Christmas cheer (for some values of cheer)

Relayed from micheinnz:  "Yes, Virginia, there is a Great Cthulhu".

L00t!

So, it's been an unexpectedly good, if chaotic, Christmas so far.  We had, um, low expectations on account of being too flat broke to do any Christmas shopping, but with considerable thanks to echristo and darkstormangel (love that name, it's just pure VNV Nation) for a totally unexpected last-minute delivery as well as to assorted relatives, Goose, Pirate and Wen had a huge pile of loot to rip open.  It took some restraint to keep Goose from going into berserker-chainsaw mode to get everything open in two minutes flat, but somehow we managed.  We even managed to get three Lion King stuffed animals distributed between three little girls without blood being shed.  (What's more, I talked to my younger sister on the phone this afternoon and she tells us to expect another package tomorrow from them.)

Needless to say, the girls are all very happy with their plunder, and that makes it a good Christmas for us too.  In addition to their haul, cymrullewes got the pasta machine she's been hankering after for at least a year now (on the condition of delivery of one batch a month of fresh spinach lasagna noodles to the out-laws), and I got the extended-edition DVD set of The Two Towers (on condition that the out-laws get to watch it once).  See cymrullewes' journal for the complete Loot List.

What's more, my mobility has improved enough that I was able to go outside and bring in a couple of armfuls of wood for the fireplace, and inspect the chimney and see that it was clean enough to safely use, so we had a fire in the hearth for Christmas.

Of course, with our Christmas plans so much in flux, we didn't get a tree or decorate at all, and we didn't buy a turkey for Christmas dinner, so we've been wondering since about 1700 what we're going to have for supper.  (We usually do roast turkey with roast potatoes, parsnips, stuffing, bread sauce, peas and gravy, and sometimes Brussels sprouts.)  About an hour ago I finally developed inspiration, so I have something totally experimental cooking in the oven now.  We're going to be eating way late; I estimate it's going to be done around 2300.  We even have two small Christmas puddings, but I'm guessing we're not going to get into those until tomorrow.  (We don't have any Devonshire clotted cream for the puddings, but I guess we can make do with heavy whipping cream, of which we'll need to go out tomorrow to buy more because we're almost out.)

All in all, Christmas has ended up a lot better than I was expecting.  The increasingly tangible-seeming prospect of finally being employed again helps a lot, too.  Either one of the two solid prospects will get us out of here if it comes through, and back into some variety of living quarters fit for human habitation, though it remains to be seen whether we'll be moving to Northern Virginia or back to California.  I still don't know for sure which I'm hoping for.

Anyway, that's a problem for later.  I'm going to make a valiant effort not to stress over it until it comes up.

Merry [Christmas or winter-holiday-of-preference], all.