It's snowing here, and if it sticks, I'm pretty much homebound for a while. It snowed on Christmas, too, which was pretty.
Turns out I got to go somewhere for Christmas. One of my former poker buddies picked me up on Christmas eve. I spent the night at her house, then went with her to her mom's house on Christmas Day. I was glad that they wanted to include me, and I generally had fun, although sitting in the manual wheelchair for that long was kind of uncomfortable, as was being nearly the only one in the house who chose not to smoke what used to be called weed or wacky baccy. But it was nice to be able to drink a little and play some poker with the old crowd for awhile, although I couldn't catch a card for the life of me, and went out pretty early.
Teresa gave me a new outfit and an amber necklace from Saturday market (weekly downtown homemade crafts fair) which is "raw" amber, not like the polished kind I usually wear. This form is supposedly more powerful for protecting the wearer, and it is beautiful, but I still like my polished kind as well for sending energy out to people. And another friend gave me a pretty amber colored necklace and earrings, though I'm not sure yet if it's actually amber. I don't know if I mentioned before that my dad brought me four of the DVDs in a Hallmark Channel series of movies called love comes softly, based on the books by Jeanette Oake. (Christian romance series set in the days of the old West.) The corn factor, as my sister called it, is pretty high, but they are good if you want an escape similar to Little House on the Prairie. Which makes sense, seeing as they are directed and produced by Michael Landon Jr..
On Christmas Day, we went to Teresa's mom's house for her family Christmas and brunch. It made me a little bit homesick for a home I've never really had in a way, but I was glad and grateful to be there. I watched everybody open the family presents. Then the snow came and I watched the kids play outside for a while. When everyone came back in, they played the white elephant gift game, when everybody picks a number, opens a present, and then the next person can steal any present that has already been opened. The gifts can only be stolen twice, and then they freeze with the person that has them. I played this too, and ended up with a scarf, which I actually needed, and a rubber ducky. Then they took me home.
My gifts here were a huge box of chocolate from the house family, (why do the people that complain about my weight always give me huge amounts of candy? My stepmom did it too. I really don't understand.) some socks and candy in my very first stocking ever, and an apple cinnamon scented oil diffuser to make my room smell pretty from one of the older son's girlfriend.
The 11 and nine-year-old that live here both got MP3 players, so I spent the evening when I got home loading them up for them. They are happy, and I am a hero.
So overall, it was okay. I discovered a couple things that make me happy and excited. You probably have figured out that I am an avid gamer, at least in spirit, despite my difficulties. And I am forever searching for an accessible game or a game system. Well, I think I might have found it. Surprisingly, one of the kids over there let me play with their Nintendo DS for a while. And I can actually work it. The thing with the Nintendo DS, which looks like a Game Boy Advance with two screens, is that the bottom screen is a touchscreen. With the games meant just for that system, though it is backwards compatible all the way back to the original Game Boy, the main control is through the touchscreen, which I can totally access by myself. Sometimes you can just use your finger, and sometimes you have to use a little stylus thing, which I thought would be the dealbreaker, but I can actually use the stylus as well. I was pretty excited. It isn't as easy for me as it is for you, but I can do it. And if I get games that are turn-based strategy (like Pokémon. Yes I am 30, and I still like those games. I hate the cartoon, but I enjoy the games.) or life simulators, (like the virtual pet ones) I can be pretty successful at playing. So I might have to actually get one when I save a little money.
And I now have a new mini addiction, just started today. Sudoku. I had a major block about that game ever since the original craze, because it involves numbers, and although I respect it and do not hate it at all, I am usually not very good at math. This is because I cannot write on my own scratch paper usually, so there was a missing link in school days from my hand to my brain. That's probably a bad way of describing it, but it's the best I can do for now. I can do basic calculations pretty well in my head, but throw letters and formulas and multiple steps in there and you can forget it. But anyway, I discovered a version on Nintendo DS that was actually pretty easy, so I looked for a computer version to give me something to do today, and it's actually pretty fun. It's a logic puzzle, not math. You could do the same thing with letters or symbols, but they just usually use numbers.
Anyway, that's probably enough of your time wasted for right now. Let me go waste some more of my own time on a puzzle. I will write again soon.