Ho Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum
Yay Christmas was fun - last night on Christmas Eve our whole family on my dad's side (my parents, brother, all twelve of my aunts and uncles, all dozen or so cousins, and even some of their grandparents) got together at one of my aunt's houses in Pilot Point Texas where most of them are from. That aunt has a truely WICKED house, with an outdoor pool+spa with color changing lights that she had heated for us to swim in, completed with a big slide and an entire outdoor kitchen and bar. At night when it got cold, she lit up a huge iron oven thing out there and so my uncles, cousins and I all stood around it drinking beers and talking. And she also had a screened in patio with a huge marble table that had a fire "mound" (I have no idea what to call it) in the middle, so that basical you could sit around a table with a blazing fire coming out of the center at face level and roast marshmellows on it.
Every Christmas at our gatherings we have all these traditions. There is always the prayer before eating. And as for presents, we always elect a "Santa", usually a festively drunk older person, who hands out all the presents to kids, and then we have the "white elephant" gift exchange for all the adults. This year I ended up with a cool fruit bowl and a water fountain. I am not always so lucky - one year I got a jar of green macaroni!
One of my cousins who is about 7 years old had a school project where he was supposed to illustrate his favorite book. He did "A Hunters Guide to Deer Hunting" and drew a lovely picture of himself in camo holding a huge shotgun, with an even bigger bullet coming out of it going straight at this stick-figure deer. The teacher had put all their illustrations up for open house but then the principal came by, saw my cousin's, and made him take it down and take it home. My aunt hung it up and it was a sort of family pride item, with all of us going by to admire it. She is going to have it laminated.
So yay for family and yay for Christmas. I'm happy that even with the passing of grandma this year we still can all get together and keep the spirit alive!
My cousin Ben who is in kindergarten spells "My cousins" as "MI kzns". I think its pretty cute.
I am obsessed with Hefe-weizen beers now. Must resist though as I start my new job in about a week! Yay for graduating and the joyous freedom *cough* of having to now pay all of my own bills! But at least the motivation of getting evicted from my lovely apartment if I don't pay the rent will make me get up at 6 am and get to work every morning!!!
Every Christmas at our gatherings we have all these traditions. There is always the prayer before eating. And as for presents, we always elect a "Santa", usually a festively drunk older person, who hands out all the presents to kids, and then we have the "white elephant" gift exchange for all the adults. This year I ended up with a cool fruit bowl and a water fountain. I am not always so lucky - one year I got a jar of green macaroni!
One of my cousins who is about 7 years old had a school project where he was supposed to illustrate his favorite book. He did "A Hunters Guide to Deer Hunting" and drew a lovely picture of himself in camo holding a huge shotgun, with an even bigger bullet coming out of it going straight at this stick-figure deer. The teacher had put all their illustrations up for open house but then the principal came by, saw my cousin's, and made him take it down and take it home. My aunt hung it up and it was a sort of family pride item, with all of us going by to admire it. She is going to have it laminated.
So yay for family and yay for Christmas. I'm happy that even with the passing of grandma this year we still can all get together and keep the spirit alive!
My cousin Ben who is in kindergarten spells "My cousins" as "MI kzns". I think its pretty cute.
I am obsessed with Hefe-weizen beers now. Must resist though as I start my new job in about a week! Yay for graduating and the joyous freedom *cough* of having to now pay all of my own bills! But at least the motivation of getting evicted from my lovely apartment if I don't pay the rent will make me get up at 6 am and get to work every morning!!!