I was nine years old. It was Christmas morning. I was the only one awake. I was very impatient. My mother & stepfather are notoriously hard to wake up. I have always been (and mostly remain to this day) sickeningly goody-two-shoes. I have no idea what got into me. I snuck a present into my room. Just a tiny one. It was from Santa. They'd never know. I opened that present. It was a tea pot and cup pin. It was very very cute. It was silver. The tea pot was tipped and the cup dangled below it, as though the tea pot was filling the cup. (Let me reiterate that I was 9). I was still impatient. I was still the only one awake. I ended up opening every present. I have no idea what got into me.
My parents were thrilled, let me assure you. As an only child, I'm pretty sure that I "ruined Christmas" (not the last year I would).
That year began a new tradition. I was allowed to open my stocking no matter when I woke up, even if they were not yet awake. And so it started that every Christmas morning, I would wake obscenely early. I would check my stocking. I would carry it back to my room, dump it out on my bed. I would explore it's contents. Eat some candy. And then I would pile everything back into the stocking and go back to sleep.
To this day, that remains my favorite Christmas tradition. It was my favorite thing about moving back home after my marriage ended. It is my biggest disappointment about having Christmas at my own home. Yes, we have stockings. Yes, even us grownups have stockings to open Christmas morning. But it is infinitely less exciting when you fill your own stocking.
We had the kids this year for Christmas eve. We woke up early(ish) and opened stockings and presents. We showered and dressed. We went to SweetPea's dad's house for pancakes and presents. SweetPea's dad's wife, who has four granddaughters (including my daughter) and two grandsons (including my son), made a special extra bag of treats for each of her granddaughters. It was cute and fun and fuzzy, but I'm sure I could feel Justise's disappointment. We try not to favor one child over another. I don't understand or cotton to that philosophy of "you're special enough for an extra treat, but you are not".
We stopped by my mother & stepfather's house for a quick Christmas hug. We had Christmas with them the previous weekend. Their puppy had yet another surgery and came home Christmas eve morning, so we couldn't have Christmas on Christmas eve. We pass their house on the way to my dad's, though, so we had a quick stop.
Then we went to my dad & stepmother's house. We stayed a few hours. Games were played. Dinner enjoyed. Presents opened. The kids' dad & stepmom stopped by on their way home from Oakley and picked them up. We went home alone.
Christmas becomes just another day when you're just two adults home alone. All our presents were opened. We could have visited, but we had already done. There is one house we did not visit that we still will. There was one house that we could have visited, except that there are some bad feelings right now.
A decision was made that I would be dealing with SweetPea's family near the holidays from here on out. Ha ha ha. Won't they enjoy that when they figure it out.
I've always felt that this is a reasonable philosophy. You don't have to love or enjoy everyone. But you should, at the very least, be caring and civil. We are, after all, family. Love it or not.
Personally, the highlight of my Christmas day involved bathing two cats. My most severe injury did not occurr during bathing. After I was finished with You, I bundled him in a towel and cuddled him and fed him treats from my hand. Apparently, this is not advisable. You loves his treats, and is not gentle in the eating of them. He sunk his teeth hard into my pointer finger. Ow! After that I put the rest of his treats on a plate. Now my finger is sore and bruised with two puncture wounds. Oh, well. The cats are itching significantly less. That is good.
Yes, I know I should get them some flea drops. Unfortunately, we're pretty damn poor right now, so that's going to have to wait. I think I will probably give them another bath in a couple days, after the flea eggs get a chance to hatch, so I can kill of the next batch.
We watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, and then played with disc two for hours. Took a very late afternoon nap. I woke up at 11pm and was up until 1am before SweetPea got up, too. We ran to Jack in the Crack for "dinner" and then started Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. I didn't get very far before I fell asleep.
Now I'm waiting for the mail and hoping for something exciting.
Like a winning lotto ticket. ha ha.
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