December 25, 2001 | 10:35 PM

I just spent a couple of hours playing the SIMS with my 9 year old sister. I love her so much. She is a joy to be around-- she has such a good sense of humor.

I love being around kids. I wouldn't want to be a teacher or something where I had to be around like 24 of them at a time-- but I can't wait to have some of my own.

Today was overall a good day. This morning was a tad tense due to last night's histrionics(Read this entry) (Now read this entry), but the opiate of presents evened out everyone's temper this morning, and by 10:30 or so, people we were all in decent spirits.

Sarah had to go spend the day with my ex-stepfather. Blah-- he sucks. I do feel sorry for him though, even if he is a total bastard. My sense is that he is one of then unhappiest people in the world. My mom gets mad and says things like, "Look at him-- he's leading The Life of Riley. He doesn't have a job. He doesn't have any responsibility. He doesn't have to deal with anyone else."

She says this almost wistfully, as though it were something positive. Weird. My mom is wicked succesful too (she is a new age therapist with a private practice). It seems counterintuitive for her to be envying a dead beat.

After Sarah left, Mom, Beth, Dave and I went to see Oceans 11, which was highly enjoyable and just an overall fun Hollywood movie.

Sarah came home around 5PM and we all made X-mas dinner and had my Grandparents and Uncle over and we all had a lovely time arguing about who should be elected "Best Philosopher of the 19th Century", and whether or not the north node was the most signifigant placement in ones astrological natal chart.

My family is eccentric. I love them. I wouldn't trade the psychodrama for some boring "Leave it to Beaver" nonsense any day.

After dinner, Beth, Sarah, Grandma, Grandpa and I decorated the X-mas cookies that Sarah and I had made. Grandpa kept eating the cookies and feigning ignorance about where they were disapearing to. He told us a story about how whenever he goes to the grocery store he always gets a bag of nuts and eats the whole thing while he's walking around the store picking out groceries. Then he throws the bag away before he pays for everything. He gets a thrill out of eating the n uts without paying for them. He says that if he ever gets caught stealing the nuts, he'll just pretend he's a slightly senile old codger and didn't who didn't realize he was breaking the law.

My grandpa has the best sense of humor. So does my Grandma. I love them so much it hurts my heart. They are so unlike the stereotype of "old people". They are more fun to hang out with than most people my age, and they have the greatest stories.

One time in the 70's my Grandma wrote a huge letter to the local papaer about gay rights. This was in the 70's mind you-- people were a fuck load more conservative than they are today. She had a lot of nasty threats made against her for doing that, but she didn't care. She has so much courgae. She also worked as an accountant in the 50's while all the other moms stayed at home. She is feisty and was always a gas to be around.

I love my uncle too. He's an astrologer. In fact, he's telling me my transits for the year tomorrow.

Well, I am exhausted right now. This entry was neither well written nor particularly interesting.

Oh well.

Merry Christmas all you cats and kittens. I hope Jesus made it safely down your chimney.