Treat Every Day Like Christmas

And just like that, it's over. All of the preparation, the franticness, the stress and everything is done in one day.

However, I must say that this year's Christmas, compared to the last few, was absolutely glorious. Not that the other ones were bad. Not in any way. But this one far surpassed any that I've had in awhile and that really made all the preparation worth it.

It actually all started the weekend of the 15th. As I stated in my last post, we were heading off to NC to visit my dad's side of the family. They live in a very small town in the central part of the state and it's only about four hours from here. And the quickest way to get there is through two-lane country roads from here all the way through both SC and NC. I was doing the whole trip from memory on these little roads that were pretty much pitch black and I'm proud to say I only got turned around once. But after a quick consultation of the map, we got back on the right track without losing any time and we arrived in town a little after 10pm.

We spent the weekend visiting with my grandparents and my dad. Lunch and presents were on Saturday and then we went to my uncle's to hang out and ride the four-wheelers. He's got a lot of land and a lot of big kid toys there so we hung around for awhile just having fun and drinking some beer. Sunday we drove around town and gave Steve the official tour which included a few circles around town and trips to the Wal-Mart, Maxway, Roses and the Dollar Store. And we had lunch with my cousin and his wife, whom I haven't seen in awhile. It was basically a lot of laughter and catching up and good down home fun. A long, exhausting but very fun weekend.

Oh, and turns out, I did have the Internets so I wasn't hyperventilating or anything. The hotel we were staying in didn't technically offer it with their room but I think the people who owned the place actually lived behind the office and had their own personal wireless internet set up. But stupidly, they didn't protect it and since our room was about 500 feet from there, I was able to sit right at the window and have full internet access. Not that it mattered because we were too busy all weekend for me to do anything worthwhile but it was still nice knowing I had the access if needed.

Regardless, we got back Sunday evening and unloaded everything into the apartment. Back to work on Monday, which was fine because when things get stressful, I always enjoy a bit of a routine. But the evenings were filled with cleaning the apartment, baking cookies and wrapping presents. Even last Friday, when I took off of work, was filled with last minute shopping and an anal but well-needed wall to wall and ceiling to floor cleaning of the apartment.

But by Saturday, I was ready. And I used that whole day for some well-deserved relaxation. Steve and I got up and had breakfast then spent the rest of the day alternating between playing video games and watching movies. And it continued to Sunday morning, when I finally wrapped the rest of the presents and we loaded my car down and headed to my parents.

But all in all, Christmas was great. I avoided one major stress and did most of my shopping online this year. When I had to go to the post office, I went early in the morning, right when they opened instead of at lunch time like everyone else in the damn world. Basically, it just ended up being a real nice time at home with family and that was all that mattered.

We wrapped more presents and drank wine and baked cookies. We watched movies and played along with the World Series of Pop Culture on VH1 and opened our one gift that we're allowed to open on Christmas Eve. We all got a special set of pajamas and everyone put them on and we sat around in them all night.

My little brother woke us up at 5:40am and we knew my parents had gone to bed at like 4am, so we packed all of us kids into the card and headed out on a search for breakfast. It was fully intended that we go to someplace like McDonald's and then bring food back for my parents but no one was open except the Huddle House so we found ourselves piled into a booth at 6am with me and my brothers still in our pajamas ordering food. When we got back, we thought we would try to go back to sleep but that wasn't happening because we were all pretty much awake and couldn't stand the anticipation so we were up and going through our presents by 7am.

The rest of the day flew by with a blur. My parents got a karaoke machine so we played around with that and croaked out some songs. We were awful but it was fun. My little brother got an electric guitar so Steve was teaching him to play. The boys played XBox for a little while and we all ended up taking naps in the afternoon. Then we started cooking dinner and had the Eagles/Cowboys game on (And damn, was it an awesome Christmas present that they were playing on Christmas, that they were playing the Cowboys and that not only beat them, but they beat them good and we earned a spot in the playoffs. It also was a lot of fun seeing T.O. drop that pretty much perfectly thrown pass in the third quarter.) After dinner, we just sort of hung out a little more before Steve and I packed up to come home.

Regardless, things just felt so much better this year. We had a great time at home. It was the first time Steve and I were together on Christmas day. Everybody loved their presents and we all had fun hanging out and playing with them. I didn't have to worry about airports or fitting stuff into suitcases. And everyone just generally seemed to have a great time.

And isn't that what Christmas is all about?