December 23, 2011--Christmas Eve eve

I finished the shopping for Christmas dinner. Or, rather, my father did. I offered to cook Christmas dinner again this year, but my dad bought so much food that I think it's unwise if I try to add to that pile. The refrigerator is already crammed enough as it is now. However, my father's been cooking a lot these days--unusual for him. He's also been going to sleep much earlier--6 p.m. At least he seems more mellow. No more angry emotional outbursts or overreacting to trivial things.

On the other side, my mother has been having all these aches and pains. She's been asking me for advice on the aches, but I usually don't know what to do other than to recommend medicine or a massage. It's strange, but she reveres my word like I'm some kind of doctor. Well, I suppose I know a little bit more about the human body (since I like to read about it), but I'm still no M.D. Oftentimes, all I do is look up her symptoms on the Mayo Clinic's website or check WebMD. Then I tell her what I find. I hope they're reliable...

Lastly, my friend Hoang-Anh came over today. She brought Christmas presents for everyone and then insisted on giving me a manicure. So we sat around doing our nails and talking about boys and all that girly stuff. She ended up staying really late at my house and my mother said she could spend the night here so it just ended up being a slumber party. We talked a lot more and I took her through my mP3 player so she could write down the names of the songs she liked. We stayed up until 12:30 in the morning (very unusual for me considering that I go to sleep at 9).

"Just tell me when you want to go to sleep, okay?" Hoang-Anh tells me.
"Oh, don't you worry. We can just talk until we fall asleep. If you tell me something and I don't respond...then I'm asleep."

Then I rolled over onto my side and promptly went to sleep.