Last night, I celebrated Christmas with my family. It is our tradition to celebrate on Christmas Eve, as my two brothers are married and spend Christmas Day with their wives’ families. As I’ve become older, I’ve found that I am more excited to watch my nieces and nephew open their gifts than I am about anything I get. Nothing can replace their excited giggles and sweet smiles. To the left is a picture of my niece, Brooke, showing off her Dora Fiesta doll. Notice her classic crimped hairstyle? I seem to recall a picture of myself with crimped hair…and that was in the late 80’s.
I live about 65 miles (104 KM) away from my family, so I planned accordingly, as a big snowstorm was moving in. I packed an overnight bag, just in case I ended up staying overnight. So, since I planned, of course, the snowstorm came in later. But that is fine with me – driving 65 miles in the snow is not my idea of fun.
When I arrived, I began emptying the car of gifts and adding them to the already huge pile under my parents’ tree. One thing about my family is that we are very generous people and know how special we are to one another.
Earlier this year, I made some changes in my life that enabled to me to be much more happy and to enjoy my life. My happiness was certainly apparent yesterday and I am extremely thankful. I’ve wanted to be more involved in my nieces’ and nephew’s life and I’m able to be now. My twin nieces and I played the tickle game and they were so talkative! With my older niece and my nephew, I listened to stories about school and watched them open their gifts with delight. They let me know they “knew all about the Santa thing” but when it came down to brass tacks, they were the first to drop everything and listen to the Santa tracker on the TV.
As is tradition in my family, we enjoyed a dinner of ham, potatoes, veggies and a few different desserts. I’m not normally a ham fan, but it was certainly a nice change. After food, and much begging from the kids, we opened gifts.
I got some excellent gifts, among them a PS2 console. I know, I know, I am so not with the cool stuff anymore! But I love the PS2 console and the games available, so it works for me. I’m not a hardcore console player, so this will be just fine. Now I can take my frustrations and stress out on GTA: Vice City ,my favorite game, from the comfort of my bed.
Of course, what holiday at my parents’ house would be complete without giving the cat some play time? To the right, you see the cat, Tazz, preparing to attack my brother’s hand. Doesn’t he look fierce? For a cat his size, he shockingly has the ability to be agile. He’s a huge ginger tabby with the meow of a mouse. He only ventured out after the kids left, of course .
Funnily enough, this cat has been busy during the season. The amount of presents that were labeled from him were numerous. He even gave presents to my cat, perhaps to make amends for beating the crap out of her when I took her to my parents’ for a weekend.
Overall, it was a great celebration and today? Today, I will enjoy not going to work and relaxing. I don’t go back to work until Monday, so I’m going to enjoy a little mini-vacation. After a year like this? I could certainly use it.
Filed under: Family, Holidays | Tagged: christmas, Family, Holidays
