Happy Holidays!

Yes, I realize the phrase "happy holidays" drives some people up the wall, but I would like to wish happy holidays to all of my readers.  And give a brief description of what my holidays are like.

My Christmas actually started on Zach's birthday, December 17th.  His Grandmother did not want to compete with anyone who would be celebrating Christmas nearer the holiday, so she scheduled it early.  We usually drive out there, have a gift exchange, eat, and just sit around and enjoy each others company.  The first Christmas I went with them, there was a very conspicuous present beneath the tree; there were holes cut in the box and wrapping paper and occasionally, it would move.  After dinner, the question was finally answered as it was unwrapped to reveal a rooster.  How random is that? 

This year, as Zach and I were fixing our plates, I happened across a bottle titled "The World's Hottest Hot Sauce."  Being a lover of spicy foods, I had to accept this challenge.  Now, I own a bottle of Dave's Insanity Sauce, which two drops in a large recipe of chili is noticeable, so I was prepared to only put a few drops on the chip.  I managed to put three drops on it, dropping one accidentally on the counter.  I ate the chip, and I admit it was pretty hot; it had an odd flavor to it though.  My taste buds were somewhat singed, and I could feel the spice assaulting my stomach for about thirty minutes.  Seeing a rather anticlimactic reaction from me, Zach assumed it did not live up to its name and dipped his finger in the drop that rest on the counter.  The moment it touched his tongue, he turned in to a cliche cartoon character with steam coming from his ears, sweat rolling down his face, and a tongue to his feet.  He grabbed a roll, stuffed it in his mouth, and when that did not relieve the spice, he turned to another roll and broke it in half; one half was dipped in the vinegar slaw, and one was dipped in a jar of mayonnaise that sat on the counter for sandwiches. Neither really seemed to alleviate his pain as he chugged a bottle of Mountain Dew.  Personally, I found this hilarious.  He was feeling it long after I was and his stomach was not too fond of the feeling.

Being around his family is a welcome change for me.  My family thrives on gossip.  As soon as one person leaves the gathering, everyone flocks together to talk about them.  His family doesn't do this.  One unmarried girl was pregnant in his family and he commented on how my family would be saying things like "Oh, did you see her?  She was pregnant! She didn't even get serious with the boyfriend that knocked her up" and so forth.  The baby was quite cute, though.

Today, on Christmas Eve, we went to my paternal grandparents for "dinner."  I put it in quotation marks because we mostly had finger foods.  Memaw had found videos of me as a baby and toddler and wanted to show us parts that she found adorable.  After a few minutes of technical difficulty, she gave up.  Then, the madness began: my cousins Tori and Jillian showed up.  Tori is in sixth grade and it seems as if she cannot do anything right in her parents' eyes, for the most part.  It seems like all the attention she gets is scolding.  Jillian is three and she believes she is the boss.  Bless her little heart, she is pretty much right.  Memaw and Pappaw tell me all the time that they accidentally call her Jessica all the time because we have such similar mannerisms.  She is constantly getting into anything she can.  We finally convinced her that if she ate dinner, she could open her presents.  When the new wore off on her toys, she decided that she was tired of clothes and stripped down to her diaper.  I finally convinced her to put her jacket on, then to go up to Pappaw, open the jacket and yell out "Boobies!"  which she did to all of our amusement.  (Well, maybe not her mother's.)

After leaving there, we spend the night at my maternal grandparents' house.  You would think after all that excitement, that I would be ready to pass out, right?  Wrong.  My family is pretty much nocturnal, save my mother.  My grandparents lay in the recliner and couch, watching television until they pass out.  Last I saw, they were watching Swamp People on the History Channel (how this is related to history, I'll never know).  My uncles love video games as much as I do, so we usually end up staying up and talking about video games or playing them until the wee hours of the morning.  As I type this, they are in their respective rooms playing Star Wars: The Old Republic.  I am sitting on my uncle's bed, taking a break from World of Warcraft to make a blog post while the server is down.

Around 3 in the morning, we will probably start heading to bed and four hours later, my youngest uncle, Brent, will wake us up to open presents.  Why open presents at 7 a.m.?  I don't know...  He was always so excited to open them as a child that we continued to open them at the same time year after year.  This works well for me because I go back to sleep once they have been opened.  Then perhaps half an hour later, I am awakened to Christmas breakfast.  Nana always makes pancakes, hashbrowns, biscuts, eggs, and sausage.  Of course, I am not in the least interested with the latter two, but I usually partake of the pancakes and hashbrowns.  Zach will wander in probably around ten, when mass lets out, and open the presents my family has for him.

This year is a bit different because I haven't celebrated Christmas with Zach's immediate family yet.  His other grandparents were thinking that they would be out of town, so his mother offered to do Christmas dinner/lunch.  So, after the proverbial party has wound down here, I will throw on some clothes, whip up a squash casserole, and wander over there to see him and his siblings open their presents and spend time with them.

The day after Christmas, we generally go up to my great-aunt's for a celebration with my maternal side of the family.  As previously mentioned, it is filled quite a bit with gossip, but we also have food and presents for the children; unfortunately, I no longer fit this demographic.

All that being said, happy holidays from Distracted Design. <3