3 posts tagged “family”
It's not even 10:00 and I'm already in bed. Christmas is tiring!
Tonight, we did Christmas with the extended family, as always. Little different this year, because my uncle and his fiancee had to leave earlyish to get home because they're doing Christmas with her family tomorrow and no one wanted them driving late at night. So we did sort of an afternoon dinner. I had brass ensemble rehearsal at 1, which I left early, and then we ate at 2. Then we did presents, then I went back to church for mass, and we all re-convened at my grandparents' house after church for a little bit.
It felt weird. For as long as I can remember, I would spend the end of communion during Christmas Eve services thinking about the dinner and gift giving that was coming. I know, I know, it's supposed to be a time of reflection. But you get hungry! And I realized I didn't have that to look forward to tonight. Because we had already done it.
It was just a strange thing, to do something for years and years and years, and then sort of tweak it, so it's still the same, but just a little tiny bit not the same.
I brought my cats to my parents' house for the holiday. So there are now five cats in the house. But you only ever see three of them. So it's not that big of a deal. Pippin walks around like he owns the place, but Cadu just hides in the closet. I close the door to my old bedroom at night, so he feels safe enough to come out then. He's a big wuss.
And now, I shall sleep, because 7:30 church is very early in the morning. Yes, I get to go twice. So lucky.
(Holidailies #24)
I get myself all caught up on Holidailies entries and then I miss yesterday for no good reason.
Yesterday, I went over to my parents' house. I had to get the oil changed in my car and wanted to drop off some of the food I had bought for Christmas. Dad and I also had to rehearse the music we're singing at Christmas morning church services. I think we've been doing that for about 12 years now. And I still think 7:30 mass is crazy early on Christmas morning. But it's always nice.
I also got a new phone as an early birthday present! I very much like it. It's one of Verizon's music phones, but I don't see myself ever using it for music, since that involves paying for more downloads (though you may be able to transfer over from your computer, I haven't looked into that, plus I don't have the proper cables to do so). Plus I have an iPod. I don't need two music players.
But I'm happy to have a tiny little phone. I couldn't decide between red and green, and my sister got the green one a few days ago, so that settled it. Yay new phone!
Last night, all five of us (me, my parents, and my siblings) went to dinner. We couldn't remember the last time just the five of us sat around a table. It's really rare, with my brother and I in school in St. Louis and my sister up at Notre Dame. Sure, we were together at Thanksgiving, but we were with the whole extended family, and technically at separate tables anyway. It was fun to just get to spend time together. Who knows when it will happen again. It's weird how the things that were the norm when you were a kid, things that you hated, suddenly become these great moments you really enjoy. My parents were always big on eating dinner together. Sure, if you had a good reason to miss, that was ok. Rehearsals, practice, those kinds of things. But if you were home and not deathly ill, you were sitting at the table. Without the television on. And you were going to converse. That was the rule. For the most part, I think we all were ok with it, but didn't think much of it. It was just how things were.
And now, suddenly, it's fun to have everyone together again. Strange how those things change.
This weekend, I went with my parents to New Jersey. Yes, during finals. Yes, I do think I may fail my final this Friday. My family threw my Dad's Uncle Bill a surprise 80th birthday party, and on a whim, we, the midwestern portion of the family, were invited kind of on a whim. No one expected us to show. But my parents thought it would be fun to go anyway, so here we are. We actually only told one person we were coming, so it was kind of a surprise for everyone. Which is definitely nice, because we only see this part of the family once every few years.
We got in yesterday, and spent the evening with some old family friends. My parents met a couple in Lamaze classes, I believe, and their son and I were born on the same day. We all used to spend a lot of time together, especially the moms and kids. It was great to see them. Such fun, and such great old friends.
Today, we showed up for the family party and surprised everyone. My dad's family's not very big, so it's nice when everyone can come together. And it's always interesting what you learn - apparently, my father had another sibling who died at birth. No one really knew about it, at least not the younger generations. My one uncle knew because his birth certificate, which he recently got, says something about him being the fourth child, and he only knew of two older brothers. No one knows if it was a girl or a boy, or what happened. Uncle Bill thinks it was cord strangulation. It would be interesting to try to figure that one out somehow. I don't even know how one goes about looking for information like that.
It was great to hear stories, catch up with everyone, and just have a good time together. We will see my dad's brothers and their families this summer for a weekend for my grandmother's birthday, but that won't include the cousins that were here today.
All in all, a great way to spend the holiday season. Sure, it's going to screw up my finals, but it was worth it.
