Happy (belated) Holidays! I'm currently laying down on an air mattress, surrounded by my Christmas gifts this year. I'm currently staying at my sister's place again, as she couldn't travel this year due to work and being close to popping out a baby.

Christmas was actually nice this year. It was just me, my parents, my sister, and my brother-in-law. Usually it's them plus my grandparents and my uncles, which makes the holidays a lot more chaotic than they need to be. Keeping it small is nice for sure. We opened gifts in the morning, then had some homemade lasagna, then watched "A Year Without A Santa Claus" (The Miser theme songs are still stuck in my head), and then played some card games. I wish the holidays were this chill every year.

I wanted to share what I got this year, as I got a lot of really cool gifts.

I got:

• Some fun sweaters (though my family always buys me stuff that's too feminine. I might still wear them though)
• A sling bag for grad school
• Socks with cats on them
• Those Beats Airpod things
• An XBox Series S (so I can finally play Baldur's Gate 3)
• 2 vinyl records: Steve Miller Band's The Joker, and Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports
• A small book on the history of retro gaming

In the meantime, I'm also working on grad school applications. I'm moreso working on writing my resume and statements of intent and stuff like that. It's gonna take all my energy, but it has to get done before my break is over.

I'm very tired though. Sadly the holidays will always wear me out no matter what I do. As much as it's been fun to visit my sister, I do wish to go home at some point. As long as my sister feels ok, we may go home later this week, but it's all up in the air at the moment.