| MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!  Yeah, so here's the deal: It's Christmas right, and my family has all these silly traditions. Me and my sisters sleep all in the same room every year on Christmas Eve, we all get up in the morning REALLY early and wake up my parents and all 3 of us climb into my parents bed. Yeah, side note, that doesn't work as well as it did when we were kids, we don't really fit. So anyway, then we all go downstairs together, open up the stuff in our stockings, ooh and aaah over all the presents that magically appeared under the tree, and then go and make this massively huge breakfast. Christmas morning breakfast is like THE BEST EVER!! Anywho, then we all get dressed and showered and all that jazz and reconvene around the tree to open presents. We open them one at a time, starting with the youngest ( aka ME  ) and go around and around the cycle until all the presents are opened. Then we laze around the house and get fat on fantastic cookies etc. Very cool. This is what I grew up with, this is tradition people.
BUT NO, not this year. The lapse in tradition started when dad and I were the only ones in New York when we went to get the tree, which had always been a family event. Then my dad wouldn't help put ornaments on the tree, and mom wasn't here yet, so i did all of it. Then my sister Rhonda flew in from California last week right, but did she stay? Oh no, she rented a car and drove to visit her friends in Tennessee, who obviously are WAY more important than her family who she only sees a couple times a year now tops. She's still driving back now, at almost 9:00 Christmas night. So naturally, Christmas day traditions were ALL changed because of her, which we'll get to shortly. Still, my rant continues, SHE WASN'T HERE ON CHRISTMAS DAY!! We're her family! What's the deal? And all to see some jerk-off guy in Tennessee who has ALWAYS treated her like crap. Always.
But that's not all. Ooooohhhhh no. Leigh Anne, the other sister, the sister in chief as far as tradition goes (being the oldest) isn't here at all. Oh and guess what, she isn't coming. She's in Louisiana with her stupid boyfriend (sorry Jason, you know I love you) and didn't come at all for Christmas. No matter when we have Christmas, she won't be here. Jerk.
So guess what I did today instead of tradition. I slept in til like 11 after going to midnight mass BY MYSELF because my parents were "too tired" to come with me to support the family tradition OR to hear me sing my solo. Whatever. It went well, for them not to hear it. They were asleep when I got home, wow, how warming of a welcome in the first hours of Christmas. As I said, Rhonda and Leigh Anne aren't here, so Christmas wouldn't be the same anyway, but Rhonda's gonna be here late tonight, so we postponed Christmas until tomorrow. Can we do that? Seems a bit sketchy to me. I mean, something about December 25th just screams Christmas to me, not the 26th. Hmmm, maybe it's because the 25th is the national holiday, the appointed time for Christmas. SO I baked cookies, and party mix, and cornbread (for turkey stuffing tomorrow) etc. all day long, slaving away in the kitchen while presents called my name from the other room. That's totally not cool. There was no breakfast, there was no family tradition, we had coldcuts and snackfood for Christmas dinner. Folks, this screams injustice! We have taken Christmas out of Christmas! Tradition is gone, the days are wrong, all is lost. Anyways, after a gruelling day, Rhonda is due home around 11 or 12, but she'll probably be late because she stayed too long with mr. wonderful, aka jerkface.
So we'll be having "Christmas" tomorrow. Hmph. Not cool at all. We can't even really fake it like it's really Christmas because of all the complications. For instance, Rhonda getting home so late, I doubt we'll be staying in the same room and sharing our Christmas hopes and dreams for the world at all hours of the night. She'll simply walk in and go to sleep. Then she'll be cranky when we wake her up tomorrow. Then we'll have to rush through the stockings and the breakfast because I have to be at church by 9:15 to sing for the 10:00 mass. So not only will the first part be rushed, but the tradition will be interrupted by about 2 hours of church. How uncool is that? Not church, church rocks. Christmas being on the wrong day and having church interrupt it BECAUSE of that is uncool. Then we'll get home and get down to the present-opening etc., which is just not cool that it's tomorrow. I feel no Christmas joy, I'm not excited. They hold no special traditional magic now, they're just boxes that I get to open that might have things I like in them. Hmph. NOT TO MENTION that one important member of the tradition is absent, completely, by half a continent. GRRRRRRRRRRR.
So that's Christmas, sorta. Since now today isn't really Christmas..... SO CONFUSED!
Now that I've ranted forever about my favorite holiday of the year being ruined, I feel the need to mention something positive. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!! And not the traditions and the family and all that, CHRISTMAS! Jesus enters the world, we are graced by his divine presence, we will never be the same again. SO despite all that irritation, it was nice to spend my day with him, remembering how he humbled himself to enter my crazy world the same as me, lowly and human, to set me and all of us free for eternity. He was born to a life that was below him in every way, a path of torment and pain, suffering untold, and he accepted. God is SOOOO awesome! :) So yes, the tradition got a little funked up this year, but Christmas remains the most awesomest holiday EVER!! In that spirit, I'd like to wish Jesus a happy birthday!!  I love you all! Merry Christmas! |
