Christmas 2008

Yesterday was Christmas and I went to bed early on Chrismas Eve (9ish) because for the last three weeks I've been sick.  I started with a cold early in december (the first saturday?) and then it lasted over a week, had a two day break and now I have a cold.  It's getting better though.  My grandmother also made some homemade chicken and sasuage gumbo and it was sooo good.  I'm going to have to steal the recipe now.

My brother woke me up around 7am and I was feeling a lot better (I just needed rest, medicine and vick laced tissues that my cousin bought me).  I went downstairs and I took some pictures and got a cup of coffee while we waited for my cousins.  My cousins had come up this year and it's the first time we've ever had family come up (my cousins mom and husand stayed with my grandmother/her sister-in-law) and I hope they do it next year :)

We opened presents and I took pictures (I'll be posting them over the next few days) and I got a lot of nice things.  I got plenty of winter clothing (I needed more though it's been more fall-like weather lately), jewelry, socks, Wall-E, Transformers, Iron-Man, Psych season 2 and Dragonballz season 2, plus 12 games :).  I still haven't exchanged gifts with all my friends though.  I bought my mom a really nice sweater jacket, my brother got cologone, my aunt got an itunes giftcard and my grandmothers got a CD & lotion.  I ordered my dad a craftsman hat long ago and I thought it wouldn't arrive, and the DAY I was setting out to get him a lowes gc, it arrived with a coupon to sears.  Needless to say he's at Sears today.

Christmas Dinner was wonderful and we had a lot of people!  My cousins, great-aunt and her husband came up this year so we had 11 people instead of the usual 7.  We had a lot of food too from my grandmothers delicious ham, turkey, broccoli casserole, rice, gravy and the works.  Then for desert we had homemade candy, cookies, cherry delight pie, coconut cake and sweet potato pie.  I didn't overstuff myself though, ugh too many sweets and i'm not a big sweet eater.

Afterwards my great-aunt gave us presents and I got a hoodie with a scarf attached (...?...) and a snoopy shirt.  We sat around and talked for a while and then they left to visit my grandfathers grave.  I went late last week to his grave and put flowers on.  I still miss him a lot even though I was only eight when he died.  I even wrote a children's book and got in published this fall about him (sorry there's only one copy).  We cleaned up the kitchen and my mom and I cleaned up downstairs (I kept things organized, my aunts handmade bows and tags in one pile, trash in one, boxes stacked and neat).

I went online afterwards and I managed to sell some duplicate games I had online.  It's not a lot, but I made a definate profit on them since I sold both for twice what I paid :)  I took that to the post office this morning and cashed my MO from something else I sold.  My cousin came in later and stood at my door saying "Let's play games!!"  So I played one of my games on the wii with them.  It's funny, since he's in his late 30's and I've gotten him hooked on the wii.  What started as a 'try and see'  has turned into an obession. 

I'm avoiding the '2nd black friday' today, but tommorrow my grandmother and I are going to go shopping.  I'm hoping things are still left (and considering the economy I dobut it'll be that crowded today with people shopping).  I'd like to get some christmas stuff in preparation for next year, so we'll see.