Merry Belated Christmas!

I hope everyone was able to enjoy their Christmas!! It was really quite a relaxed holiday around these parts, for the most part. :) Nothing can go too smoothly in our family, but seeing as this is my family I'm talking about, it was a good holiday.

On the 23rd, my aunt, who I'll just call Aunt L, decided that she was going to have a big family get together at her house for Christmas. We had done this in the past on Christmas eve, but that tradition has slowly been dying over the past few years. Her reasoning for having the party on the 23rd was that she wanted to spend Christmas Eve with her kids. Now you have to understand that my mom and Aunt L have pretty much never gotten along. In fact, I think they pretty much hated each other ever since my gramma brought my mom home from the hospital as a newborn. Anyhoo, we were invited via my grandmother, because lord knows Aunt L wouldn't actually bother to call us up with an actual invitation. My mom informed my gramma that we would not be attending Aunt L's party, because as my mom put it "No one wants their Christmas ruined by listening to L's mouth!" My mom also took great pride in informing my gramma that my Uncle W wouldn't be attending either, because he also has a great loathing for their sister L. At this point, my gramma pretty much ordered my mom to be at her house on Christmas eve, which of course mom didn't take to lightly to. My mom went on a rant about wanting to do Christmas dinner with gramma, but when gramma got a better last minute invite, she ditched us for Uncle W. So my mom called back up my gramma to inform her that "Just like L wants to spend Christmas Eve with her kids, so do I. It's not my fault you ditched us for W! If you get home from his house early, fine, we'll come on over Christmas night, but we'll be too busy on Christmas Eve to come to your house. You're welcome to make plans with whoever you want, but don't expect me to rearrange my family's plans because yours have changed!"

Ah, that, is a typical holiday event around here. It did seem like that was all settled, and everything was going to go okay. For most of Christmas eve, I was in my pajamas scrubbing everything in sight! My mom did the whole last minute "clean everything" routine that she's so famous for. I scrubbed down the bathroom, I dusted the furniture, I vacuumed, I mopped, I did, I did, I did. It wasn't until around 5pm that I was actually able to wash up and get in to some real clothes. Actually that worked out fine because my sister and brother-in-law didn't arrive here until around 7:30. (This was just about the time where my mom was about to get upset. She knew my sister was currently at my gramma's house and was a little perturbed by it.) We had a pretty relaxed celebration. We stuffed our faces full of pizza, had some of my sister's birthday cake (photo at bottom), and had lots of sparkling cider and hot cocoa. We exchanged gifts with my sister Tiffany and Rich, and just lounged around, looking at the tree. (Tiffany got me a really cute sweater from Old Navy, plus a Visa gift card. :) I got Tiff a gift card to New York and Company, and Rich a gift card to a store called Lids, where they sell baseball caps.)

While we were sitting around, the phone rang. This was the second time the phone had rung in a short period of time. Seeing as the first call was from our great Aunt B, my mom naturally assumed it was Aunt B again. My mom very cheerfully answered the phone only to hear Aunt L's voice in response. Aunt L (who denies the fact that she might possibly have a bit of a drinking problem) called, and from the slurring of her words, my mom assumed that she was quite smashed. Aunt L decided to tell my mom what a "rotten brat" she was for being "too good" to attend Aunt L's party, and that she "ought to be ashamed" for not spending Christmas eve with my gramma. Hopefully, from some of my previous stories, you may already be suspecting how my mother dealt with this. Yeah, I won't repeat what my mother said to my Aunt L, but let's just say it wasn't the nicest way of telling someone to buzz off.

We were all staring at my mother in horror, because at that time we didn't realize who it was that had called. My mom actually for once looked pretty embarrassed, because she turned red as she explained what happened. My bro-in-law Rich, never at a loss for words, decided to lighten the mood by telling us all a story about how his mother and aunt once got in to a fist fight on the front lawn, in the snow, on Christmas. Somehow, my sister managed to marry in to a family that was more insane than ours! His story did help to lighten the mood, as we all ended up laughing at his description of the neighbors gawking at his brawling mother and aunt. So it seemed that Rich actually saved Christmas by telling us all stories about how his family is more dysfunctional than ours.

Christmas day went much easier. There were no big fights, no grumpiness, and very little swearing. (The swearing came when my dad found out the massage chair he got for my mom didn't work.) The only craziness came in when we discovered that the water heater had died. (Actually, as my dad said, it exploded.) My mom and I both discovered that the water wasn't getting any warm, and my mom sent my dad down to the basement to investigate. He came back upstairs with his Christmas pajamas soaked, saying that "I touched the nozzle of the water heater and the thing just like, exploded!" I felt bad for him that he was drenched! Of course being Christmas, my dad couldn't exactly go to the Home Depot to get a new water heater, so we've been without hot water since yesterday morning. My mom's boiled water to wash dishes. I have to say this is solid day #2 I've been without a shower, lol. The hot water should be back on at any moment, so I will get a shower in before I start turning stinky! In the meanwhile I've been "washing" my face with astringent. I also filled a big glass up with water, and let it become room temperature, so that I could rinse with it after brushing my teeth. That water was frigid, and I definitely didn't want to swoosh with that!

So that was our Christmas. Merry, disgruntled, but over all a cheery time. A few of the things I got for Christmas which I loved were: another new sweater from my mom, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on dvd, a new dvd player to watch the dvd, and a nice new bedspread for my bed. :) Thankfully I also got some money too! I wouldn't want my entire Christmas present to be money, but it is nice to get some so that I can take joy in shopping. :) Seeing as my friend Lauren is coming up to visit tomorrow, I hope we have some time to get some shopping in!

I'll leave you guys with a few pictures from Christmas. I'll put the rest on my photo blog either tomorrow or Friday.

This was my "taking a picture of the calm before a possible storm" picture. :) I had just gotten ready and was awaiting the festivities to start.

Our Christmas tree, prior to the gifts being torn in to. :) The lights were on, but with the flash you can't tell.

My sister's birthday cake for her 25th birthday! It was strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting. I made it, and my frosting job was kind of sub par, so I covered it with sprinkles. :)

Me and Tiffany, playing with my camera, only moments before my aunt called. My face was quite shiny, but my sister said "our boobs look fab!" Haha.

Teddy being Teddy! Tabby as usual, wouldn't let me get a photo of her.