1) How is a song that talks about a man trying to convince a woman to stay the night with him because ‘baby, it’s cold outside’ considered a Christmas song? I don’t get it. It’s kind of disturbing. Nothing about that song screams Christmas to me, except for the fact that its cold. Could that be an all-the time-song in, say, Alaska? I think it should be. Alas, disturbing as it is, it still remains one of my favorite songs. Every time I hear it, I can’t help but think of Elf and how much I love that movie. It may just be one of the most quotable movies of all time, right along with While You Were Sleeping. “Buddy the Elf, what’s your favorite color?” “Wait, I forgot to give you a hug!” “You’re not Santa. You smell like beef and cheese. You sit on a throne of lies!” And the list could go on. Fantastic.
2) For some reason, between my sister and I, someone always knows what they are getting for Christmas before December even happens. And if not, they find out before Christmas morning. I know, I know, most of you may be thinking, well, say you get Mavs tickets for someone for a Christmas present and the game is before Christmas, you’d have to give it early. I’m not talking about giving them early. I’m talking about can’t keep it a secret any longer because we are so darn excited about it and it slips. Or, in my case a couple of nights ago, just convincing myself that she’d see it before hand anyway, so I just showed it to her haha. Sorry, Amy. You knew this about me when you agreed to be my roommate :) I’ve known what my sister was getting me since early November. Possibly late October. It’s how we roll. My favorite was the Mavs tickets episode of 2002 or whatever year that all went down. My sister made all of us PROMISE with every fiber of our beings (yes, I did just say that) that we wouldn’t say anything to Ben about the most excellent of excellent Christmas surprises. And then what happened? We’re all on the phone together and she is telling my brother about it, forgetting who is on the phone with us. LOVELY. So funny. At least that one was an accident. I usually just get so excited about what I’m getting for people that I can’t wait, so I give it to them early and then it’s up to them whether they open it or not. Haha. I’m so lame.
3) Whenever my Grammy comes to Texas, we make her special sugar cookies and then frost them. While this is a fantastic tradition, it’s not my favorite part. A couple of years ago, we got Grammy some new cookie cutters so we used them (yes, these were probably given to her early because we were excited about it. Refer to number 2). There was
this one cutter that we couldn’t quite decide what it was at first, so we made it and decided that we’d figure it out after the cookies were made and we were frosting them. I decided that at first glance, it looked like an eyeball. We later discovered that it was a Christmas ornament, but an eyeball is just so much cooler. So, naturally, I frosted it like an eyeball and every year since then, whether Grammy has been here or not, there is always that obligatory eyeball sugar cookie set aside for yours truly. :)4) Mind reels that there could be more, right? And by the end of this post, I’m sure you’ll all realize just how ghetto fabulous our family really is. We have another tradition of m
aking a gingerbread house together with all the girls. The first few years we had strokes of genius and decided to make cool things for the house with the left over frosting but it always turned out really bad. Please see exhibit A: The melting snowman. I believe we had something that turned out to look like a large pile of tires with snow on them the next year, but I’ll be darned if I can’t remember what it was initially supposed to be. So, there’s usually something very out of place on our houses each year and it’s fantastic.5) It’s a new tradition to take Sydney to see the Nutcracker every Christmas. We took her for the first time last year and during intermission my sister was taking her to the bathroom and she asked if she was enjoying it so far. In a loud voice she exclaimed, “Mom, I just love it. But, why are none of the guys wearing any pants?” hahaha too classic and now a long standing joke in our family.
6) We all know
the weird thing about my sister and I loving those Gerber baby meat sticks, yeah? (sorry, Meredith…this is turning out to be a ‘why my sister and I are ridiculously awesome during Christmas time’ post haha). Well, every year, Santa brings us some in our stocking (thanks to some tip offs from my dad :)) and then we eat them together and it is fantastical. I get excited about it every year, but I think it grosses everyone else out. It’s funny that for our picture every year, everyone has cleared out while we’re eating them except for the picture taker. The pour soul. They just don’t know how good they really are :)7) At some point during the Christmas holidays, we have a Rock Band jam session. The
re's nothing better than watching my dad get down to some good ole Creedence Clearwater. Dang, I love my family!8) Last, but definitely not least, if you aren’t bored yet, one of my other favorites of Christmas time is that, with all the family in town we play an endless set of board games. We are definitely a board game family and two of our favorites just so happen to be Cranium and Dominoes. There’s nothing like catching Grandmama cheating and have her act like she’s so surprised :) Love, love, love it. Now you know where I get it from *teethy grin*. We always play boys against girls at Cranium and we USUALLY win. At least when Meredith and I are both playing. We have that cool mind reading ability so the guys say that that is unfair, but I submit that they are just jealous. Two examples just to show how crazy it is. Earlier this year, Meredith was trying to get me to guess who the person was and she could talk like the person but couldn’t say names or places. It went a little like this:
Meredith: I am on a TV show.
Me: Lucille Ball?
Meredith: YES!
All the guys faces: *astonished*
hahah love it. We also had to make a list of something once and you have to get two out of the three to match or something like that. Not only did we get all three the same, but they were even in the same order. You can’t beat that. I’ll never forget the one year when the guys’ winning question was “Who was the founder of the LDS church?” Really? And they say we cheat.
There you have it. My Christmas in a nutshell. Of course there are thousands of other things that I love about Christmas, but my fingers kind of hurt so I’m calling it a day :) I hope you each have fun Christmas traditions that you’ll be able to be a part of this year and to always remember what the most important part of Christmas is: Celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for the Plan of Salvation and that Heavenly Father was willing to send his only Begotten Son to earth to atone for our sins. I’m grateful for this opportunity to celebrate that most wonderful blessing and to be able to share it with so many people. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
Oh, and PS, its like 70 degrees outside. So fantastic. :)
