The Eve of Christmas Day

I am back from visiting my family in Iowa. I had good intentions to post a lot from my parent's house, but their dial-up connection was unbearably slow. So instated I passed the time reading and listening to tunes on the ipod.

I was a little worried that I might be in for an awkward Christmas, this being the first time I've seen any of my family since the whole coming out thing commenced a couple weeks ago. As it turns out, my news was overshadowed by the surprise announcement that I am an Uncle. Again. Twice over! Yep, my brother's wife is pregnant with twins and due in July. So yipee I was off the hook. Well mostly.

All in all the weekend transpired without much meaningful news to report. We all opened gifts on Friday night, as my brother and his wife and 3-year-old daughter were headed to Florida on Saturday. They are taking Abby to Disneyworld. The crazy part is that they are driving the 20 plus hours from their home in southeastern Iowa straight through. Abby is the niece I never get to see, and she is a shy one on top of that. So I got the stranger's treatment form her all weekend.

The other niece, 2-year-old Lauren, has seen me more often and is less shy. She'd let a complete stranger tickle her for hours. Which is basically what I did. These are both adorable kids, but the stress of raising a child has taken an obvious toll on all of my siblings. None of them look particularly trim these days, and all were in bed before 9. This left my mother and me with plenty of good chatting time, as she typically can't sleep, especially with a house full of children and grandchildren.

It was during this chatting time that I learned my mother is uncomfortable with the word 'gay.' I explained to her that, given all the other current possibilities, gay was probably her best choice, but she wouldn't budge. Now I have been charged with creating a new English word that means 'gay' but isn't gay. Any suggestions? Apparently, she doesn't like 'lesbian' either, so you might as well come up with an all encompassing word while you are at it. Part of me thinks this is a silly hang-up for her, but I guess I'm lucky we are only arguing about semantics.

I also bought myself a new digital camera from the Des Moines Costco. This is the most enormous Costco in the world, and seeing it nearly made me wet my pants. Unfortunately, I was shopping with my parents - an activity which ranks somewhere below having a cobra bite me in the ass on the list of things I enjoy. This meant that my enormous Costco experience was somewhat diminished, although I did manage to pick out this camera. New profile pic hopefully coming soon.

Today was lunch at my sister's house in Des Moines, a quick stop to say hello to Anne (can you believe IHOP was the only place open? Nothing else??), and then the 3.5 hour drive back home to Minneapolis. I need a drink...