I haven't abandoned you yet...

It's obvious that I'm falling back into the same old pattern. Lacking a bit of consistency as with any venture I initiate. So my new year's resolution, which will begin today, is to be more consistent, persistent and master the "follow-through" with posting...and just in general.

I have a great excuse for not posting in a while...all these wonderful holiday festivities. Well, not so much wonderful actually. Christmas at the Salsero house is a bit chaotic....there's a lot of yelling going on between my brother and I and then my mom chimes in with a big latin scolding. We get a lot of arm waving and rolling of the rrrrs. A lot of "puchica" and "que barbaridad!", each of which is loosely translated to "my goodness" and "how barbaric!"...when all we would be doing is arguing about how disgusting my brother is when he eats. I feel like a child everytime I step into my parents place...and I subconsciously start to act like one.

Christmas just didn't seem like Christmas this year. Everyone seems to be on edge lately. Lenny and I spoke over the phone a few times on Christmas Eve (we both spend the night at our respective parents on Christmas Eve...and then have Christmas together on Christmas Day) and every time, someone was yelling in the background. I would ask "who's yelling now?" and he would answer non-chalantly with "my grandpa, dad, brothers, mom and uncle". Maybe it's not that everyone's on edge actually because this is pretty typical at any of our family gatherings. Is the yelling a latin thing? Or is this culturally non-specific? I'm only half-latin but I notice that my dad (the non-latin half of the family) keeps quiet.

Christmas Day was a lot more calm. I always have a great story about male gift giving...or more specifically Lenny's infamous gift buying disability.

So Lenny gave me what he gets me every year. It started like this:

It gets better:

Imagine this card with some cash inside and you'll experience my surprise every year. It never ceases to amaze me. Well, at least the card is always different.

I have to say, it doesn't bother me much because I'm a hard person to buy for. I can even feel the tension building when he asks me "what do you want for Christmas?" So I always say "don't worry about it...whatever". But he does worry because he's gifted some real losers at the beginning of our relationship (tight red mini skirt, gold old lady watch, umbrella, the Swiffer). He agonizes and then on the 24th, he gives up and runs to the ATM...and then to London Drugs to pick up a funny card. It's actually kind of endearing. It really makes Christmas funny. And Christmas isn't usually described as funny...for me at least (see above).