Well, I must say, there is nothing better than the holidays around my mom's house. I mean, there are, but none that will fulfill your every emotion all at once. It starts out great and ends great...it's what goes on in between the 'greats' that totally fills my heart with laughter and my glass with the strongest alcohol I can round up from my step dad's stash! Since we don't have video to upload, you'll have to imagine yourselves actually being there- if you dare! I'll do my best to set the mood this Christmas Eve of 2011.
Adrian (step dad) is at home preparing our family dinner. How sweet? Yes, but honestly, he was the smart one! I'm more than sure he was 'throwing a few back' before the actual chaos began! Grandpa stayed behind as well. In order for Grandpa to stay awake past his 8pm bedtime, he has to have his afternoon nap. lol The rest of us opted for a more traditional beginning by going to mass as we've all done for years and years. We make it back to Gracie's just in time to tear up the ham and all the fixin's! Delicious. As I've said in the past, if Gracie and Adrian ever went their separate ways, he'd have to come back at least three times a week to cook us dinner!The remaining days we can hit up Sam's samples. By this time Grandpa is awake, his little, bitty dog is strutting along with a rather huge bell hanging around his neck-clanging!
Mom's old, blind dog is in the way, as usual, people trying not to step or trip over him. Adrian bought my mom ANOTHER dog for Christmas and is just about the cutest little thing ever!
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| This is Tiki or Kiki? I'm not even sure! I'll call her Lucy. She'll be confused for a little while but soon she'll know all three names! |
So we now have this little peanut of a dog that's probably wondering what she ever did to deserve being in this crazy, loud, scary family! Then there's Nolan (my brother's 5 year old son), Joseph (my brother's almost 2 year old son) and Raeya (my sister's 5 year old daughter) who are fighting about who's gonna sit where, what they want and don't want on their plates, how they'd rather have cake instead of ham. Joseph is hanging onto his very pregnant mom's leg, whining, Gracie is yelling about how we need to move the decorative place mats out of the way, Krista is pushing people out of the kitchen and Joe's laughing and speaking some sort of gross Spanglish in the background walking around with his new video cam.
Grandpa is talking about how he can't eat too much for health reasons but has a huge ass plate in front of him, and Austin is busy stealing rolls from the table. Jacob was the first one to serve himself and is already enjoying his meal peacefully. Uncle Joe and Diane are the only quiet ones. Were they trying to think of an excuse to get the heck out of there? My mom's kitchen and dining areas feel rather small when you have so much traffic going through there and a prego sis-in-law who's gone passed her due date, bumping her bump into everyone around her. We all manage to serve our plates, sit where ever we can find a seat and pray.
We finally finish dinner and now it's time to sit and read the Night Before Christmas. A time to reflect on each other and the things we're grateful for with Silent Night playing softly in the background. Ya, right!, it's present opening time!
The kids are running around in circles, excited about what Santa has brought them, Joseph is still clinging to his mother's leg, whining. Mom is trying to get her voice heard above all the loudness going on, Adrian's still 'throwing a few' back in the corner, Grandpa still hasn't made it to the living room couch because he's 'just too full to move', Joe's trying to situate the two uncontrollable misfit children, Joseph is still following his mom, arm's up, whining, Krista is trying to organize the gifts to pass out and Austin has already found his designated seat.
Mom's yelling at the blind dog who has dropped a couple of his own gifts on the carpet, prego Jamie is leaning up against the wall, grossed out and almost in tears because she's stepped in the dog's pee a second time, Joseph is still... yup.. you guessed it... whining, hanging onto his mother's leg, Grandpa is dry heaving because he can't stand the smell of the dog's poop, and my mother is following the dog, with paper in hand, who is STILL dropping them off. She spanks him and he graciously drops a couple more! The doorbell is ringing, Uncle Joe and Diane are patiently waiting to see what Santa has brought them,
the TV is blaring, the radio in the kitchen is playing Grandma got run over by a reindeer and Tom and Keila have made it through the front door safely! Ugh! lol Jacob and I sat in big, fluffy chair and took it all in! Wow! It was a disaster! A very funny disaster!
Shouts of joy came from the kids and Gracie as they ripped open their gifts! The mess was incredible!!!
Jacob received a gift from Tom that lit up his face until.... the real gift surfaced. It was a key to a car but not just any car... a Hot Wheel car! Just the car he had his eyes on.. just not the size! Jamie is sitting on the floor with Joseph in hopes that he would be occupied with his gifts.
He was, but only for what seemed to be a second or two! Jamie is now 3 days past her due date and is looking a little rough. Who am I kidding? She looked great considering all the poor girl had endured that night!
Here are a few more pics from that night:
Time went by and now it was time to part ways. I'm sure Gracie was happy to get rid of all of us at this point. Joe, Jamie, Nolan and Joseph were scheduled to head back home to Dallas the next day (Christmas day). Gracie and I both thought it wasn't the smartest idea ever, but oh well. I had a feeling Jamie would go into labor on Christmas day because as my luck would have it, I'd be travelling to Corpus to visit my other dysfunctional family! I just knew it! Murphy's Law!
The boys and I head home, I get into bed at around 2am, knowing I had to get up really early to get on the road. I was thinking I'd get like 6 hours or so of sleep and make it to Corpus by noon; just in time for ham and truckey (turkey-- inside joke). Not the case! Joe calls me at 5:30am saying they're headed to the hospital!!!!!
Merry Christmas! (The story gets better!)
xoxo
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