...man that title is so witty...
Going to macon to see the inlaws is like checking out of reality for a few days. I watch no tv, hardly use the internet, and generally stick to catching up on sleep and reading.
We had a wonderful christmas of food and gifts and churching it twice! I must say to speak in a manner very non christianlike for a few seconds that I thought when I left Catholicism i was done with the Church on Christmas stuff. Then I get married and come to find out they have this Christmas Eve service thing. I grumbled the first time I went, as I'm a bad person in general, but went nevertheless and found the 30 minute singing and reflection to be nice and as it beat the catholic alternative of having to wake up on Christmas day and attend Mass (regardless of what day of the week it was). Well this year was the double whammy, Christmas eve service and Christmas day. Now if I were a single man living in sin and TV dinners I would have just done one service, Christmas day service or Eve service and called it day and went about with my merriment and commercialism. But as I have married someone who pushes me to be a better person than I truly am I went to both services. What happens next year I wonder? Do we have to go to Church, then come back at 5:00PM for a christmas eve service? What if some how we get stuck in a worm hole where Church is a never ending cycle of the Christmas story and Joy to the World? Will I ever get to open those presents? Will I get the U2 DVD my heart aches for? Will I ever be a better person???? And what the heck is a pocket chainsaw anyway?????
But I digress...and get ahead of myself all in one stroke...
We made it down to Macon after a short stop in atlanta to dine with the Grandparentals of my wife's mom's side. We then made it down to Macon and went to Applebees and a movie with the inlaws Thursday night.
We went to see Chronicles of Narnia. The movie was overall good, but I've found that my imagination is far superior to that of the Shrek Director's. With Lord of Dem Rings I conceed that Peter Jackson's imagination in a lot of areas far exceeded my complex imagination. For you see I am quite certain that I have a wonderfully splendid imagination, this is why I so often day dream that I'm anywhere than where I am.... especially at work because frankly anywhere is better than there. But what the Narnia Shrek Director dreamed up was not too shabby but Aslan does not impress as he should, the talking animals are rather small in stature (They are usually larger than their non talking counterparts), the Rhino for instance was only about the size of a cow, which granted I've not wrestled many Rhinos recently but I am fairly certain that a normal non talking Rhino is larger than a cow, therefore the talking variety should be far larger in my imagination. The Queen was not very striking either, she's supposed to be of an odd beauty that mistified men. The beavers were cute, the children were quite good in their roles, and the professor was good too. But Narnia lacked the immense beauty and awe inspiring "Eden-esqueness" that I had invisioned. In a lot of ways where LOTR shattered my imagination by surpassing it in a lot of ways, this movie has entrenched my imagination and strengthed it making the movie look weak in comparrison. When I read LOTR I can't help conjure Peter Jackson images from the movies in certain parts, almost as if my mind is polluted by his vision. Whereas Shrek Directors Narnia has had little to no effect on my reading or imagination of Narnia. Even the cute Lucy that is wonderfully portrayed in the movie still appears quite different in my head than the Lucy on the screen.
Christmas Day arrived and it was very surreal. Waking up we opened our stockings mostly ins and outs: Cashews, Shaving Gel, Biscotti, Candy, Socks, etc. Then we had to rush out to get to church in time. Then we came back and prepared for the cousin in laws and uncle and aunt in law to arrive. We tried to open a few presents as things had pretty much been finished as far as dinner's preparation, but we were interrupted by the fam's arrival, which was fine because it meant dinner could commence. Dinner was wonderfully delicious: Flank Steak grilled to perfection (this can be done in Mid-Georgia as it was 60+ degrees outside), in and out potatos, brocoli caserole, rolls, and salad. Candied apples were also prepared but I'm not much of an apple guy so I didn't partake in this family tradition. We then had presents in which I received many wonderful gifts of a wide variety. Here's a list, not to brag and if it sounds braggy or rude then stop reading and check out yahoo.com or something...
Ryan Adams Demolition: I received two copies of this wonderful CD, this is what happens when you provide your inlaws with a short list of gifts, i'll have a review of this later.
Franz Ferdinand's newer album...sadly I returned it, I was not sure if I truly wanted this CD and wanted to preview it more before I owned it for life.
Nickel Creek's Why Should the Fire Die: This is their newest CD, which I received from the wife. Its very good, and similar to their other CDs. This is one of the bands my wife and I both like, there are very few of those.
John Piper's Stop Wasting Your Life. I've heard this book recommended by many friends of mine, and as I tend to waste my life with worthless pursuits on John Madden's football field on my TV I figure this book might apply to me.
An outside Temperature Guage: Very handy, now when the wife asks what the temp outside is I don't have to press my hand to the window and say, "Cold."
Ryan Adam's Jacksonville City Nights: Yes I already own this, this was my bad, and the result of me violating the rule of don't buy stuff for yourself in December. Oddly enough my mother in law bought it from Media Play as well and I was very worried I wasn't going to be able to get rid of it, luckily Best Buy took it and gave me store credit.
New Sneaks: Oddly enough again, I got something I already have. I was in desperate need of some new sneaks as my old ones had no tred, literally it had fallen off. So wife and I agreed that I could purchase some from Kohls, New Balance, nothing special but they're good for running. We also agreed that I needed another pair to just wear around town, one for run one for walk. Well My mother in law in another streak of irony went to the exact same store, and bought the exact same pair of new balance shoes in the exact same color. That was pretty odd. Out of the some 50 pairs of sneaks they have their she bought the same ones. I took those back and will get to what I got in the returns blog.
Ace Ventura When Nature Calls... the wife said, "eh it was cheap" and I'll get a good laugh for cheap when he says, "Nobody wants to play with me," or "Bubblebee tuna?"
The Cost Of Discipleship by Dietric Bonhoffer, always wanted to read it.
Then the Most needed gift of all... Coffee Travel Mug from Starshmucks. I had broken my old one and was dying for one for the past few months. The wife obliged and purchased one, this was my big gift as starbucks seems to find it funny to charge 25 bucks for a to go mug. But It will be used and is the same one I had before with some key upgrades made to it. This time I'll try not to drop kick it across the lawn like the old one, this drop kick ultimately spelled the last one's doom.
So all in all a wonderful Christmas but wait, there was one more gift under the tree for little old me. Could it be? A U2 DVD? Oh wait it might be too heavy. It is quite a box that is largely (I'm struggling). No it was too big of a box to be a DVD, and too heavy to be anything of that sortie. In fact it felt like a statue or possibly a bowly. I opened up thinking, U2 would have to wait for the 26th of December or to my next birthday. (I quit the rhyme) I open the box and out plops a giant brick wrapped in newspaper. I puzzle for a second, look at my wife and mother in law with large grins on their faces, look deeper into the massive box and see what can only be the signs of a Vertigo laced DVD. Santa had remembered! Or my mother in law.
I told wifey, I got what I most wanted: U2 DVD, and what I most needed: Coffee Mug. All was well. Yes I realize its sad that my greatest need was a coffee mug.
But all in all a wonderful Christmas. The 26th was filled with the crazy returns that are come to be expected with the holidays and I will write about that in the next blog entry.
Posted by holtonian at December 27, 2005 10:08 PM | TrackBack