BIG LONG THING ABOUT CHRISTMAS WEEKEND AHEAD!
Now I’m sure the big question is, why didn’t my card get sent out Christmas Eve?
I spent the whole weekend at my grandparents house with my cousins, of course, so I was already THERE Christmas Eve morning. As usual. Typically, Christmas Eve day goes something like this: grandkids are already up there, having stayed all week. Grandparents get up early in the morning and start cooking. Our parents all start arriving around 10:30 in the morning, and we all eat around 11. Then we sit. Gift opening starts around 1, and this lasts until around 3 or 3:30. More sitting occurs, then everyone leaves by 5 and heads home. Once home, much unpacking occurs and I come in and send my Christmas card late that night and go to bed.
This year things got off a bit differently. Everyone was supposed to get there around one this time, for some reason. My aunt and uncle who live in the same town as my grandparents arrived around 10:30 anyway, followed by my cousin and his girlfriend. My parents dragged in a little before one, with Na not long behind them. My cousin Rachel called to see where her parents were, and they were still in MEMPHIS. So we ate without them. And then we sat. Then we rearranged our presents and moved them to where we were planning to sit. Then we sat some more. Then FINALLY at 3:30 they arrived. Around 4 we got started opening presents. Normally the kids open in age order (youngest to oldest, ending at me, the oldest, then starting over with the youngest again) while the parents watch. This year for some reason, EVERYBODY went in age order. So it was the youngest all the way up to my grandfather. It was painful. I was good tho, I didn’t cheat and try to open presents secretly out of turn like I normally do.
Anyway, by the time we got done with all that it was 6:30. And just when we thought we were done, my cousin announces that there’s one more present, and he comes back in with a ring and proposes to his girlfriend. That, of course, caused more commotion than anything before. We didn’t get out of there til 8, and then over an hour home, and all the unloading… I really didn’t feel like scanning and sending my stupid christmas card!
Anyways. Now to go over what happened over the weekend before, which isn’t much, but there are a few noteworthy things.
My cousins and I went up to my grandmother’s Saturday after having lunch at my great aunt’s. When we got there we all went in my room and we ate what was left of my cookie dough from the week before. Then we ordered pizza for dinner, and played Life in the living room while waiting. I think I was an accountant with $30000 all the way through, and then I lost big time, but at least I had no kids and we had fun playing.
Anyway, pizza came. We watched Animal Crackers (the movie this time, not the food), then for some reason we were all really tired so Cath and David went to their rooms, and Rachel and I watched the end of Rainman and then went to sleep by 10.
Sunday, as usual, Cath and I were the first ones up. Rachel and David sleep way too long. But Cath and I got to go to Wal-mart and the grocery store with my gramma. Somewhere along the way Cath decided she just had to have Pocahontas II. Luckily, neither Wal-mart or the grocery store had it, but I did find some more Harry Potter housesocks. Blue ones with stars and the Slytherin ones.
We came home and Rachel and David were up and dressed and ready to go to the mall. So we went. It wasn’t as crowded as I was afraid it was going to be. Cath, Rach and I were pretty much done Christmas shopping, so after we ate (Taco Hell.. : Chic-fil-a was closed) we walked around by ourselves while Dav went with out grandparents to finish his. We went to Suncoast first, where I saw the Holy Grail figures for the first time. We went to Hot Topic (and I still can’t get over the fact that they have a Hot Topic in Jackson) and Rachel got some of those gross pooping animal keychains for her friends. Then we went to FYE and I found a Hildebrant Tolkien calendar for my parents, and Cath found Pocahontas II. Then to Spencer’s, where we each bought a LOTR poster, and I found more Holy Grail figures. At this point I called my mom on her cellphone, and said, “Hey, remember those Holy Grail figures that you were supposed to get me for my birthday? They have them at Spencer’s.”
Then we got in the car and David got annoyed at Rachel cause she had gotten The Princess Diaries (he had gotten it for her for Christmas). So we went home, Dav and Daddy Bob got in the other car and went to the hardware store, while the rest of us returned the video and went to Walgreen’s.
We went home and all sat on mine and Rachel’s bed and watched Pocahontas II.I had gotten a new thing of cookie dough at the grocery store that morning, and I got a bit of it to eat while watching the movie. Catherine got it next and took a huge hunk out of it! Then David got it and took a huge hunk out of it, too! So I got it back and took some more. Rachel took what was left. All four of us ate every bit of that cookie dough in the space of 10 minutes.
Then we played card games for a while, then Cath, Rach and I each tried to take a nap. We went to eat at Cracker Barrel and I haven’t eaten that much in a long time. But it was good. Dang I like fried okra.
We watched Keeping the “Fa” that night, while I finished my Christmas card. It’s a cute movie and I like it and all, but it’s just too long.
(Here’s the card!)
Then to bed. I got up the next morning and got Rachel on up, and I had some breakfast and played FF8 for a while. Then we played Life again, for some reason. This time I managed to be an artist with $100000 salary. You know, we don’t even really bother to count the money at the end anymore, especially when we’ve all traded salary cards a million times. We just like making fun of each other.
So then we swung into Christmas Eve. Rachel’s big present was a cellphone. As she was opening up the present, Phillip went in the other room and called the cellphone, so it was going off inside the package, LOL 😀
My parents got a kitchen island. whatever. o_o
So anyway. That’s it. Everyone’s coming over New Year’s Eve. Cath got DDR too, so she’s bringing her dancepad over so we can all dance. I’ve gotten fairly good at a couple of songs. It’s a good work out.