Aurora Australis

"On the first day of Christmas, the power company gave to me, a 30 hour long power cut".

Seriously. 3pm Christmas Eve to 9pm Christmas Day, on some of the hottest days of the year; and we couldn't open the windows at night because there was a dust storm, and it was impossible to sleep... I wound up going to my mum for an aspirin at about 4:30 am because I had a headache just from being so hot and so tired. Hopefully the power company doesn't give us another present for a long time ;)

Other than that, it was a fun Christmas :) We went to my aunt's house for dinner on Christmas Eve (which is when people celebrate here - remember, it's summer, so you don't want a big meal in the middle of the day), which was nice - even if they did exile us "kids" to eating in the kitchen. It made sense, there were far too many of us to all eat in one room, and my sister refused to eat there without me, lol. It was only for the main course, anyway. After eating, we watched the midnight fireworks - did I say we ate really late? Like hurrying to finish before midnight late? - then came back inside and opened presents, had a toast (I was allowed champagne then, considering I'm old enough to drink even in the US :P) and ate fruit cake, fruit salad, chocolate-covered peanuts, and other sweet stuff. I got a lovely necklace from my aunt's family :)

On Christmas day itself we opened presents from my family - since my dad's English, we split the celebrations. I got a book ("Polar City Nightmare" - started reading it today), a CD ("Mylo Xyloto" by Coldplay - listening to it right now!), another necklace, a pair of earrings and a beach dress. All very nice!

I also got presents from the internet! ;) I did the Yuletide exchange this year, and got not one but two lovely fics! Both are about Bridget Walker, from Swallows and Amazons: 

New Adventures, which is set at the very beginning of WWII, and has a lovely mix of Bridget's childish unconcern for the war and excitement about going to stay at The Lake and planning adventures, with her mother and the Amazon's mother being far more worried but trying not to worry her. 
Prelude To The Holidays, set after the last book, "Great Northern?", at the very beginning of a new holiday, with all the planning - and Bridget very determined that she is not going to be left out of things!

They're both lovely, and I'm really happy that someone (well, maybe two someones? I won't know until the author reveal!) wrote them for me. 

I wrote fics too, but I can't link them until the author reveals, so they'll probably go in a New Year's Resolution post. Those of you who're on my friends list know about my assignment, so please don't be specific about fandom and such in comments! I wrote a couple of treats as well, which was a first for me - I'm looking forwards to posting them all here. And the recipient of the assigment and one of the treats have commented saying they loved them!

*Yuletide-induced squeee!*

How were your Christmases? 

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I was walking in the city centre today, and I went past a pharmacy that had a sign consisting of a lit up green cross, with changing white writing in the middle. It said, quoting exactly what I saw, "Please don't drink and drive". Anyone see the problem with that being exactly what I saw? (See below for answer).
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I live in Argentina. We speak Spanish. And while I applaud the pharmacy for its campaign, I think it might reach more of the population if it used the language everyone speaks here. Why didn't they?

Theory 1) it's a fiendish attempt to get rid of everyone who doesn't know English.
Theory 2) it cycles through different languages (it was raining, I didn't wait to see)
Theory 3) the sign can read minds and adjust its language accordingly (I was thinking in English at the time)
Theory 4) No one noticed, or they did but couldn't be bothered to change it; aka general inneficiency

My money's on 4, with 2 as a second runner. Although it would be very awesome - and worrying - if 3 was right.