Three Christmases

Christmas was wonderful.

Christmas eve I worked until three. It was a fun day to work. Cherie gave me a beautiful new jacket that has quickly risen to may favorite piece of clothing. She also gave me an Australia movie poster, and an apron with cute little cherries on it. I love cherries! Josh gave me socks, which was hilarious. Bob gave me MOVIE TICKETS!!!!! SO EXCITED!!!! I want to use them to see Australia. Rissy, you free?

After I got of work Drek and I went up to his family's house. We played games in the gym of the church up there. We played kick ball and basketball and ultimate Frisbee, then I took of my shoes so we could play a form of dodge ball. This game was a blast. Two teams stand on opposite sides of the gym, each team must stay on their own side, divided by the line in the middle. You then throw hings at the other team. What kinds of things? Oh, gloves, stuffed animals, pillows, socks, tennis balls and things like that. Yes. you throw things at each other. That is the point of the game. I ran up to get some ammo, but jumped back to avoid a flying glove. Unfortunately, I jumped back into small corner, my foot catching a piece of metal on the wall. I tore open my foot on a wall. It takes talent.

After that we went back to the house for a fantastic feast. Drek and I then left for my parent's house, where we talked for a little bit before loading up in the car to go look at Christmas lights.
Looking at Christmas lights on Christmas eve has been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember. We always go in our little car. We drive up hills, we drive down hills. We charge up mountains and through snow drifts. We've gone in good weather and we've gone in blizzards. We have never gotten stuck in the snow. Until now. We got stuck in the snow. Luckily, we weren't that far from Drek's family's house so he just called them and they came and rescued us. It turned out to be great fun. I hope we get stuck again next year.

Drek and I finally came home, snuggled into bed with another feast of breakfast foods, put Acouchi in between us and all three of us watched Pushing Daises until we fell asleep.

Christmas morning came to soon. Our alarm went off at the ridiculous hour of seven am. Drek and I pulled ourselves out of bed and stumbled to the car, where we drove back up to Drek's family's house to open presents. Once we woke up, it was tons of fun. They had something called a hot chocolate bar, which I'm thinking will be a tradition from now on. What a great idea.

Drek's mom loved the calender, and she didn't mind that Amari's (that's the baby's name!! Amari Nakayla. I finally got to meet her. She is gorgeous!!) birthday wasn't marked. She didn't even realize any birthdays were marked. Hooray!!

Mathew, Drek's brother, had drawn my name for presents. He got me gift certificates to my favorite Mexican restaurant, a game called Buccaneer (which we spent most of the day playing. It is a great game. Very easy, very quick) and he got Acouchi the remote controlled catnip-filled mouse. I was blown away. It was so nice of him to do all those things. I still just can't believe it.

We then drove back down the mountain to my family's house to open presents there. My mom liked her calander. I am already thinking of how to design next year's calander.
My mom got me the exact nativity I had been wanting; one made out of olive wood. It is so beautiful!! I can't wait till next Christmas to display it! Drek finally let me open Xirax's present. It is a word game! It's called a Cross Words and it is hilarious. Drek and Kara got on a team against Meimei and me and we played viciously until my sister and her family came over and we opened more presents. When the last present was opened, it was around five. Talk about dragging it out. But in a good way, I really did love every minute of it. That day I finished my dad's scarf that I was knitting. He said he liked it.

It was snowing like crazy (after snowing like crazy for several days) so Drek, Meimei and I went into the back yard and built the best snowfort ever. It was amazing. Drek built a smaller one up on a hill and we had several snowball wars. We then buried Drek alive. Giggle giggle.

We played games, ate personal calzones and then said good-bye. We headed back to our house with our loot and to spend time with Acouchi. There, we finally opened our stockings and mostly played with Acouchi's stuff. Guess what I got in my stocking?? VODKA!!!! SO EXCITED!! It's a tiny little bottle straight from Russia! Russian writing and everything! I've been wanting Vodka because I read that if you mix Vodka with deep conditioner, it makes your hair really healthy and shiny. I'm so excited!!

Christmas was so much fun this year!! Not only did we get to spend a lot of time with family, but we now have our year's supply of food storage!! Hooray!!