Christmas Weekend

Another Christmas has come and gone…more family time, too much eating, too much drinking and a bit too much arguing and tempers raised. That’s what happens when you spend too much time together in too close of quarters right?

Saturday
After Friday night hell, I mean working at B&N, I was so frustrated with customers I couldn’t wait to get out of there. It’s a trying time of year for retail that’s for sure. But I did survive, then I got to bed, got up and headed to mom and dad’s arriving there around noon on Saturday (took the picture on the way down the ice on the trees is so pretty), I had called and said I was leaving and would need to do my hair when I got there, I got home and my sister was in the bathroom, at least she didn’t take that much longer, but the plan had been no one was supposed to be in there when I got there. We went up to my grandma’s party, with my sister and I getting lost on the way there…how do you get lost in a town of 700 people that you grew up in? Well, the senior citizen’s center where the party was being held is now a room in the community center, we didn’t realize this and ended up going to the other party that was going on in the main room, before heading out, wandering downtown a bit (1 block) and almost just going for a drink at the bar instead!! Oh well, we found it and had a nice time. I looked at old pictures, visited with my grandma’s sister, Sister Marcan, who I almost never get to see, saw both of my grandma’s and then went for drinks that evening at the local bar and visited with aunt’s and cousin’s up there. Home to bed and ready to disown family as my brother, sister and brother’s girlfriend didn’t come home till late, my sister and I share a room (and her dog) and dog is up and down and won’t settle down and after a whopping 4 hours of interrupted sleep I wasn’t so happy on Christmas eve morning, but oh well. (my mom's mom, myself and my dad's mom)

Sunday

I got up, dressed to go for a run but ended up chatting with my dad instead (but forgot that my GPS was out getting a signal till after we got back from grandma’s Christmas eve night so needless to say it was dead for the weekend) and then showered, got ready and went to visit with my grandma for a while. Back to mom and dad’s, had a glass of wine and then went to mass at 4, back to mom and dad’s for more wine (it’s how we survive the family!!) then to my grandma’s for our traditional Christmas eve of oyster stew, ham and potatoes, visiting, more wine (seeing a pattern here?) and then grandma piled with her presents (we stopped exchanging for the most part on that side a few years ago, too large of a family and once you turn 18, you are out of the main group) to open, then home to bed so Santa can come. (Max was wondering if he had any presents)

Monday

Christmas morning we have pushed back present opening at mom and dad’s till after brunch at my other grandma’s. It’s too rushed…and no one wants to get out of bed. It used to be we couldn’t get mom and dad up soon enough, now mom is up trying to get us up to open presents…we do look in our stockings though and usually have fun stuff in there. We were up and at grandma’s had a fantastic brunch as usual and ate way too much, opened presents, I think mine was the most popular, I got my balaclava and tried it on as I had been unsure which of the styles I might most want and couldn’t remember which one went on my list, but it fit perfectly and I had the question come up if it was for my new line of work, to which I replied that they didn’t know anything when they started hearing about the “hooded burglar”…I had a really pretty scarf too that I’m pretty sure my aunt knitted for me (she wasn’t there so will ask her via e-mail or snail mail), and some coffee that I’m going to drink and told my aunt that I would think of her while drinking it and she liked that. Finally we went back to mom and dad’s to open presents there. The dogs had already received theirs but were having fun running through the paper, and Max was trying to eat one of my presents. I received a pair of lighter weight tights and some heavier running pants (both things I had asked for), some beautiful wine glasses and a decanter that my brother picked out (total surprise there, didn’t know he could come up with something like that!!), and a new top and some jewelry from my sister who usually has good taste and does well with what she gets me. I also got money, which I usually get from grandma’s so I’m getting another running top with that money and possibly the cross pendant that I’ve been trying to find with the money from other grandma (her eyes lit up when I told her I wanted something like that, so I better buy that!). After presents were done, I headed out for a run, I had realized that I was at 1994 miles for the year as of last Friday, so I ran 6 miles on Monday and hit 2000 for the year on Christmas day. It was a bit windy (should’ve worn my hood) but decent and I didn’t have my Garmin but I think I was running about 8:30s for it. I got home, showered, took a nap and then we headed to my aunt and uncle’s for a late dinner and where I got to visit more with Sister Marcan and others and then headed back to a night cap near home, but unfortunately my bar was closed and while others were open, I never called around to find out where any friends were. (Grandma, myself and Sister Marcan)