What a wonderful day

I'll admit I wasn't looking forward to Christmas at all this year. I thought it would be a tough one with the divorce and the passing of my Grandpa. I didn't put up our tree, no outside lights, no sending of the Christmas cards ...nothing. Instead I bought this silly little 2ft thing that half looked like a bush. It was a little package deal that came with a strand of lights and 12 funky looking little wooden ornaments. Took us about a week after I bought it to even decorate it with that. It wasn't until last weekend when I went to Zoolights that I had any desire to get into the holiday spirit. The lights, the carols, the family's spending time together...

Thats my favorite thing about Christmas. Spending time with all of my family. Laughing, joking, cooking, eating, and occasionally punching one of my brothers lol! I don't need presents. I just want to spend good quality time with family. I'm very close with my Grandma and Mom and Dad but really only see my brothers on the holidays. I treasure the time we share together. Its alway s blast.

Our Christmas started out last night with the traditional baking of the cookies for Santa. Ashly, Nate and I made about 3 dozen. Guess they think Santa needs to gain a little more weight. About 11 I decided I couldn't stay up any longer and wait for them to go to bed before I put the Santa presents out. I sent them to their rooms and told them not to go out snooping. Yeah right lol!

We got up early this morning and had our little opening of the presents. We didn't have much because we had agreed we would do just one gift for each person. It was perfect. More thought went into what that one gift would be instead of getting a bunch of stuff no one will use.

We headed over to Mom's about 11. Oh how I love walking into the house and smelling all that food cooking. Yummy! What a feast! There was 15 of us there this year. Smaller group then usual but plenty of tummy's to fill. After all the food is gone and dishes are done, Mom does just a few presents she picked up here and there. We really don't have any small children to do presents for now and with the amount of people we have there for Christmas we would go broke trying to buy for everyone. My family has a new tradition that we have done the last 4-5 years. Someone gets "picked on" for Christmas. Around Thanksgiving we figure out who we want to "pick on". Last year it was my Mom. She had seen a gold Xmas tree in a store and wanted to do one of hers in all gold. Everyone that was there last year brought her a present that had some type of gold ornament or decoration that she could put on her tree. The gifts she got last year sure did look beautiful on her tree this year. It's something she will treasure for years to come. Each one of her kids, grandkids, and other family members have something on her tree.

Guess who the decided to "pick on" this year? Me. I had no idea because they told me it was going to be someone else. I was very surprised. Bet you can't guess what the theme was for my gifts...pink stuff! If you know me, you know I have this slight obsession for pink things and anything with a pink ribbon on it. Well I got all sorts of cool pink stuff. Candles, perfume, lotions, hats, scarfs, a robe, pillows, a pink chair...heck to much to list. I even got a pink can opener and some pink rubbermaid food storage containers. It was so much fun opening all the presents. I'm not big on getting a bunch of gifts but this was really something special for me. Really made what I had thought would be a pretty crappy Christmas turn in to one that I will never forget.

I hope Santa was as good to you all as he was to me. Merry Christmas everyone!