So my family celebrated Christmas on Saturday. Damn crazy. Friday I spent most of my time running around getting my Christmas shopping done(3 more gifts left to ship). Friday night my sister and I made butterscotch cookies and didn't get much sleep. I did manage to pick up a package of asian food that I purchased for gifts. Pocky and ramen make good gifts to anime fans! Christmas was great, though. I received $45 in EB Games gift cards and a gift certificate for dinner at a ritzy restaurant in Batavia. Alas I don't have a girl to go with me

That aside, it was fantastic! Got to visit with the folks, play with the kids, and chow down on some delicious roast beef and cheesy hash browns. I also made my famous ambrosia fruit salad, which was quickly devoured. The cookies went over well too. All in all, it was an awesome day and I was able to take a well-deserved sleep when it finally ended.

When I returned to work, I continued decorating our cubicles. There is a contest going on at work for the decorations and I was hoping to win. However, not being able to work on them before or after work and only during breaks has been extremely difficult. I decided I'd like to try though and I've spent a lot of time decorating. We made our supervisor's cube look like a brick chimney(since it stands higher than everyone else's) with a Santa poking his head out. I also decorated our cubical wall sections like giant wrapped gifts. We were supposed to get Christmas lights going as well but my teammate forgot to bring them. Oh well. I worked very hard in a limited amount of time and when I finished, I learned that on the other side, the legacy adelphia side, they had a great deal more availability on the phone and since had more time off the phone to set things up. And they certainly took advantage of it- There's a section that has a gingerbread house, and another area that looks like a midnight winter landscape. I almost started to cry. All my effort and I don't think I could compete with that. Now I'm just frustrated and mad. I can't even say that I enjoyed it, as I had very little help. The rest of my crew just wasn't interested. Sigh.

Also today, I found out that in order for my car to pass inspection I need the catalytic converters replaced. Total cost: $1000. Unbelievable. NYS instituted new laws last year forcing motorists to clear the "Engine Light" issues or it won't pass the inspection. Supposedly there's a waiver out there if you spend more than $500 and doesn't fix the issue, and I'm also going to try having Ford clear and re-flash the memory on my car's computer, but I don't know if it'll work. I hope it does but knowing my luck with cars I'm going to be less than broke once again.

Merry Christmas to me.