Christmas Celebrations

Christmas this year was just like every other year...better than the last and far from a disappoint.  It was as perfect as it could be.  Of course, pure perfection would have been having my Grandpa there (although, spiritually, he was there with us, I'm sure) and having my siblings there.  Unfortunately, Leah had to work so her and Kyle were unable to join us.  Randy was also working which meant he stayed back in KC with his family, but Ben made the trip in to spend with us.

The first of our celebrations was with my family, on Christmas Eve.  We started the afternoon with a trip to visit Grandpa to wish him a Merry Christmas.  Then we headed down the street to visit my other grandparents.

As is customary every year, just after arriving, we get our family photos taken and various group photos. And of course, I can't act normal for a long period of time.  Nor can my husband ever cooperate.

Then comes drinking (Manhattans in Grandpa's honor), laughs, and plenty of shenanigans. 

(Ben and Nick both had on fancy matching socks to compliment their outfits.)

Then it's time to gather around the table where we stand, hold hands, and pray.  As of lately, our family prayer consists of many tears and choking on words as we feel the emptiness in the circle.  With our hands held a little tighter than they have been the past 29 years of my life, our hearts might be missing a piece of them with Grandpa's passing, but the love between the 16 of us has only strengthened and it helps to ease the pain of loss.  

The tears quickly fade into laughs and we dig in to the spread of food before us and pour more drinks.  (I was too busy stuffing my face to get a picture of the food.  Not sorry).

After dinner, we all gather in the living room.  We sit around the Christmas tree; the tree that is now train-less.  It pains me to experience my first Christmas without Grandpa's excitement when he gets down on his hands and knees, puts his hand on the buttons of the train engine, looks at me and says "You ready, Mellie?!"  To which I always respond, probably a little too excited for a late-twenty year old, as he turns it on.  The train begins making it's noises, he turns to me with a childlike grin, and waits for me to say, in unison with the conductor "CENTRAL STATION!"  It was mine and Grandpa's thing.  And I will fully admit that I never realized just how special it was to me until this year.  When the tree no longer contained that train.  When Grandpa wasn't there to partake in our little ritual.  

Thankfully the tears welling up in my eyes are kept at bay when the obnoxiousness of my loud family takes over.  The jokes, the laughs, the flying presents, the spilled drinks.  It's hard to let sadness take over when you're surrounded by 15 of the most amazing people you've ever loved and been loved by.  

The present opening begins, usually in organized chaos.

This is the only photo I have from present opening.  Major fail.  Grandma ran out of gift boxes so we got these.  And inside them was cash.  Thanks, Grandma.  I'd have been highly disappointed if you gave me pie crust (I don't like pie).

Normally at this point in the night, we play games, something Grandpa and Grandma always loved doing at every family function.  But Grandma wanted to take a nap since she had decided to go to midnight service at her church.  We took this as the perfect opportunity to play Cards Against Humanity.  If you haven't played the game, you aren't living.  Seriously, go buy it.  It's just like Apples to Apples but so much more vulgar and inappropriate.  Which is perfect for my family (if you don't like using words such as boner, dick, vagina, etc, then I wouldn't play this game).  My family had never played this game and needless to say, they loved it!  (Just to clarify, there were no doubts they would).  

A ways into the game, Grandma comes strolling in, wanting to know what we're playing.  She sat down next to my Aunt J, and we were just hoping she wouldn't be able to hear well, or that most of them would go way over her head.  

We could not have been more wrong.  Grandma wasn't only not offended, she joined in.  If it wasn't official before, it's official now.  I have the coolest Grandma in the world!  Case and point:  Grandma enters and sits next to my Aunt J.  Aunt J begins reading her cards.  She gets to one that is clearly inappropriate and begins laughing, not wanting to read it due to her mother (Grandma) sitting next to her.  Grandma then leans over, looks at the card in Aunt J's hand and says "Female orgasm", in a very matter of fact voice.  We.All.Died.  

Then later, Uncle G purposefully passes a card off for the round just so he (and all of us) can hear Grandma say "boner".  And she did.  Grandma was also educated on what a queef is and had no reaction upon learning of it's meaning.
Coolest Grandma ever!

Unfortunately the game had to come to an end as my immediate family had to leave to get to Midnight Mass on time.  To which I have to say, how the heck did I do this before?  Maybe it's because I'm almost 30, but staying up that late after a full day was pure torture.  I could not do it.
As soon as we got home, I crashed. Hard.

Now to celebration number two!
We spent the night with my parents so when we woke up the next morning, we all opened presents together, but not before getting Leah and Kyle on Skype.  It was a little hard to see them on the tiny MacBook but we managed to watch them open their gifts from us as well as them watching us open their gifts to us.

(this Christmas Eve, before Santa came)

So gifts were opened and I was shocked by some of the things I received!  Nick always goes above and beyond what we say to spend.  Next year, I'm spoiling the shit out of him.  

 1.  I finally have a diploma frame!!!  I've been wanting one for a long time but these babies aren't cheap. ||  2.  Mom and Ben opening gifts. ||  3.  My gift from Randy (to buy lots of fun things for my home).  ||  4.  Nick makes some pretty bombass chicken tenders and fries but our current itty bitty deep fryer means he can only make one or the other.  And those two things totally go together.  Now, he can cook them both (this deep fryer comes with one large basket or two small ones).  ||  5.  Ben being Ben.  ||  6.  Nicholas bought me a sewing machine!!!!!  I've been wanting one for sooooo long and now I finally one!  I totally did not expect him to get this for me because he always seems so disinterested when I bring up sewing projects. I'm shocked he even knew what to buy!  ||  7.  Dad and Sierra (with my creeper dogs in the background).  ||  8.  Nick is obsessed with puzzles.  He loved the top puzzle we all did at the lake many years ago.  Then two days ago, he was telling my Grandma about this exact puzzle and began looking for it online.  I was going to be so mad if he ended up buying it but thankfully he couldn't find it.  And thus he absolutely loved this gift from me.  ||  9.  Family photo.  We started a new tradition this year of buying matching jammie shirts to sleep in and open gifts in.  Sadly, I didn't remember to take a better photo other than this one.

And how awesome is this?!  We stopped by the gas station and they had these on the counter.  Beautiful carvings in various types of marble.  It wasn't even a question of whether we wanted to spend some of our Christmas cash on it.  We decided on the marble we wanted and brought this baby home!  I love it because it's a very unique piece and obviously reminds us of home :)

I didn't post all the photos because, well let's be honest.  Sleepy eyes mixed with no makeup and bedhead just aren't cute.  But there were obviously many more gifts given.  {And although it looks like Nick got me two badass gifts of a diploma frame and sewing machine and I only got him puzzles & a deep fryer, rest assured he got some good gifts and I'm not an awful gift giver.  This morning he also got an Apple TV and video games.  Oh, and that Xbox One he bought a month ago.}

Of course the pups got gifts too.  And for the first time, they actually opened their own gifts.  And like always, Yadi only wanted what Vino had.

The girls also got pretty new collars.  Yadi has been in dire need of a new one.

Yeah, isn't that gross??
Vino has had a simple black one since we got her.  I've been wanting to get her a new one but it's been a struggle.  Nick is really an anything girly hater.  He loathes the color red.  He doesn't want pink on his dogs.  He hates paisley.  He hates flowers.  He hates swirls and polka dots.  If he had it his way, she'd have a blue and green striped color.  Um, no thanks.  Vino is too dainty and sweet to have a boy collar.  We finally agreed on these colors and chevron was pretty much the only non-girly pattern we could find these colors in.  So it was the winner.  But I'm happy with it.  It looks good on her (although it is weird to see such a wide collar on her.  I'm used to her thin, puppy collar.)  

But the best gift of all for the pups?  The wrapping paper.  The girls just went to town ripping it apart.  But we didn't mind.  It kept them out of our hair while we opened gifts.  

We had Christmas celebration number 3 with Nick's family but I completely forgot to take photos of this day :(  I know, major major fail.  I did, however, take a picture of one of my awesome gifts:

A basket full of a bunch of local Missouri wines!!!  They know me well ;)

We enjoyed dinner and gifts and laughs. Then the next night we went to more of his family's house for Christmas fun. Sadly, I didn't bring my camera and my phone was dead so no pictures. 

We had a white elephant gift exchange and I ended up with this super soft and comfy Mizzou blanket and fuzzy socks!! Major win!!

And that completes our Christmas' in St. Louis.  If you made it this far, congratulations, you deserve one of my bottles of wine.  Unfortunately for you, I'm selfish and won't share.  But if you come visit, I just might let you have a sip.