First things first. My favorite things about the holidays. I love buying gifts for people. While it is a huge hole in my bank account it's so much fun trying to figure out, "Well, will they like this?" "Is this too cheesy?" "Do they already have this?". Buying the gifts is the fun part but the hard part is definitely the holding out until Christmas to give it to them. I think I gave three of my gifts early this year because I just couldn't stand holding on to them anymore. (haha) The one thing everyone hates most: wrapping. You may say I'm weird, but wrapping is another one of my favorite things. I wrapped all of the gifts I bought, all the gifts my Mom bought, and anything else that wasn't mine and was laying around was wrapped.
I am a huge fan of baking. I'm not very good at it right yet, but my mother bakes the best goodies around this time of year. Last night she made her annual homemade cheesecake that she gives out to her friends for Christmas "Thank You Gifts". Tonight she made my favorite, that we normally have on Christmas day for breakfast but I'll be gone this year, cream cheese braids. These are for very special people. She use to make tons and tons when we were little and we would take them to my parent's closest friends and family. When I was in sixth grade, my grandfather passed away; my mom's dad. She stopped making them for quite some time but has brought back the tradition and makes about four a year. It's amazing!! and because Santa needs cookies, we always bake snickerdoodle cookies to put out on Christmas eve. Oh the holidays! So much for working out. :/
My family has a ton of traditions but we aren't obsessive about them. We just love (I just love) all the joy the stuff we do brings to everyone around us. On Christmas eve, we always go to the church service and have the Lord's Supper as a family. Afterwards, we head to my grandparents house (which is literally .025 miles from our driveway), to eat pizza and open the presents our grandparents bought us, our pajamas from our parents (we get a set every year), and my grandparents open all the gifts they got for each other that night because they always said Christmas day was for us kids. :) My other grandmother lives across the street from my Dad's parents so she normally comes over and joins us. Luckily, I still have a great-grandmother that lives about an hour away that my grandparents drive her over so she can spend the holidays with us! But that night, Jaime (my sister) and I, set out egg nog & snickerdoodle cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. ;) We sleep in my room, which is upstairs, in our new pajamas, and talk about what we want for Christmas until we doze off. Christmas morning, my sister gets us all up SUPER early, even now-a-days. We are allowed to open our stockings without our parents but the gifts we have to wait until both of my grandparents come up, mom cooks sausage balls, breakfast casserole, apple cider, and that amazing cheese braid bread. After we have a some breakfast, we all sit around the living room and open up gifts. It's so great to see everyone's reaction of what they got. After all the gifts are opened, we disperse and play with all the new gadgets we got that year. Then around 1pm or 2pm we have the usual Christmas lunch/dinner with steak, baked potatoes, salad, and whatever else gets cooked. Sounds pretty routine, right?
Well this year, a lot of my family's traditions have been moved around because, once again, I'm the rebel of the family. (ha) Well, this time, I think they are just jealous of me. I'm leaving for Jamaica on Christmas morning with my boyfriend and his family. :) We are staying for five days and will be back just in time for the new year. So all the Christmas day activities are getting moved to Christmas eve and Mom & Dad are driving me to the airport on Christmas day at 6am!The reason this December is going to be the best December of my life is because: 1. I started out the first few weeks getting my final grades for my first semester of my junior year and got a 4.0 GPA! 2. Christmas is by far my favorite holiday and you saw why :) 3. I'm leaving for Jamaica ON Christmas day! 4. We return from Jamaica on the 30th and on December 31st I will finally turn 21! 5. I am having a 21st birthday party and my parents are coming to take me to lunch. 6. This isn't in December, but it's close, Auburn is in the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!! Hip hip hooray! So anybody can see why this is definitely going to be the best December of my life.
I know this post is lengthly but I hope it brought you some joy and high spirits for the holidays. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, and a HAPPY NEW YEAR! and Happy Birthday to anyone with a birthday in December! ;)
-K
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