There shouldn't be days between Christmas and New Years. Or if there are days then we should just be chilling out with the family and never work! After Christmas it's always about tearing down the decor, putting up gifts and working off calories. The magic slowly fades and we are back into normal life instead of walking on the magical clouds of the holiday season. Hey, it's how I've felt all my life. I absolutely love the season! It's magical to me. Santa is real to me during the holidays. Then it becomes January and it's my birthday month so a whole new sort of excitement starts in... (not turning 30 though... not cool)...
We began Christmas as my Dad and Brenda made their way to Dallas. We took a day to visit my Dad's Aunt Polly & Uncle Pat. They've been married 64 years! They are very funny to listen to... I sat down with Polly and listened to stories of my Granny Jac. It was very interesting to me. I had a lot of questions and it was neat to get her perspective. My grandmother was a beautiful, smart, tough woman. She was the oldest of three children and their mother died at a young age. She passed away three years ago; I would often ask her about her childhood and time on the farm. It was neat to hear Polly's life as well. I love old stories about "back then." It was just such a different time that I just cannot comprehend. I think Dad enjoyed visiting with them and his cousin, Jane and her family as well. What fun!
We had Christmas that night with the Gray family just together opening gifts. Nick got me a Netflix subscription and a stainless steel trash can... don't laugh... I really wanted a nice one! I got him a new golf bag and the Mavs DVD Journey to the NBA! He might have liked the DVD better than the golf bag - he was so excited!!!
We went to Original Pancake House in Addison on Christmas Eve morning. I always say I want a pig. Brenda gave me one... I love him.
Christmas Eve we went back to the Gray household and all of the Bennetts came over... Nick's godfather/godmother and kids. It was a zoo! It was so much fun!
Nick; Julie; Nick's brother, Justin
Then Dad, Brenda and I went to the house to open gifts. We always give a lot of gifts in the family to open. One gift might just be a big thing of gum, but it's fun to open it! I got some really neat, thoughtful things. Again the most things I got were for the kitchen. I'm almost fully domesticated! My last gift to the parents were the big hits. Dad got himself a book of his blogs from 2003 to now... he writes email blogs... I picked out my favorites and put them in a book online. Brenda got a canvas of our family photo. She sure did love it. We played with our gifts and looked at them for a while before everyone packed it up for the night.
My gifts from Dad and Brenda. What a haul! Dad did all of the wrapping so he was very proud of himself. We've always given a lot of gifts just for fun growing up. Dad loves to rip open packages so all of his packages must be actually wrapped!
My little tree.
Heck yes. One thing all the kids get is like a year long supply of cleaning supplies. We get a box of all the essentials.
Christmas morning we headed to my stepbrother's house in Oklahoma. My nieces, Rylie and Saige had gotten Barbie cars to zoom around in... they were showing off their skills! My sister in law's family came for dinner to that night... Aww so much fun. I love playing with the girls. They are just at the best age. They play salon with me and brush my hair really hard, Rylie fell on me and hit me with her head where I now still have a red bruise, we played Barbies, watching "Gnomeo and Juliet" 8 million times... Other than that we chilled with the family and watched movies and talked. We went into town a few times and shopped a bit as well. Ya just gotta hit those after Christmas sales!
Word to the wise... You may not want to play "make up" with little girls! At first Saige would do something insane and Rylie would say, "You look terrible." Then I guess it got fun so they began to just make art on my face!
We had a wonderful Christmas. I enjoy every single minute with the family. It's not about the gifts, we know that. God has blessed us so much. I feel unworthy at times of all of this love being poured upon me with family, but God has His ways! Very thankful for blessings this Christmas. Now here we go into 2012. I can say that 2011 wasn't my favorite year, but it taught me a lot of lessons. Now I guess we just have to worry about the Mayan calendar ending a few days before Christmas in 2012. The world ending might fit into the magic of Christmas!!!
1 comment:
Very Nice!
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