yup

Still bouncy and cheerful. The drizzly weather can't get me down. Holiday shopping traffic can't get me down. Your prickly needle can't deflate my balloon head. Whee hoo! Got most of my Christmas shopping done. Just need presents for my parents now. You might think it odd that we celebrate Christmas, being completely non-Christian as we are. And sure, we've bought into the whole crass commercialism of the holiday and whatnot. But really, all the hoo-haw is a way for my family to celebrate being a family without actually saying we're doing that. It helps that me and my twin are Christmas babies. So we actually had a reason to do the gift thing. The tree, decorations, and festivities are just like an extended birthday blowout. And it's been uber-useful over the years since, falling as our birthday does on such a major holiday for the country, all of us have always been able to return to our parents' home. It's really the one time a year we're all together.