I’d initially planned on taking today off of work, but, it kinda crept up on me and before I really thought to get it done, it was too late. It would have been a good day to take off to as it was a pretty busy weekend. My dad came up on Saturday to spend some time with me and take me out for dinner for my birthday. Which was nice but it meant that I spent Friday night cleaning house.

Yesterday, an old friend of TheBoyfriend™’s was in DC for a conference so we took a day trip up there to see him. It’s so refreshing to just get a significant change of scenery every once in awhile, if even for just the day (and it’s nice to be able to hold hands in public). Strange thing about DC is that, having never lived there or in the immediate area of there, I always randomly run into someone I know when I visit. Yesterday was no exception. As we were just leaving, actually getting our Metro farecards for the trip out (we decided just to park in Fairfax and ride the Metro into the city), I hear my name called, and turn to see someone I knew in college.

Off I went home for Christmas (I’m sure you can see where this is going, but just listen to the story anyhow). Now my family generally celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve. This stems from the days when BabySis™, our cousin and myself were young children. It gave the opportunity for the family to have dinner and exchange gifts together while allowing for Christmas morning to be reserved for a lazy, opening gifts from Santa while sitting around the Christmas tree sorta thing. As BabySis™ and I grew older (and realized Santa had actually delivered all his presents to the house before Christmas morning anyhow), all the presents started being opened on Christmas Eve, because my grandparents were already over and my grandmother loves to see her grand kids open presents.

Anyways, the rest of the family had gone, leaving my parents, BabySis™ and her boyfriend, my grandparents, TheBoyfriend™ and I. It was time to open the presents from my parents, and of course, from Santa (in case you’re wondering, my mother always told me that if you stopped believing in Santa, he stopped coming, so I believe ;-)). It’d been a fairly light Christmas present-wise for me. I’m okay with that because I’ve often said, that now that none of us are kids, I’d rather forgo the gift-giving and just spend time together as most of the gifts I’d want are too expensive to give as presents and those that are cheap are probably things I’d already purchased myself. Add that to the fact that my aunt who is known for giving strange gifts was in rare form this year (I walked away with a “Fasta Pasta” which I can’t even use because it’s too big to fit in my microwave), and I was quite content to get relatively few gifts.

TheBoyfriend™ had grabbed his camcorder as Gift-Opening Part II approached, which I found kinda of strange since he’s never recorded a Christmas before (in fact, I think he’s used that camera that he just had to have all of 3 times). Still, beyond noting that he had brought it, I thought little of it (besides perhaps that I was glad to see him giving it a little use). Presents were opened, everything was nice even though my load was again unusually light. Then my mom found a tiny little box under the tree. It was to me, from “It’s a surprise.” Opening it, I found the key to my mother’s car and a note which read something along the lines of “No, you didn’t get a new car. So why the key? There’s a package for you in the glove box of your mother’s car.” Out to the car I went, retrieved another small box, and brought it in. It contained a note reading “You haven’t found it yet, check the microwave for the next clue.” In the microwave was a third box, this time a bit bigger, but as soon as I picked it up, I could tell by the weight that it would contain nothing but another note-bearing slip of paper. This last note read: “Look over in the corner. There’s a large box labeled ‘To: Pop’ [that’s what I call my grandfather], someone must have made a mistake! It’s really for you. Go open it.”

Finally, I tore the paper off this last present. Inside was an unmarked brown cardboard box, and opening the top of that, I saw just the bottom of the box of the actual gift. Just plain white. I flipped it over and began to slide the brown box off of the white one. Then I saw it. The image of a Mac Mighty Mouse, with it’s cord attached to a new (and super sexy) Mac slim keyboard, with it’s cord attached a shiny new iMac! That’s right (as you had probably guess in the very first paragraph), I managed to score the very present that I most wanted, but thought was least attainable. To make it all the sweeter, the timing was perfect as the motherboard in my PC had failed just two days earlier.

Turns out, it was all the brainchild of TheBoyfriend™, who wanted badly to get me that which I wanted more than anything, but knew it to be outside the scope of his budget. He had called my parents back in September and proposed the idea. Neither, he (nor my parents) could afford to get me an iMac on his own, but having hatched the plan early, my parents were able to get the rest of the family to all contribute what they otherwise would have spent on a gift for me. Even that wasn’t quite enough, but it managed to knock the price down to something I could afford (though it is the first present I’ve ever gotten with a balance due).

The coolest part of it all, surprisingly, isn’t that I’m sitting here typing this on my own brand new iMac (although that’s pretty damn cool). No, the best part is TheBoyfriend™ knew what I wanted the most, knew he couldn’t give it to me by himself, and found a way to get it for me anyhow. That’s the coolest part. Usually you hear “it’s the thought that counts” when you get some crappy gift. This time, it was the thought behind an incredible gift that perhaps meant even more than the gift itself.

I got the tree set up but decided not to put on the lights or ornaments yet because this was Sigyn’s first Christmas and from experience with the other two, I know it’s best to let them sniff out and explore the tree alone before covering it with tiny hanging things just purr-fect for swatting at (even still, Christmas time usually means coming home from work and taking 10 minutes to track down all the missing ornaments and hang them back on the tree). At this point, I was actually feeling fairly impressed with how uninterested Sigyn (and the other two) seemed to behave with the tree this year.

So TheBoyfriend™ got back home and we headed out to Christmas party and had a great time, but arrived home to an interesting surprise. Our tree was not where I had left it but was instead laying across the couch as if it had gotten tired of standing and decided to take a nap. I wanted to get a picture but the light was too low for my cell to take a good shot and it wasn’t important enough for me to go upstairs and get the camera. It wasn’t funny per se that the tree had been knocked over, but rather because it was knocked over in such a way as to make it look like it had been gingerly laid out on the couch.

Later that night, I’m pretty sure I discovered exactly what had happened. It appears that Sigyn discovered that while approaching the tree from the bottom had gotten her squirted with the water bottle earlier in the day, if she climbed up on the back of one of the dining room chairs, she could make a flying leap and land on top of the Christmas tree (which, being so tall and skinny, pretty easily tips from any blow to it’s upper half). I added lights and ornaments last night. It survived the night, but it will of course be interesting to see what’s left when I get home…