I was expecting the worst and pleasantly surprised.
I'm talking about Christmas. The last several years, I have pretty much boycotted the holiday.
Let's recap the past few years, shall we.
2009: Only a few months after my dad died. Things between my sister, mom and I are strained to say the least. I barely talked to any of them. They made some accusations that I could not forget. I go over to my sister's and she makes a snide comment about me bringing the dogs, which she knew I was going to do. I am there all of 6 minutes, tops. I drop off my food and presents, pack up the dogs and leave. I end up going to a movie with a friend. I hear from none of them for 2-3 months.
2008: Only a few weeks after Randy died. So not in the mood to begin with. Christmas morning started out crappy when I got the phone call from mom's girlfriend saying that mom is having a heart attack and they are taking her to the ER. Lovely. Spend most of the day at the hospital. Dad isn't doing much better. He is still recovering from chemo and radiation and pretty weak.
2007: Randy and I are in the middle of divorcing. We accepted an offer on the house and I was trying to find a new place to buy. Things between us were estranged and he wasn't really even living in the house much at that time.
Fast forward to this year.
As in years past, one tradition is to go out to dinner on Christmas Eve with P, K and Stb. It is always a good time with friends. While out for cocktails, I get a phone call from mom that she is not going to be at my sister's. Oh well. I have learned to not expect anything from her so it really doesn't bother me too much. Get home a bit late and it seems that Santa has left me with a bit of a hangover the next morning.
I call my sister mid-morning to find out the plans. She is all sorts of crabby because the oldest niece and her were fighting and so my sister decided to not do anything. Note: Sister has more of an attitude problem than niece does. I was now starting to dread this. Wondering how I can get out of actually going over there this year. I realize that it is not all about me but I should go over there for the kids. I take a bit of a nap and head over there.
I get there and am shocked that my mom is there. Hmmm, wonder what happened but am not asking. Middle niece is so happy to see me. She hands me a little bag and tells me to open it. I don't even have my coat off yet. I open it and it was an ornament that said Aunt on it. It was really sweet of her and she was so happy that she picked it out all by herself and the school's Secret Santa Workshop.
I go into the living room and hang with the kids for awhile. Getting hungry so go into the kitchen for food. Thinking I should probably talk to mom and sister for a bit. We chat and by this time the kids are getting antsy to open gifts. Head back into the living room. Dole out the gifts. Youngest niece opens one of her gifts from me. It was a pink messenger bag that could convert into a back pack. It had been in the middle of her list so didn't think it was a big deal. She did. When she seen it, she screamed. LOUD! You would have thought she won the lottery. She was so excited about it. She sat down on the floor and proceeded to inspect it very carefully. A few minutes later, she came over to me and was showing me where all her stuff would go into it. Pencils, pens, folders. She wanted to put her stuff into it right then and there. When she realized that it was a whole week before she could use it to go back to school, you would have thought her cat died.
Middle niece got lots of books from me. She loves to read and I will do everything to encourage that. Once the gifts were all opened she grabbed a book and sat on the chair and read.
Oldest niece was fairly easy. Being 15, she wants clothes and cash. She got gift cards and one of my old Coach purses. She loved it. I did give her the lecture that it was a fairly expensive purse ($150) and that she needed to take care of it and make sure to not leave it laying somewhere. She assured me that she would. I hope so.
For a change, mom and sister listened to what I asked for. I told them gift cards. Barnes & Noble, Target. I really don't need much but can always find things to buy there. I did ask for the registration to the Summerfest 1/2 marathon this year. I ended up with Summerfest gift cards. Perfect. I will definitely use those!
The kids wanted to go play football outside. I was still a bit tired and didn't have the clothes to be outside for more than a few minutes so I had to decline.
It was starting to get late and I wanted to get a nap in before bed. (Hey, it was my holiday to do with as I pleased. Nothing beats a good nap with snuggly pups.) So home I went.
It was a nice time and I was just happy it didn't totally suck.
