Christmas Day

Christmas. The very word means charity, good will, love, and the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is a time to be with family, to do good to others, and to celebrate the very special birth. It really is the best time of the year, on many levels and in many ways. To some people though, it means stress, the overwhelming amount of getting presents, and gifts, prices, budgets, making sure kids believe in Santa, and so much to do, do, do! That's really sad, that that is the definition of Jesus' birth day. When you just pause and take a breath, and realize the truth, it can really be enlightening and yet simple. To enjoy jubilation, celebration, to the Lord. To sing, and have a good time with the family. To read the Bible, do good will, and go to church. That's what Christmas, in my opinion, should mean.

Christmas is a great time though. All the basic traditions are fun to do. For the older folk, it's talking to children and reading a story to them. For the adults, it's having some drinks with all the family friends, and getting that really special drill you wanted, or the red velvet purse from Nordstroms, and being thankful for what you have. For the kids, it's getting the presents and sitting on Santa's lap. But, it should also be for them to know the true meaning of Christmas, something not all children realize. Hey, even the teenagers have a good tradition they like. The mistletoe. And you know what I mean when I say that.

Our Christmas was a very wonderful day. I went to sleep on Christmas Eve with sugarplums in my head, and was also very tired and didn't feel the best though. I had a hurting head and aching ears, not to mention cramps from the parties and a weird stomach hurting. On Christmas Day though, I woke up at 2'o'clock something, and looked around in the quiet dark bedroom, hearing the ticking of the clock and the howling of the owl. I slowly got up and crept into Rebecca's room, not exactly to wake her up but to see what she was doing. I was surprised to see her awake. We both said Merry Christmas as she explained she accidentally made her phone do an alarm at two. We both went upstairs in the dead of night, and saw our sleeping parents. Gently we woke them up and said Merry Christmas to them. They were both very tired, and told us to go back downstairs and continue to sleep. And so sleep I did. As I had a weird dream, I was awoken by Rebecca, who set her alarm at 6:00, and had a wacky idea to wake up the parents and then call Julie and Lauren, for them to come earlier. Reluctantly I got up and went into Mom and Dad's room. Surprisingly Dad was watching a crime show and Mom reading. This time they gave us a better "Merry Christmas" than before. We waited as I got water and lay on the couch; my throat was sore, my head hurting, my ears aching, and my nose stuffy. It was terrible. At intervals I read the Bible, played on my phone, and slept on Mom's side of the bed. I drifted into and out of conciseness. I thought about the day, and did take a shower to unstuff my nose. The funny thing is, after doing that I put on my PJ's, pretending I never took a shower. Before I knew it I was awake, I felt good, but bored. And you rarely see me bored.

It was 7:51, and we waited for the arrival of Julie and Lauren. Lauren had said 8:30 was the time of her coming, and Julie said 8:00. Both kept their agreements. Julie came up and talked to us as we wished each other M.C. (Merry Christmas; I'll be calling it that from now on) and talked for a while before it became 8:20. I was excited to go into the den and see the presents; yes, I admit I was excited. But it didn't matter to me as much as it should've. I didn't want anything particularly for Christmas, didn't have any special wishes or gifts I wanted. I really wanted world peace, but you have to get real on the wishes. Anyway, I knew I was going to get SOMETHING, and I had a few things that would be cool to have, but I wasn't really excited about anything in particular. As I heard Lauren coming up the steps and heard her say,"Merry Christmas!" I looked down to see her coming up the steep stairs. Both my older sisters were dressed in pretty good clothing, and as we sat on the stairs in a good formation Dad took a picture. Then Mom said the magic words. Go on in! And run we did.

The Christmas Tree sparkled with it's exquisite lights and decorations, the sun shining through the window of the room. I saw on what we call the Lollipop chair (an orange chair with the top going back in a twisty cylinder like a lollipop) all my stuff, among them two Lego boxes and packets, underwear, socks, and t-shirts (I was in need of those), on the Lollipop part a nice blue hoody with gloves, a yellow box from National Geographic called an Adventure Projector, microscopic slides (we have a microscope, there is slides with stuff on them you can look at) and many books, among them a National Geographic Almanac, a DK big book called Ask Me Everything, two Sherlock Holmes Novels, and the book the Matt guy at the bookstore recommended, Redwall. For numerous minutes I went through the stuff, thanking my parents for the gift they gave me. The Ask Me Everything book was very interesting, and the almanac was cool to look at also. As we all sat down and looked over the stuff, I saw that Rebecca got a barbie R.V., among other things. Rebecca passed out gifts to the older people, and the person who got them the gift stood over them. In no particular order of when they were received here is what people got:

I gave the thing I got from Gifted to Julie, and she saw they were pictures of different things in life, that made the word Julie. A horseshoe for you, a white line in the road for i, and so on. I got Julie also a little swan ornament, and she liked both the gifts. For Lauren I got a pink dog mat with bones on it, and I also got a pretty picture frame from Gifted. The dog mat was from Mrs. Nelson's, Sylvia's mom's, antique store. We watched with giddiness as Lauren also opened a special gift, a new phone! She loved it, and set it up for the rest of the day, making her contacts and such. It was a Metro PCS. She also got a leaf blower. And some cords. I loved looking at Dad as he opened the presents from me: two skinny wooden white colored blanks with the words "Quiet Please" on them, from a Lady Michelob Golf Tournament. When a golfer was about to swing, they would hold them up to silence the crowd. The cool thing about those was that Dad had photographed one of the games, and he had been scolded for taking pictures at the wrong moment and in the lady's face, and for having the wrong attire on. A man threatened him for doing that. So, him having those things is both a thing that he has a story attached to it, and if we're loud he can hold it up instead of screaming. Two uses for it.

I gave Dad also a painting of hot air balloons (he loves those things) and a book about the story of Google (from Antique Market on Canton Street). What my dad and I do is he reads a book about a company or business, and then I read it, or vise versus. I read the Home Depot book and then he did. He read the Four Laws and now I am. It's a fun thing we do. From Rebecca he got signs that said: "We try to keep it American Made" and one saying "American Made". Rebecca got Julie a nativity set and got necklaces for them both, plus a coaster for Lauren. I got Rebecca a Ken Doll from the Antique Market on Canton Street, and a painting of a dog that looks like Rocky. From Rebecca I got a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, the fourth called On Stranger Tides. I really had wanted to see that movie and so it was cool to get it. She also got me a Captain America Action Figure. From Julie I got three nutcrackers, a cowboy, pirate, and drummer boy. They were short but cool. I like them. From Lauren I got a $30 dollar gift card from Barnes and Noble. It was cool to just relax and open presents, to look at the gifts and to see the person's expression when they recieve your gift. It was really a fun time. This year I liked receiving a lot more than giving. I really did.

Well, Ma Poc and Pop came at about 10:00, and at that time Lauren was on her new phone, I was in the A.M.E. (Ask Me Everything), Rebecca doing the Barbie R.V., and Julie and Mom downstairs making the finishing touches on breakfast. I talked to Ma Poc a little as I put the "Conflict of the Ages" DVD, on the computer. It was the actual pages just on a screen. Pretty cool. I haven't read any of it yet, but I plan to. I also talked to Pop. Vincent came, and he met the grandparents. I showed with the A.M.E. book, and he was very interested in it also. We looked at some cool pages, learning about the movie business, and myths. We all then went downstairs and ate at the dining room table, and got grits and eggs and other things, plus grapefruit and toast. We all ate together and talked of different things, Christmas traditions, old times, and people we knew. It was very warm and good. After staying there for a while and talking some more, and then we went back upstairs and messed with our stuff for a while. That was a good meal, and I enjoyed the time. Later Julie and Lauren opened a few presents, some that I have mentioned earlier.

We settled down and did things of different sorts, playing and looking at our presents. At about noon Lauren and Vincent left to go keep company with Vincent's mom, and Pop and Ma Poc read the newspaper and we helped Pop figure out his iPad. Miguel came around as my grandparents prepared to leave. They stayed for one more meal with Miguel, and we ate some good turkey brown rice chili. It was great. Well after that Ma Poc and Pop left, and we all kind of went into the basement and watched the Animated "A Christmas Carol" with Jim Carey. I brought down the book I had read the following day, and it was fun to have it fresh in my head and read along. The movie had wonderful special effects, and changed the parts around a little to make it new and cool, but it was good nevertheless. We had the room dark and Dad went to sleep, and then Julie and Miguel left. For the rest of the day we hung around, and then went to bed.

It was a great day. Christmas was the best day of the year. I had a great time with family and loved the time I had with them. I liked also celebrating Jesus Christ's birth. I hope you had a good Christmas too. Goodbye...for now.

"Bah Humbug!"- Ebenezer Scrooge.,

Andrew.