The Obligatory Christmas Post

Christmas was indeed a whole 3 days ago, but I've been enjoying my free time and awesome gifts too much to blog. This looks like it's going to be pretty lengthy:

Early Christmas Morning

I wake up at 4:30, go back to sleep, and then get up around 6:30, my room is still somewhat of a mess. There is the same amount of presents in the living room as there were the previous night. I managed to sneak in a picture after this fictitious character the I refuse to believe in supposedly arrived.

before

after

I look to see if my mom is awake, but she makes me go away since my presents weren't ready yet? A few minutes later she calls me into the living room and presents a very nicely wrapped and decorated box. Guess what was inside?

A lump of coal!

Haha, funny joke, right? Nope. My mother maintains her serious expression. I ask what was the reasoning behind such a gift, and the only reply was "well maybe you can go in your room and think about it for a while? or perhaps you can write a 500 word essay on why [i don't remember]" This sounds funny in text, but it wasn't at the moment. I asked "are you serious?" several times, only to get the same response. I went back to my room and tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't. How could I have been on this imaginary "Naughty List"? What have I done in the past year that was oh-so naughty to ruin my Christmas? I felt like a brat thinking only about presents, but come on! I finished cleaning up my room, threw some junk in the closet and watched boring TV specials for a while when my mom came in to comment on my great cleaning skillz. This was about an hour after the lump of coal incident when she asks if I had been crying since then. NO! I was just confused, only to find out that it was some sort of terrible joke. I still don't think that it's funny at all.

We finished setting up stuff around the house and I vacuumed -- it is so much more fun now for some reason. After the lump of coal incident, I wasn't as excited about presents anymore. This maturity thing sucks, it's ruining my joy of Christmas!

Later Christmas
Once everyone came over, it seemed like everyone was dragging their feet to open presents. There was a beautiful tree with dozens of lovely gifts under it that no one seemed to care about. Maybe I was just uber-antsy because I was anticipating a specific gift, though I would have noticed the oddly shaped packaging, and it wasn't there under the tree, so my hopes were down a bit. Gift-opening was interesting, same ol' same ol'. I got some pretty cool stuff:

• The Simpsons Movie
• Evan Almighty
• a very nice wireless mouse
• Lupe Fiasco's new CD (still haven't opened it, not sure if I'll like it)
• clothes
• a shelf
• Best Buy Gift Card
• Cash
• a little silver giraffe
• the book Mentally Flossed Presents: Condensed Knowledge
• a hat/gloves/scarf set for NJ
• a Kipling bag

After all of the gift opening was done, my mom asked me to take out the trash bag with the wrapping paper in it. I argued for a second about why it couldn't wait until later, but I ended up going. On the way to the dumpster, I thought about how I didn't get a single thing that I asked for, and I was a bit disappointed. Then on the way back I wondered if this was another trick where my anticipated gifts would be waiting upon my arrival. This was less than a 1 minute walk, mind you. When I got back, 2 cameras were pointed at the door...I was right, something was definitely up. There was a box on the floor, my mother exclaimed "there's one more gift for you". There was a white box, with another wrapped box inside. I immediately knew what it was and gave a short speech about how I knew it all along. Tearing off the wrapping paper, I discovered another box...an air mattress box. That disguise trick never gets old in this family. Inside that box was my PS2 Singstar Edition! I was psyched, even though I didn't have Guitar Hero.

Where it Gets Good
After completely opening the PS2, I told my mom that perhaps I could purchase Guitar Hero 3 with the money I got. Funny. Seconds later my grandmother said "Hey, you never showed me your new room!" Making nothing of it, I lead her into my room, and as soon as I turned the corner, I saw Guitar Hero 3 sitting on my desk. I squealed like toddler and jumped up and down. I was just so shocked. GH3 is such a gift that it doesn't even need to be wrapped, the box itself is enough! I really thought it was sold out, and couldn't believe that they all managed to keep a straight face after my statement seconds earlier. I did the whole Nintendo 64 impression, which I promised, and it's on video somewhere. My mom disappeared into her room for a second--I didn't notice at the time, and returned with a small box saying "you're not getting anything else until you graduate!" Inside was a copy of the Guitar Hero 1 and 2 Dual Pack. I was still completely in awe. In a matter on minutes, my emotions transitioned so greatly. I felt so spoiled, yet so appreciative, yet so excited and barely able to concentrate.

the loot

The Rest
I tried to play Guitar Hero in the living room, but something just wasn't right -- I knew that I didn't suck that much. I found out later that you have to calibrate the lag on HDTVs though...so I didn't suck at all! I tried Singstar instead and I have to say that I'm probably the most amazing singer that you'll ever hear! My aunt and I tried a few songs, it was hilarious, entertaining, and loads of fun. I'll probably acquire Karaoke Revolution Party and Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol in the next few weeks, it should make for some great fun on the robotics trips. Sometime later in the day I went in my room and played more GH. I definitely did not suck. At the time, I could play any song on Medium with about 75% accuracy, but today, only 3 days later, I can 5 star almost any song on Medium with 90+% accuracy and play a few songs on Hard.

wow!