I picked up my sericel about 90 minutes ago now, and must say they did a pretty good job of framing it. The celluloid and background picture were quite difficult to align properly, but it looks perfect to me — even one particular part I knew I would be pedantic about being done right.

View the full-sized image

The complete thing is quite large and takes up a substantial part of our mantle, but I like it. Finally, I received my Christmas present!

Finally! About 20 minutes before I’d planned to call and abuse them for not having it done, I receive a call telling me my Simpsons sericel (which I’ve talked about a couple of times) is finally ready!

It has taken an extremely long time, and I’m not even sure where I’m going to put it, but hopefully I will be able to admire it later today!

With Christmas gone for another year, I can safely say this was one of the easiest and most relaxed I’ve had for ages.

Christmas Day started off not at the crack of dawn, but at 9:30ish — i.e. when we finally decided to roll out of bed — which is when the presents began. Shortly after, I received a call from mum — who is now doing quite well after her extremely serious operation — in the middle of the early-morning present delivery. A few hours later, when we could be bothered, we went off to Diane’s (Justine’s mum) place for lunch. Lunch was fine — no traditional turkey though I couldn’t care less — and Justine was the lightning-fast distributer of Christmas cheer/gifts. The kids enjoyed playing with the sticky wall clingy things that Justine gave them; they got other presents, sure, but they didn’t care since they were sticky wall clingy things.

Around dinner time we got off our arses and went to Dad’s place. The mountains of uneaten food largely stayed that way though we did manage to have a few small bits and pieces. Much talking and watching of television ensued — not too Christmassy, watching TV, but we can be thankful we weren’t forced to play charades or some such.

Lunchtime on Boxing Day was spent at Justine’s “little nana’s” (the one mentioned here house and dinner was spent back at our house with a traditional Christmas fea… no, wait, it was a barbecue. Probably nicer anyway since it was me cooking.

Presents of note for me:

• The aforementioned Simpsons sericel, which I won’t see until February
• Evan Williams Single Barrel Bourbon 1994 vintage, put into barrel on the 23rd of July, 1994 — in barrel 211
• A piece of paper with a monetary value attached (commonly called a “gift voucher”); redeemable at JB Hi-Fi stores
• About 4-5kg of lollies/chocolate from various members of Justine’s family; for some reason she told them I wanted lollies for Christmas

Note: This post was back-dated.

Today, one of the Christmas presents Justine bought for me arrived. I wouldn’t have known what it was, except that there was a bank stuff up with her being charged more than she should have. Because of the mucking around to resolve the issue, I found out what it was.

Nevermind. It’s fallen on my shoulders to get it framed, since it’s quite costly to get done right and Justine wanted to get it done on the cheap (if you’re getting something so nice, why skimp right at the end? It’s like eating at a fine restaurant and then getting cheap McDonalds ice cream for dessert).

Anyway, here it is (this is my one, not a stock photo). It’s a limited-edition sericel so it’s quite a fancy, big deal:

Can’t wait to see it framed!