This Christmas we went to Todai, a resturant at Redmond Town Center, to eat. My mother said things like "It doesn't open until 11:30, what's the big deal?" while we looked at each other and thought in unison, "We're bound to be late". My dad's birthday was on Christmas day and he got the free birthday deal.

To start from the beginning of my Christmas Day. My sister, Adrianna, woke me up at eight thirty or so, shaking me from my strange but interesting dream about being in jail in outer space with a spoiled brat. I was quite groggy and wanted nothing more but to go back to sleep. I was cold, as my covers were falling off, and I was grumpy--I hadn't slept very well.

I didn't want to bother to get dressed, as I assumed I would be going back to sleep, and scurried downstairs (doing our best to make sure the stairs didn't creak, without success) with my sister. I insisted on staying in our classroom under the heater (which was located on the ceiling), warming up my freezing toes, while my sister fetched our presents.

I recieved a Santa hat from my fifteen-year-old cousin, a card and five dollars from Adrianna (I gave her ten), and a shirt, also from Adrianna, which I had worn before anyway. But all the presents were insignificant in the face of the present my mom gave me--a digital camera! With this productive present I was to snap picture after picture and blog about them, every day.

Right now I am in bed under my lumpy, bulky covers at 11:17 p.m. The Winter Solstice (or whatever it's called) is said to be the shortest day of the year, or something, but Christmas Day seems like the shortest day. Sometimes I wish it were like the old days with weeks of festivities. Remember the song "Nine Days of Christmas"? (Maybe it was six days, I forget).

My writing enviroment

I usually write and do my work on my laptop computer sitting on a comfortable, short black leather chair pushed against the wall. It isn't really a chair--it is actually a footrest that belonged to a matching chair but it is quite nice to sit on. There is a folded up blue rug casually thrown by this chair, while a dusty black CD holder is pushed against the bookshelf on my right. This bookshelf is whitewashed and holds everything from a bright red "China Brief Postal Codes" book to a videocamera to envelopes to books and miscellaneous objects. There is a chair not too far from the CD holder which is probably a few inches away from the bookshelf, and this wooden chair holds a few copies of my book Flying Fingers. A few lined yellow pages are scattered about on the floor, as well as a letter from a friend and some markers. There are four computers in this room if you count my laptop; three of them are desktops, mine is the only laptop here unless my sister Adrianna drags her laptop in. My mother's computer is old, bulky, and slow. It usually has up to fifty-six programs running; she fires off emails at the same time as IMing important people, talking on the phone, and talking to us. She is a multitasker. Her desk is a cluttered mess of notepads, notebooks, business cards, boxes, books, papers, letters, envelopes, tape, sticky pads. Next to my mother's computer, separated by a grayish-blackish-blue metal file cabinet is my desktop computer, also old, slow, and bulky. I do not use it much now that I have my laptop and it is usually turned off. My sister sometimes uses it if she needs to print something out, as it is connected to the second printer in this room, but it is still not used very much. Then comes the door to my mom's office (I work in my mom's office), which is usually closed as my mother needs to block out the sound of my sister's piano, violin, and guitar practicing when she's talking on the phone. (My sister's practice is usually really loud and sometimes blocks my mom's voice on the phone.)
After my mom's door comes my dad's desktop computer, which is located in a small, closet-like area of the room with its own individual light but no door. There is a broken copy machine and a few other weird things located perilously near the office chair, which has wheels and can go spinning horribly out of control. None of these high-tech items has broken yet but I expect they will soon.
My mom's bathroom is located right next to the black leather chair on which I work and is quite a nice bathroom. It also serves as temporary storage for paperclips, spare keys, unwanted items, sticky pads, etc. I will not get into further detail about this bathroom...perhaps another blog!