The Best Thing About Christmas -- by naudy

I should probably talk about the heartwarming Christmas experience of hanging out with my sister's in-laws for the entire weekend, or how pleased I was that the Legos I bought for my nieces and nephews were their favorite toys. I might mention the world's worst well-intentioned church choir singing a solid hour of strange Christmas songs which were single-handedly ruined by a 15-year-old soprano. I might mention the fact that I caught the flu from my little nephew, gained three pounds from eating constantly, picked out the perfect gifts for my family, or how I only got 16 hours of sleep in a 72 hour period. But, I won't because those weren't the best parts of Christmas. The part I liked best about Christmas is the crass materialism.

You heard me. I love getting presents. You can talk about peace and love and magic all you want but I love it when people randomly give me stuff. It rocks. And, since it only happens once a year, I would like to detail exactly what I recieved this Holiday Season. I got:

1. a black skirt w/ silver sequins
2. a Beginning Hula work out DVD
3. 48 bangle bracelets
4. a pink notepad
5. a pink mirror
6. a piece of antique linnen
7. a Sherlock Holmes book
8. a Hello Kitty stationary set
9. a personal CD/MP3 player
10. a MP3 disk of music from my hairdresser's husband
11. LOTS of candy
12. a check for $35
13. a deck of cards
14. a burgundy boucle scarf
15. a purple back massager
16. a gingerbread man christmas tree ornament
17. a copy of SERENITY on DVD.

All of these are excellent gifts but I love the SERENITY DVD the best. I watched it three times on Christmas day. I would have kept watching it except I had taken a lot of cold medicine and was lying on the couch sleeping when my brother in law came and turned it off. I was gratified when the director (in the commentary which I watched all the way through) apologized for only showing Mal shirtless once and for shooting him from the clavicle up 80% of the time. I was happy to see the deleted scenes and was glad they were cut. I'm glad that I got exactly what I wanted for Christmas, and that is a rare enough experience for it to be the Very Best Thing.