I survived Christmas.

Chester here. Dinner with the Sullivans not as scary as I thought it would be. Her family are utterly insane, every last one of them, but in a fairly friendly/harmless way. They're not all Genki, (just Elaine and her and Vieve's brother Jonathan) thank goodness. They could actually pass for normal for the first fifteen minutes before Viv's brother excused himself to use the bathroom with "Excuse me, my bladder meter is full." Apparently he watched Scott Pilgrim and has never been the same since.

Then I ended up talking to Vivi's dad, who took drama lessons as a child. I think they broke him, because unless what is happening is Serious Business he does everything with a generous serving of-- what's the same of that trope? Large Ham.

Yeah, that. Not to mention the dinner conversation. If anyone ever has dinner with Vieve's family, bring up next years Rugby World Cup, sit back, and enjoy the show. Partially because the Sullivans (Especially Elaine, who has just finished High School) have a very low opinion of the people who decided to rearrange the school year around the World Cup. Personally I agree with them, even though I'm a fan of rugby and played it for the school way back when.

Then somebody brought up Monty Python. Then somebody else brought up movies. Then somebody else brought up the bomb scare in Remuera on Christmas Eve (bet the retailers there were pissed about the loss of business) and so on so on so forth. Surprisingly normal except for their senses of humour.

Then we went home at around 10, cleaned up all the wrapping paper all over the place, and went to bed. Vieve's still asleep. She looks pretty different asleep. She's usually pretty animated. Not necessarily restless, just...lively. I'm enjoying spending more time with her- there's a lot about her that I didn't know that I didn't know. She wore a dress yesterday, which is something I've never seen her do. Skirts, yes, but that's casual stuff.

I like to think she's learning as much about me as I am about her.

(I am! --Vivi)

GAH! Don't startle me like that, Vivi.

(When you concentrate on something, you're really easy to sneak up on because you're so focused.)

I'm going to have to work on that.

(It's endearing. And also the look on your face is pretty funny.)

Yes, but you managed to paint half the nails on my left hand before I noticed what you were doing yesterday morning.

(My statement is still valid. Now, I'm absolutely starving, so I'm going to go make breakfast.)

Yeah, now you mention it, I'm hungry too...