I'm never too sure where to start anything blog-like, so I guess we'll go chronologically. My brother and his family came into town Tuesday, but I had worked Monday night and had to work Tuesday, so I didn't get to see him until after my shift was over. And of course, nothing ever goes perfectly, so we had to stay an hour later than we planned. I made it home with plenty of time to see him propose to his girlfriend, so I'm glad I got to see that. He was actually in the middle of asking me and my sister when he should propose when his girlfriend walked into the room, but he spotted her quick enough that he didn't let anything slip in front of her.
Christmas Day, my two nieces ran into the living room, where I was sleeping, around 6:30 am and opened their presents. Yeah, I was still tired, but hey, it was Christmas, so I knew it was going to happen. My sister got them, among other things, these little Power Wheels-like three-wheelers, which I had the pleasure of assembling. It was a pain in the ass, but they love those things, so it was definitely worth it. I received a thermal shirt and the pullover-thing pictured below:
Nothing fancy, but I'm certainly not complaining. I've got everything I need and most of what I want, and I wouldn't expect them to buy me a rifle. I didn't really get anyone anything, because I've got some fillings I need on a few teeth, and I finally need my wisdom teeth removed. I've known about them for a long time, but now that they're actually starting to hurt, they've finally got to go.
This part isn't really Christmas-related, but since I updated my mom on it yesterday, I can totally include it. Several months ago, I found out that one of my good friends moved to South Korea to teach English, and it reawakened my desire to work overseas. Now I'm in the private security industry, so my work isn't relatively safe to begin with. So when companies overseas are looking for armed security, it's to protect against more than the occasional robber with a pistol or pepper spray. High-risk, high-reward, if you will. Being the genius that I am, I applied for a job in Afghanistan. I'm sure you all know the risks of working security in the Middle East, what with the war going on. I broke the good news to my family that I didn't get the job, followed by informing them that I'd applied for a position in Kosovo. It's a much more stable area in Europe, but we've still got some troops there to make sure it stays that way, and I've applied to do security for them.
Right, so overall it was a good Christmas, since the whole family got together and enjoyed our time with each other. I hope all of yours were at least enjoyable.