Pre-Christmas Update

I’m at my parents’ at the moment and have been since the weekend.

On Sunday evening, I decorated the Christmas tree, which isn’t all that pleasant, since I am mildly allergic to fir trees, which means that decorating the Christmas tree gives me swollen joints and reddened fingers.

Today I went for some last minute shopping with my Dad, while my Mom made pork curry and red herring salad for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I made Crab Rangoon – well, only the cream cheese cum crab filling – as a dip and/or cream cheese spread, which royally confused my Mom who kept complaining, “But why did you buy so much cream cheese? We need cream, not cream cheese.”

I also wrapped presents – my own as well as Mom and Dad’s for each other. I took a break to watch Arrow, which I have come to enjoy quite a bit. Though is it me or are the scenes on the not-so-deserted island the least interesting bit of the plot? Because whenever the show got back to Oliver on the island, my Mom and I yelled at the TV, “Oh, skip that crap and get on with the plot already?” Because I honestly don’t care what happened to Oliver on that island. Coincidentally, I also felt that the island bits were the least interesting part of Lost, in the first one and a half seasons when I actually enjoyed the show. I bowed out halfway through season 2, came back for a bit in season 3 and then stopped watching for good. I guess deserted island tales just aren’t thing. As for why so many Americans seem to like them, personally I blame Gilligan’s Island.

No pictures of the Christmas tree yet, but I leave you with this image taken in January:

The Hobbit, as reenacted by Christmas tree ornaments:

The Hobbit as reenacted by Christmas tree ornaments. In the top row we have Gandalf and Bilbo, in the bottom two rows we have the thirteen dwarves. The dwarf just underneath Bilbo is Thorin Oakenshield. I’ve never been able to tell the others apart.

Alas, we still don’t have Smaug or Gollum, though some of the angels could stand in for Tauriel (who is played by Evageline Lily, who was in Lost) and the other elf characters Tolkien invented.