Today I did Christmas with my "second family" - Q and her mom and dad. I thought I was just going to help them with the tree, but then I ended up having Christmas dinner with them and they even had a stocking for me and presents and all! It was so cool. It was really fun to see other family's traditions as well. They have this thing where they guess what's in each present before opening it. They were pretty good at guessing, but I guess I'm not in practice. I guessed that I got a giant muffin and a giant styrofoam peanut when really, I got a candle and a wooden bowl.

I'm all excited about Christmas ornaments now. I didn't used to be at all - I've never really had my own ornaments. My mom has some from when she was a child, but I guess I take after my father more and I've never collected that sort of thing much. I am currently the proud owner of three ornaments of my very own. I collect plenty of other stuff, though: stamps, fancy glass bottles, cameras, clocks, dust. The clock collection has been a new thing that has sort of happened to me. It started because I am hard of hearing and I don't wear my hearing aids to bed. Sometimes, if I'm really tired, I don't hear my alarm clock go off. It can be blaring for an hour and wake the whole house, but I will sleep right through it. So I got a second clock that you wind up and it has a bell - but that one doesn't always work so well. So then I got this PowerPuff Girl one - Buttercup - and it plays a little song and then she screams "WAKE UP WAKE UP!" And then I got a CD player/alarm clock that can be turned up like a normal stereo - and that can wake me up easily. I also have a vibrating pager that goes off in my pillow. So that's five alarm clocks that I set every night. I don't always do all of them. But anyway, at this point, the damage is done and the clocks are rolling in. I have a dancing shiva grandfather clock that my friend decorated herself and gave to me as a gift for being in her wedding. I'm going to have a house full of clocks soon.