More presents were around the tree after I took this photo O;
So, Christmas passed recently, as usual we had a family gathering to open presents as well as a giant potluck. My darling nieces, well second cousins, were all there. I call them niece since it's easier to understand, and also as I'm Chinese my cousins are more.. like my siblings? (though I'm sure there will be disagreements, but this is how it is in my family, we even call each other basically brother/sister, and my nieces call me aunt -- cousin-aunt properly) I really love them so much, they make me really happy. I hope that one day I'll be able to have my own children or at least be able to care for some more often. We rarely get to see my nieces, as they live quite far, and so we usually only get to see them once a year.
I'm so happy they remember me, or at least the eldest does -- I like to think, although with conceit, that I'm her favorite relative. There's something magical about seeing her face light up when she sees me.
Though, I must say the happiest of my Christmas wasn't playing with my super cute nieces, but something that happened 2 days earlier. My boyfriend, my mom, and I went to Disneyland together.
the giant christmas tree in front of Main Street, USA, Disneyland
We went on many of the rides too! My mom went with us as well, it was unexpected but quite fun, we went on Splash Mountain, regrettably the three of us were placed in the front half of the log in the log flume, my mom insisted on sitting in front knowing she'd get wet. We ended up staying in the bathroom for quite a while, as I hogged the Dyson hand blower to dry my mom's pants ahaha, luckily she wore leggings under her jeans so she didn't have to stay locked in a stall until I was done. Though I understand why she wanted to be the one to get wet, I wish she would have let me sit first as my hair dries a lot faster than hers and I also didn't have it styled.
Horse trolley thingy, barely got the picture with my ninja hands fufufu... (wtf ok sorry i know it's a terrible picture but good enough!)
All in all it was quite fun, the park was decorated brilliantly, with lots of lights and ornaments everywhere. Sadly the fireworks events for both the Believe and Fantasmic shows were cancelled as the winds were too strong at the altitude required for the fireworks. They still played the music and lighting effects for Believe, but it really wasn't as magical as when the fireworks are included (a really pretty shooting star firework over Sleeping Beauty Castle like you see before a Disney movie). There was also magical snow! Which.. wasn't quite snow, rather just soap foam blown from the rooftops. It was quite well done though, looking straight up into the dark sky I could watch small white bits floating downward. I really wondered to myself whether that was what snow looked like. My mom was really disappointed in not being able to see the fireworks, we felt really bad about that.
Thinking back I thought, maybe we shouldn't have gone on that day, but we had already cancelled the trip three times -- all for the weather too, once after the wind storm, and twice for the rain.
Ah! The windstorm, that was.. really crazy! That night that it occurred, I was up late and I could hear the wind whistling through the trees in my yard and the windows. I could also feel the wind enter the house through the air conditioning unit next to me. It was really strange I hadn't felt something like that before. The lights also flickered a bit, but only once or twice and for but a split second. And as I laid in bed, I remember thinking of this scene in Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro)
well this and the bath scene
I really thought the roof might fly off if the wind blew any harder. Many trees fell in our area, luckily none around my home, but a lot of the shingles came off from our roof, and we need to get our roof redone because of this. It was really scary going to school the next day, I had to take many detours since many of the streetlights weren't working, and thus many traffic accidents occurred. Along the way, there were streets, usually with four lanes in each direction, were narrowed into single lanes due to the trees and branches strewn everywhere. Many buildings had dents on the edges of them left from trees that landed there from the 96mph winds. Then of course, as I got to school, there were security guards holding an 8.5"x11" sheet of paper with words printed in maybe size 20 font "School cancelled". Could they have printed it any smaller lmao, swear wasted a whole sheet of paper for with text no one can read. Also there was no notice on the school website.
But all is well, I hope that troublesome time has been overcome for everyone affected by the strange winds, and for those still recovering as we are, to hang in there!
This is last year's present that I gave to my boyfriend -- forgot to take a picture of this years ):
Back to what I was saying, Christmas was quite nice this year, I was very worried about what to get my boyfriend, as I stress out easily and worry too much. Since I was six, I've been very troubled when it comes to getting gifts. My best friend at the time told me sternly to get her a gift that's 'useful'. I was then extremely troubled by what she meant and couldn't figure out what would be best to give her for her birthday. Still I worry a lot, much more than anyone should. But luckily, he loved the present I got him, and I was so relieved.
For New Year's we were invited to my sister-in-law's family home for a New Year's Party. They're Japanese, and also follow Japanese New Year traditions with the food that they make and eat during the holiday. It was really nice, although we're still quite awkward between our families, at least with her siblings I don't quite seem to exist. But perhaps it's due to my being too timid to take initiative.. I was saved when my cousins arrived, they alleviated my nerves a bit, and I was very happy to see them again. I really do love my dear cousins. They had been asking my eldest aunt about social etiquette earlier in the night, and later on my cousin had begun to choke on food accidentally. Mind you, she's been ill since before Christmas, maybe.. since Thanksgiving? And so I'm sure her throat wasn't exactly cooperating with her the whole time either, and so I saw her face turn deep red, almost purple as she coughed. Her parents offered her but a sip of orange soda, and they told her to drink water but she didn't have any at all. My aunt even said to her "that's one thing you shouldn't do too with social etiquette, don't choke". When I heard that I felt extremely upset, I thought to myself, 'how could you say that to her when she's choking and turning purple, obviously she isn't feeling well and you're saying something to make her feel worse?' I was so bothered by it. I spoke immediately telling my aunt not to tell her something like that, as .. it's not like my cousin can magically stop, and it's not like she did it on purpose either. Choking, from my experience at least, the more you worry about choking the easier it gets, and even if you suppress it, it only gets worse. Due to my stupidity and lack of proper judgement, I wasn't quick to get my cousin a bottle of water, it's regrettable that I hadn't jumped up to get it faster, though you could say it counts that at least I did get her water. I couldn't believe that no one got up or worried as much as they should have, and also that no one spoke up when my aunt said those things. Her parents were right there as well.
I still wonder though, was I wrong to have defended her? Did she not need it? Was I rude to say something like that? I still feel I wasn't wrong, I would feel horrible if I was told that it's rude to choke on my food when I'm already choking and on top of that in someone else's home in someone else's party that I've never been to, and don't know. But I worry that I'm forcing my own feelings onto people and into situations when it's unnecessary.
Today is my birthday. Last night we had cake, and my first official legal taste of alcohol (it tasted quite like the nyquil I took the night before.. hahaha) I'm still a child, as it tasted quite foul, but I will admit that the sniff I took later on smelled quite sweet and nothing like grape/cherry medicine.
I made plans with my boyfriend to go eat, and my mom is making my favorite mushroom dish. I can't wait to eat them. I'm a bit frustrated though, as my boyfriend is frustrated about dinner as we were originally going to Benihana, and my mom was invited and she kept doing this yes/no switch, and then he was worried about the actual place, and asked if there was anywhere I'd like to go in my area instead but. I have a hard time deciding things and choosing places. I've always let other people choose, since usually there is someone that wants something more than I do? If that makes sense. I know it's not good to be like this, but I always do feel that ... for someone else, there is something far more important that they want, than what I want.
I hope that today will be good too.
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