I wanted to write a post about my Christmas Eve, but this is going to have to be quick. I've had a very busy day, and it's not quite finished yet.
This afternoon we headed over to my Uncle Chris and Aunt Vicky's house. It wasn't a large get together. My mom's the youngest of ten kids, so her side of the family is quite large. There's only one time of year that the whole (or most at least) family gets together: 4th of July up at my uncle's lake. I think this is because we can't all fit in a house, so we can only get together when it's warm and we can stay outdoors. Only a small portion of my mom's family was there today. More might have come later, but we had to leave early. Still, it was nice getting to see the family members that were there. My cousin Cassie's baby Valory is now four months old and absolutely adorable. I wish you guys could see her. I spent most of my time either holding her or smiling at her while someone else held her. She is so cute. My cousin Heather's daughter Rebekah was also there. She's probably about four right now, and she's also adorable. She's really shy, and yet she's also quite loud at times. That's not that surprising when it comes to our family...
After that we came back home for an hour or so before leaving again. We decided to open the presents that my sister Regina had gotten us. I already knew what she had gotten me, but it's nice to finally have it. She got me a new purse. It's purple, my favorite color, and large enough for me to carry several books in. My sister knows me well. My family also opened my present for them. I got the whole family a print of a brussel griffon that looks like one of our dogs, and it says, "Surprisingly, I don't enjoy being compared to science fiction characters." It's so fitting because we're always saying Poppy looks like either an ewok or a gremlin.
Before long we were off to my Aunt Linda and Uncle Ken's for Christmas with my dad's side of the family. Unlike the gathering of part of my mom's side, all of my dad's side was there except for one aunt, one uncle, and three cousins, who all live in Georgia. (Of course, my dad's side is also much smaller. He only has three siblings.) We ate, talked, and played around for a while. Then, we did a Christmas prayer for my papaw who passed away on Christmas Eve three years ago. After that it was time to open presents. My grandma, aunts, and uncles all played Dirty Santa first. My mom got a Charlie Brown Christmas tree that I put together as soon as we got home. It looks pretty cool. After that my cousins and I got to open our presents from Secret Santa. My cousin Ben (or, in actuality, my Aunt Linda) got me a book about college and some money. Then, we all opened presents from our grandma. She got me Condoleezza Rice's memoir. My family knows me so well. None of these were things I asked for, but I will definitely enjoy them. Both of the books look so interesting. I'm excited to read them.
After presents we sat around and talked a little longer before heading home. I took a really quick shower before getting on the computer really quickly to write this. It's just after eleven, and we have to be at church in half an hour. My sister is playing the drums in our church's youth band tonight before mass, so we have to get there early. I've actually never been to midnight mass before. We usually go to Christmas Vigil mass at four. I hope I'll be able to stay awake. The shower helped me wake up a bit, but I'm absolutely worn out. I'm probably only going to be getting a few hours of sleep in the morning before I'm woken up to go open presents. This may be the only time of the year that that won't bother me.
Right before we left for Uncle Ken and Aunt Linda's it finally completely hit me that Christmas is tomorrow. I'm so excited! Even though I'm incredibly tired, I've been hyper since then. I can't wait! I'm also excited for mass in an hour! It's my fourth favorite mass of the year! (After Easter, Good Friday, and Holy Thursday. Is it okay to have a ranking of favorite masses?)
I hope you all are having a great Christmas Eve or a great Christmas. I can't believe it's already Christmas for most of the world as I write this! Let's see, it's just after five in the morning in Britain, so they're probably all up or getting up soon. Exciting! I could ramble about Christmas forever, but I really need to go finish getting ready for mass. Again, merry Christmas everyone! If you don't celebrate Christmas, then happy Hannukah, any other holiday you celebrate, or just have an awesome day! (I really need to calm done before mass. I'm going crazy right now...)
No comments:
Post a Comment