My christmas was an odd one this year. My christmas celebrations have always been odd ones, come to think of it. From a very early age I used to work in chinese restaurants, and christmas and new years were usually reserved for working and copious amounts of fireworks.
Around the time I stopped doing that – when I was 17 or so – Eva came into my life. For the uninitiated; Eva was my girlfriend for 4 years or so, and is now one of my best friends. Since the Netherlands celebrates two christmas days, we’d equally split the days among the two sets of parents, and everything was good. Those must have been the most normal christmas days I’ve ever spent.
A couple of years ago, my friend Marco decided he’d try his luck working for Dell Computer Corporation in Texas. He had a house here, and since we are good friends, he let me live in his house. He visits about once or twice a year for about two weeks or so, and usually he returns here around Christmas. Last year he came back a bit before Christmas, and I returned with him to Texas to celebrate Christmas with him there, together with his lovely girlfriend Clarissa.
That Christmas was…uhm…interesting. Clarissa comes from a very large Mexican family, and they had decided to gather in a church somewhere in Bumblefuck Texas; and we were all invited. So there I was, surrounded by about 150 Americans of hispanic decent, having a wonderful time celebrating Christmas.
This year, we thought it would be nifty to turn it around; this time Marco would come here, and we’d celebrate Christmas at my mother’s house. Marco had decided to take two of his colleagues along, one of which I had met before; David, and one of which I didn’t know yet; Mike. The three of them have made me miss a lot of sleep the past few days as I’ve been dragging them around Amsterdam.
So this year, while first Christmas day was spent with my father and his new girlfriend, I spent second Christmas day with Marco, Mike, David and of course Eva and Samantha at my mother’s house. My mother had invited a couple of people over as well [Family…don’t it just suck?], which was interesting, and we engaged in a debauchery of food, alcohol and interesting – and sometimes shocking – conversation.
One of the highlights of the evening was talking to Crazy Elf on the phone; yes, that’s right…I’m one of the few people that has gotten a step closer to uncovering the truth of that little Aussie Clown. He had decided to ring as he wanted to have as many bulldrekkers in one place so he could speak to as many as he could in one go. Sadly enough Van Der Litreb [a.k.a. VDL, a.k.a. Veed, a.k.a. Claus] and his sister had other priorities so they wouldn’t be able to make our Christmas dinner, and they’ll be arrive…*watches the clock*…in about 7 hours.
That’s right; tonight there will be two Americans [Mike, David], one Portugese [Marco] and two Danish people [Claus and his sister] sleeping over in my house. With a little luck Samantha will decide to stay over, which will crank up the amount of different nationalities to 5, since she’s British.
Meanwhile, I still have to work, and I’m trying to keep up with the drinking habits of Marco and David…so I need some serious sleep; recovery time.