, and The 4 Heroes of Light for the DS. And then I got my favorite instant coffee ever-Fireside Coffee. It's also from a local company in Swartz Creek, and it is delicious. It comes in all kinds of flavours. Grandma got me some last year and I loved it so much that I asked for more this year. Oh, and I got two more giant microbes for my collection-Anthrax and TB.
For my family, I got my Dad his 2011 Dilbert page-a-day calendar. My Mum wanted these microfiber cloths from Levenger that have impressionist paintings on them, so I got her those. I think they're for cleaning her thousands of pairs of reading glasses. I got my brother some matcha powder and a whisk, since he's been wanting to try matcha tea for a while now.
It was a good Christmas, although it got really weird because of the family health issues. Today hasn't been much better on that front. My grandfather John is having a biopsy to confirm that he does have lung cancer, but we all know that it is. The mass is wrapped around his vena cava so there is no way it can be operated on, and palliative care is about all that can be done. Maybe they'll try some radiation once they know what stage the cancer is, but we're looking at probably less than a year left before he dies. And then my great-aunt Frieda is in surgery today to get a colostomy because her intestines are perforated. That's a long obnoxious complicated story that I don't want to repeat, but I will say that her health is so poor due to diabetes that it's entirely possible that she will die on the table. So it's a stressful time for the family. I'm glad we were able to have a decent Christmas anyway, but I know this is really hard on everyone.

Christmas and other stuff

Last weekend we chopped down a Christmas tree and put it in our house. We do this every year because fake trees are sad. I especially enjoy it because when I move back out, I'll probably be moving into an apartment that only allows sad fake trees. So I relish having a real, pine-tree smelling white spruce in the living room. Now that we finally decorated, it feels a little more Christmassy around here, which makes me less grumpy about it getting dark at 5pm.
What still makes me grumpy is that my science is not behaving. I've been trying to do this GLUT4 blot for two months now, and Aliccia and I cannot get the cells to respond to insulin. We're trying one more time this week, and I really hope it works, because if it doesn't I'm pretty sure we've got serious problems. I hate working ten to twelve hour days when I have a two hour round trip commute so I'm tired and grumpy. So I really hope this works so I can stop working long Thursdays and Fridays.

Kitty Bed

I got Memo a kitty bed for Christmas. He likes to sit in it.

Christmas Cookies

So I'm way behind, because of Christmas, and then working, and then just being lazy, so I have to finish out my 2009 pictures. So I'll make a bunch of posts in a row here to get them all done.
Clearly these are Christmas cookies that we made. Yes, there are dinosaurs in there. Christmas dinosaurs.

Pony!!!!

So this lady had brought a pony to the tree farm and kids could get pony rides for four dollars. I was clearly way too big to get a pony ride, so I got a picture and pet the pony for one dollar instead. Isn't he cute?

Christmas Tree

This is the Christmas tree we cut down. That's my Mom holding onto it. It's pretty sweet.

Baby Christmas Trees

These are some of the baby Christmas trees growing at Broadview Tree Farm. We go there every year to cut down a Christmas tree. It's in Milford.

Christmas Lights

So I was really bad about taking pictures and updating this during November because it was NaNoWriMo and I wrote a novel during all my spare time. I'm also having issues finding things to take pictures of. Hopefully the holiday season will change that. Anyway, these are the view from my window of our Christmas lights. They're probably blurry since it's dark.