Wow December hit me like a ton of bricks. I never appreciated what that saying truly meant until now. There I was relaxing, drinking my Starbucks, watching my Christmas tree rotate, and the next thing I know I am being held hostage in a 24-hour Wal-Mart looking for this year’s sold-out-must-have-gift: Password Journal. All the while I am thinking to myself why in the world would my only child need a "password" journal? As her parents we not about to intrude on her privacy, but obviously I can not speak for the cat and dog. Usually I am a prepared gift giver, but this year I screwed the pooch. All my gifts were last minute. We travelled over 100 km to look for this toy. We hunted in Toy's R Us and Wal-Marts; we would have tried more stores but they were the only ones that catered to desperate parents at midnight. Normally after the first store I would have said, "Screw it", but it became an obsession. At 2am we were standing in Wal-Mart which happened to be crowded. We couldn’t walk through the isles without bumping into desperate shoppers. I realized then we were never going to find this toy, because if they ever had this stupid toy; they wouldn't have had anymore at two in morning! We were about eighteen hours too late. We ended getting her High School Musical 2. I won't even mention that the lines were twenty customers long at 2 am. Go home and sleep for God’s sake…oh wait I was there too…never mind.
Then there was the gift wrapping itself. It takes me an hour or so to wrap a gift. I just can't put a bow on the gift and call it good. If that was all that is expected of me the folks at Hallmark wouldn't have made curling ribbon and such. While I wrapped the gifts I watched Christmas movies and prime time TV. Let’s just say I watched a lot of TV.
We visited my in-laws. At my in-laws we have Christmas traditions that I adore. We eat a wonderful Christmas dinner, for dessert we eat rice pudding, we try and win chocolates by finding the almond in the pudding, we sing Christmas songs around the Christmas tree, Holly plays Santa Claus, and my father-in-law complains that I use too much tape. (Which I do, but I can't break a tradition.) My in-laws spoil me at Christmas, but the best gift they have given me for Christmas is the traditions we celebrate.
On Christmas day we flew to my mother's house for Christmas. My future sister-in-law (if my brother would get around to marrying her) made a wonderful Christmas dinner. My whole family was there, which was a great feeling. The family sat around the tree, which was wonderful because it was the first time that we had all been together in ten years. My favourite part was that Santa remembered to fill my childhood stocking. My family may not have traditions, because we fly by the seat of our pants when it comes to Christmas, but it was still magical. I would have to say bar-none it was the best Christmas we ever celebrated.
On New Years we spent it with friends. We had gourmet food, watched great British TV, and rung in the New Year with Dick Clark.
My holidays were spectacular, how were yours?
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