Christmas 2011

     We had a great Christmas.  This year we went to Utah, where most of my extended family lives.  We spent most of our time at my Aunt Janis’s house.  She lives in the house by herself now that Grandpa passed away this spring, so we thought it would be fun to keep her company on Christmas.  The house doesn’t have a fireplace, so Dad improvised when hanging the stockings.  "The stockings were hung from Blitzen with care..."   Ha ha!  Does this scream “REDNECK” or what?!

     On Christmas Eve, we drove around looking at Christmas lights.  We were out longer than Dad and Corey wanted to be while mom had to stop and take pictures of some of the houses.  When the words “…a day or two ago, I thought I’d take a ride…” from the song Jingle Bells came across the radio, Dad muttered under his breath, “That’s what I thought!”  Those of us who heard it laughed SO hard!  Dad, you’re hilarious!
     Christmas morning was a rush, trying to fit everything in before Church, but it was fun.  We thought we’d start out the morning by focusing on what Christmas is really about, so we read The Living Christ before we dove into opening presents.  I LOVE this document!  It made me teary-eyed as we were reading it.  If you don’t know what it is, you should follow the link above and check it out. 
     Opening presents was fun, but not for the usual reasons.  My mom decided to play a prank on my aunt this year.  My aunt, bless her heart,  likes to shop a lot.  Her bedroom is full of shopping bags with items in them that haven’t even been opened.  Well, my mom thought that she’d wrap a lot of these things and stick them under the tree for my aunt.  On Christmas morning, it looked like my aunt had the mother load beneath the tree!  The funniest part of this is that it took her a while to realize that she was unwrapping things that she had already bought!  At one point after opening a present, she asked, “This is neat!  Does it work?”  Mom replied, “You tell me!  You bought it!”.  We had tears rolling down our faces as we laughed!  I know.  We’re mean.  At least we know she liked all of her presents!  ;c)
     After we opened our presents, we headed to my Uncle Butch and Aunt Connie’s house for our family breakfast and the annual opening of the UGLY GIFTS!  This is a MUCH anticipated tradition in our family.  It’s like a white elephant gift exchange….with a twist.  All the wrapped ugly gifts are placed in the middle of the floor and a number is assigned to them.  We then draw numbers and everyone laughs as the ugly gifts are revealed.  The catch is that whatever you get, you have to display prominently in your home for the rest of the year.  Since this is one of the rules, people try to give the ugliest, or biggest, or most embarrassing gifts they can find/ make.  You can get rid of it two ways:  1)  You can sneak it into someone’s house, but they HAVE to be there, and you just have to do it without them noticing.  2)  They have to accept the gift.  I got an ugly nutcracker ornament that was sneakily disguised as a “late birthday present” last year.  It looked like a cross between a nutcracker and the creepy Burger King guy and it hung in my living room until I gave it away at my office’s white elephant gift exchange. 
     Some gifts are funny because they keep getting recycled as they “evolve” into something even more ugly.  For example:  One year, my parents got a black sculpture/art piece that was about 3 feet tall.  They kept it on their mantle.  My dad mentioned one day that it was shaped like a bunny.  So, my mom changed it into this to give away the next year…

     My cousins, Matt and Kelly, got it Christmas of 2010.  They changed it into this:  Stripper Bunny Lamp.  Only my family…
     This is what I gave away this year.  Some sort of pottery thing.  I went to the D.I. and asked one of the workers to help me find the ugliest thing they had and told them why.  She thought this was fun and elicited the help of another D.I. worker.  In the end, we decided on this.  The funny thing is, is that when I got it home, I realized it was naughty!  How this passed by three of us in the D.I., I don’t know.  So I placed a Band-Aid over the naughty part, saying “CENSORED”, making it even more tacky.  My sister ended up with this one.  The picture doesn’t do it justice.  It’s uglier in real life.

     And this is the present Corey and I ended up receiving.  It’s a lamp, with the lamp shade made out of an Almond Rocha can with all sorts of random objects glued to it. 

     After Christmas day, we spent more time hanging out with family.  We got to see Corey’s Uncle Steve and Aunt Kerry.  ALWAYS a good time at their house.  We also spent time with my sister, Brittney, and my cousins, Brian and Delsie.  We saw the movie Courageous with Brittney for 75 cents a piece!  Wanna to go cheap movies, too?  The theater on University Parkway shows movies for 75 cents on Mondays, FYI.  And the movie?  It was AWESOME.  We laughed, we cried, Brittney went back to see it again.  I highly recommend it. 
     After the movie, we met up with Brian and Delsie for dinner.  Oh, my gosh.  I haven’t laughed that hard in a while.  The waiter was probably wondering why we were so goofy since he didn’t deliver any alcohol to the table! 
     Anyhow, it was a good Christmas.  It was nice to have a break and enjoy time with my family.  I’m sad that Christmas is over.  It always leaves me wanting more.