Re:Christmas Entry

Christmas was the wonderful family, weekend-long event I've come to love and expect. I worked Saturday until 3pm and by the time I made it home, my family from Arkansas that we'd been expecting had arrived. They brought their little one year old Dashhund Buddy with them. He definitely made the weekend more interesting. We hadn't been introduced before but that made little difference as he jumped into my lap and went to sleep just an hour or so after I got home. Mum made homemade stroganoff and it was all I ever asked for in a stroganoff. Watched some television and then passed out in a cough medicine-induced sleep (Mum insisted since I was a little congested... That stuff knocks me on my butt like nothing else. Makes me just zombie-like.)
Woke up early Christmas morning. I remember a time when Dork and I were the first awake. We'd make sure the other woke up and then together we'd run into Mum and Dad's room to wake them up (because we weren't allowed near the tree until they were awake for some odd reason...). This year, though, Mum was the first awake and she had the honors of waking the household. Fast forward through opening presents, breakfast of homemade biscuits and gravy, and general lounging around. Headed off to our extended family Christmas get-together at my aunt and uncle's house a couple of blocks away. They did an amazing job with dinner; I ate way too much! Then us kids (all my cousins are younger than I) opened our presents followed by the dirty santa gift exchange for the adults (and me. See? I get the best of both worlds!). Sprinkled throughout the evening were the traditional stories about when my dad and his brothers were growing up, when my cousins, Dork, and I were littler, and any other little anecdotes deemed appropriate. The stories and jokes are my favorite part of our family functions.
I did well on the presents front this Christmas: several shirts, a jacket, 2 cd's, a kimono, heated blanket, yoga/pilates videos, socks, a couple of books, legwarmers, a "thumb drive," some pretty jewelry and a big Christmas ornament plus the dirty santa gift I ended with, a massage mat-thing that's pretty neat.
Dad's brother and his family headed off back to Arkansas this morning before I awoke so the house is back to being pretty quiet. Christmas decorations will be coming down sometime this week. Back to the norm. At least I still have a couple of weeks until classes start back up.
Now I'm off to do some picking up around the house and general messin' around until work this evening. Adios!