Be the Change

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!

I want to know how many of you still have trouble sleeping Christmas Eve.

Because my sister said something the other day like, "I hope I can sleep!" And I talked to my Mom yesterday, asking what time we should be at her house Christmas morning to exchange gifts. She said, "We're normally up by 7 or so, but I know we'll be up really early Christmas morning," implying that they wouldn't be able to sleep in.

I wanted to go back to sleep after my alarm went off this morning, and I couldn't help thinking, "Am I the only one who can sleep on Christmas Eve?" I slept 10 hours last night!

Most of you know that I have a twin sister. We'd always struggle to fall asleep on Christmas Eve. We'd swear we were going to try to stay up to see Santa come to the house. Eventually we'd make a little too much noise, and our Mom would yell, "Go to bed!" (It's hard not to make noise when you live in a trailer home!)

We'd fall asleep eventually, and nearly every year, Traci would wake me up at some terrible early hour in the morning! She'd wake me up and say, "It's Christmas!!" Immediately, I'd yell at her for waking me up because it felt like I had just fallen asleep! Then we'd go look at our presents. She'd show me where the hidden ones were. (I don't think other parents hid presents; that was just our Dad - he'd hide them like they were Easter Eggs.)

We were allowed to open anything in our stockings before our parents got up. Sometimes they'd hear us sorting through stuff and tell us to go back to bed (depending on the time), but eventually they'd get up, too.

We'd open our gifts, with Dad giving hints on where presents were hidden around the living room and kitchen (and sometimes the porch!), and then we'd all get dressed and go to Gram's for breakfast. There my aunts, uncles and cousins (from Mom's side) would be gathered. We'd exchange gifts and eat a very early lunch.

Then we'd go back home and play for the rest of the day, until my Dad's parents came over in the evening.

Every year there seem to be less and less people at the Christmas gatherings, due to work, other family dinners, passings on, etc. (I dreamt about my Dad's Mom last night, maybe it was her wishing me a Merry Christmas.)

Anyway, I just wanted to share some of my own memories and to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!