Jen

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Wow, Christmas break. Thank god.

I will be heading off, once again, to the land of sin for Christmas. This time, I will not be on my own because my sister and brother-in-law are making the trip along with me. It's not that it's bad hanging out with just the parents, it's just that it's better to have a buffer - and two more people to help me get them out of the casino's. Here's a little excerpt from last year which proves my point:

This is also my first Christmas Eve ever in a casino. My parents said that they wanted to go to "Santa Fe" to get some smokes, which I thought was the name of a convenience store. Then we pull up in front of this massive casino. I told my parents, "isn't it sacreligious to be gambling on the eve of Christ's birthday?" Ted then asks, "are you going with us to church tomorrow?" to which I replied, "not if I can get out of it."

Turns out that it is the most depressing casino ever, making me the only person under 25, no wait we'll go even higher, 35, in the whole place. I think the most depressing thing was that there was all these really old people all by themselves, sitting at video poker or something like that, on such a family holiday. We didn't stay too long, thank god, because I couldn't handle it. Plus, the I Dream of Genie slot kicked my ass.

The second paragraph wasn't so neccessary to get to my point, but I added it anyway.

Shell, Pawel and I have a new manuver. One of us stays with mom, the other with Ted, and the third is used to bring the group together. They are just so tricky. This is how it usually works, especially if it's just me

Parent: I'll wait here. Go find -insert other parent name here-
Me: Why don't you come with me?
Parent: My - insert part of the body that continually bothers parent- hurts. It will be easier if you just go and bring - insert other parent name- to me.
Me: You promise you'll wait right here?
Parent: Of course! (lying grin)

Then I find the other parent, drag them away from their slot machine and take them to the place where the other parent once was 10 minutes earlier only to find out they are not there. SO FRUSTRATING!

The 3 person technique already seems more effective- plus we all have cell phones.

Of course, being on my own last year in Vegas was Ok, because I got to meet up with Mjarc and the Pike for some fun strip action. Yeah, that sounded bad. We just walked up and down the strip. It was a good time.

I'm ready to call it quits here, but hopefully I can chime in with any crazy goings on while I'm away.

See a bunch of you at Brown Christmas on Saturday. We're going to fry a Turkey!