Merry Christmas!

It's been very low-key Christmas over here, but I did get some nice things from the parents:

-->The gum from last night (stocking stuffer staple)

-->A Burt's Bees strawberry-flavored lip balm (also a stocking stuffer staple, and something I always need in winter)

-->A box of Ferrero Rocher (aka, that candy that looks really fancy but is in fact filled with NUTELLA -- no, seriously, look at its Wikipedia article; still tasty as hell though)

-->The BTTF soundtrack on CD (I only had Part III on CD before)

-->A Discworld 2017 calendar (I didn't even know they made one! :D)

-->Two new bras (this is very important as I had only one "good" one left, and those suckers are EXPENSIVE)

-->A new purple sweater

-->Two new pairs of pajamas (one thicker, one thinner, both purple; also a very important present as one of my old pairs has been worn to almost literal shreds and another is waaay too short in the legs)

-->New slippers (because, like one pair of pajamas above, I'd worn the old ones down to pieces -- both had big holes in them by the time I got to throw them out today)

So yeah, a fairly practical Christmas. Nothing wrong with that -- and, of course, I have my birthday to look forward to as well. :)

Right now, though, I have a few presents to give out! My tumblr stories are all set, but the I have to cover my DW peeps too. So, without further ado:

( Ael: New To The Academy )

( Gigs: Greeting The Newest Van Dort )

( Moose: Not Quite Plushy Yet )

( Mad Scientist: How To Keep 'Em All )

Okay, that's everything for now! I'll probably have another mini-update later. . .I'm gonna go play some Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines, then see what's up with tumblr and watch some Helloween. Later all!

Less Christmassy Stuff

-->Wrote some more on Chapter 9 -- toned down Radcliffe's assholery a touch to make it clear he didn't think Alice had any part in Bumby's 'business." He's still a jerk, though, just not that much of one. Coming up to a tricky bit now -- what should Alice's inheritance be? I want her to have enough, but not be super-rich after all that's happened. Oh, figuring out Victorian money is such a chore sometimes. . .

-->Driving lesson today took us up through town, past the library and down some wooded side streets, and a brief trip onto the highway. Had a moment where I went too fast around a corner, but fortunately nothing bad happened. We also hit the local Stop & Shop parking lot to practice parking (which I will admit I'm rather good at) and backing up (which I'm still getting the hang of). Good drive today, which I appreciate. And less sun in my eyes, which I also appreciate.

-->Played Vampire, as I said I would earlier. Harry the Gangrel fought his way through Andrei's house and smashed the Fiend with a sledgehammer. Repeatedly. He also picked up a new goodie, though it took me a few tries to actually FIND the darn thing. . . it speeds up healing, though, so it was definitely worth it. My current goal is clearing out the sewers and reaching the Nosferatu den, though I'm a bit lost on where to go. I've parked Harry outside a door and may be looking at a map online the next time I venture down there. Still, at least I'm finally learning how to use Fortitude to its fullest extent. And I'm venturing a little more into Protean, with its super claws and heat vision -- if I've got it, flaunt it, right?

-->Watched Helloween's latest Dead Space set -- fun with gravity and horrible meaty corpse monsters, w000; plus Helloween accidentally repeats a mistake from the first time he navigated this particular area XD -- his latest Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Set -- more castle exploration, testing out new souls with new powers, and fighting monsters with weird names -- and two silly shorts he did of old games he played many Christmases ago and which inspire mild rage in him. Good stuff XD

-->Got two "Trinket" dragon eggs from DragonVale as a free Christmas present -- one yesterday, one today. One I've hatched, the other is going to be a pedestal. Game is still crashing on me fairly regularly, but I've been able to actually max out iceberries for the past few days, so -- c'est la vie. I also got all the prizes in the latest Fruit Ninja Christmas event, so that's nice.

And that's about it for now. Working on the RP blog and answering some messages from people at the moment. Tomorrow it's off to Auntie Ann's to see how she's doing and do the present exchange at her place. Don't have to get up too early for it, thankfully, but still, gotta make sure I get to bed at a decent hour. *waves* Night all, hope you had a happy holiday!