Deck the halls

It's Christmas and Panda!!!! is in the 'burbs with the family. Even though we're less than an hour away from my home in the city, it's an entirely different world.

Last night we saw monstrous Christmas decorations - a giant inflatable chimney with a motorized grinch robotically ducking and creeping into it; a huge inflatable carousel wherein inflatable horses rotated; countless inflatable snowmen (some with globes in their abdomens!) and blinking lights gone awry. Now I understand firsthand what Gleemonex was talking about.

Per tradition, our family is sleeping in, but I went to sleep so much earlier than normal so I'm wide awake, tapping away at the computer and waiting for my laundry to finish. Later today we'll join my grandmother and her seven siblings and their families for a raucous holiday dim sum. Every year it's the same - my siblings and I sit with our first cousins and we struggle to remember people's names and we try to figure out how we're all related. There will be approximately 50 people in all, so it doesn't feel that rude when we keep to ourselves.

Later in the night, PandaMom!!!!'s side of the family will arrive at our house and we will feast again. Typically we end up watching a movie that Lil' Bro Panda!!!! has newly acquired or whatever marathon of television madness is on MTV or VH1. Of course, we all open giftss, then finally succumb to food coma.

Merry Christmas, Internets! Hope your day's as food- and family-filled as mine!