Well, I had another entry written as a Holiday Re-Cap, but it basically sucked, so read this one instead, okay? I’ll begin with Friday afternoon. The Head Honchos opened the cage and set us free around 3 in the afternoon. Little good it did DeeDee and me, as she had a crap load of work, including a run for me around four, a FedEx package to be delivered before 4:30, and tons of loose ends to tie up before she left for a well deserved week’s vacation. Pity about all the errands I had to run for her, otherwise I could’ve spent a couple hours at the gym before meeting up with her and Suzie for our Girl’s Night Out Holiday Edition. Actually, Suzie’d been let off work early, too, so we decided there was no point in all of us heading back downtown, so we just picked up some wine coolers and munchies and hung out at her house for a couple hours. It was much nicer than dealing with the holiday traffic downtown, and trying to have a conversation in a bar where you have to shout to be heard over other conversations.
The following day mom and I had planned to get away, but my grandpa called and wanted to show off is new car. I ended up driving him down to the drug store to pick up some tupperware, and then took a turn out on the back roads to see how the car felt. I love, love, love this car! I definitely want to test drive a few other models, of course, but this one might be the winner. Well, by the time I got back, it was nearly noon; no point in going anywhere, so we just went grocery shopping. Since we had no idea what anyone else in the family was doing for Christmas dinner, we invited my grandparents down for ham and fixin’s Christmas Day around 1:00.
Christmas Eve day we laid around and watched football (well, I watched football, anyway.), then picked up my grandparents and headed off to Christmas Eve Service at church. We saw the relatives when we were there, and they said they wanted to do pizza at my grandparents’ place afterwards. Neither my mom nor I felt too good (and besides we had our own plans that didn’t include consuming super fat, totally unhealthy food and making small talk with people) so we declined. That seemed to shock and upset people, but we held firm. The service was okay, as Christmas Eve services go. I really wasn’t feeling well (on the cusp of getting my period, and could very cheerfully have killed anyone who looked cross-eyed at me), and hearing the Christmas story again just made it sound even more unlikely than when I’ve read it. I know this is not the best time of year to be questioning my faith (I believe I was having the same problem last year), but I couldn’t help it. Still, I prayed when asked to, sang traditional religious Christmas carols when prompted, suffered through the children’s renditions of various Christmas songs, including a Christianized version of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”, in silence, and just hoped the whole thing would be over soon, so I could just go home and die.
Even though we were prepared for the possible turn of events, we were still upset by them. I mean, really, making Christmas Day dinner plans at 7:00p.m. on Christmas Eve? Good God!
So after church, the relatives stopped by and dropped off our gift, and picked up theirs, and informed us that they were having Christmas dinner at their house around 2:00. We were stunned, and told them since they hadn’t mentioned Christmas dinner at all, we assumed they were doing something as a family, and had purchased Christmas dinner fixin’s for four, and had invited my grandparents. “Oh, no, we’re doing the family Christmas dinner, so come on up around 2", they said. Shit, hell, and damn. So much for a nice, quite, family dinner. Mom and I grumbled and snarled about our plans changing, but decided in the end there was nothing we could do about it, so we put it behind us, and carried on with our own Christmas Eve tradition: mulled wine, cheese and crackers and a veggie tray, and watching “It’s a Wonderful Life”.
The next day, Christmas Day, yesterday, in fact, I slept in, did some stamping, and prepared to go be assaulted by pet hair. My relatives have two cats, and now a new dog (God help us), all of which I’m very allergic to. Despite my poor attitude (which I kept completely to myself, by the way!), I actually had a good time, and enjoyed spending part of the day with my family. My allergies started kicking in after a couple hours, so we had a good excuse to leave, go home and have a drink! Ha! Anyway, it really wasn’t as bad as I expected, and really wish I’d taken at least today off, as I’m missing all the after Christmas sales. Oh, well. I’ll plan better next year.
