Where has the time gone? One minute I’m just on break, and now my break is almost over! That’s always how it seems to go though; when you want time to go slowly, it goes too fast; yet when you want time to go fast, it goes too slow. But my break has been nice and relaxing so far, and most importantly, rather stress-free.
My Christmas was really, really wonderful. On Christmas Eve, Andrew came over a little bit early to exchange gifts. He was going to stay all evening with my family, but decided that he would go home to spend it with his own family. I was kind of glad he did. It would’ve been nice if he had stayed, but I think the holidays are meant to be spent with your family. There’s this guy who lives probably five minutes from our house who has his whole yard made up of little train decorations. He has numerous tracks running around and going through tunnels, mountains in the background, a miniature drive in with a real TV playing a Christmas movie with little cars surrounding it, miniature ice skaters skating around on a rink. It’s just like a little miniature community and it’s amazing how much stuff he has set out for display. Me and Andrew went to go see it since we had some time to kill, and it was just neat looking at his house and all the other houses that were lit up with the regular Christmas decorations. I wish I would’ve thought to taken some pictures, but oh well.
My family always has a kind of game night, so after Andrew dropped me off, I helped cook all of our favorite junk food (toasted ravioli, nachos, little smokies, dip, etc.). We sat around the dinner table and ate and talked. Everyone in my family is always so busy with either work or school and we don’t have a family dinner where everyone is all there very often, so it was nice for everyone to be at dinner together.
My siblings and I also have this weird tradition that we started a couple of years ago where we go to Walgreens (a chain convenience store, for those who don’t have them) to get stocking stuffers for everyone else. It’s kind of dumb that we all go together, because we all know what we’re getting from each other in our stocking but it’s still fun. It’s usually just candy that we get, but sometimes we get little funny things as a joke. Like this year, we got my dad some Vick’s Vapor Rub, because apparently you can put it on toe fungus and it will help get rid of it. My dad has some pretty bad toe fungus. 
On Christmas day, my dad and I cooked breakfast. Rachel was supposed to get up and help, but she was being lazy and didn’t get up until around eleven. And you can’t expect my brothers to help cook. xP So it was just me and my dad cooking breakfast for my mom. She’s been doing really good, since her surgery. The surgery itself went well, and my mom hasn’t been in a whole lot of pain. She’s been a bit sore, and besides not being able to do anything really besides read and rest, she’s doing fine, which is a blessing in itself.
Once everyone was up, we did presents. My dad was the most excited I think to open them. A couple days before, he sat down on the couch, looked at my mom, and then started to bounce up and down, exclaiming “I can’t wait for Christmas!” over and over. I about died laughing. He can be such a weirdo.
Everyone was pretty excited with their gifts. The majority of the things I got were books, which make me pretty happy. 
I also got a couple of DVDs and some new pajama pants. Ryan, as a gag gift, got everyone, excluding myself, ugly Christmas sweaters. He purposefully had everyone else open their presents first so I would think that that’s what I would be getting. When I opened mine though, to my own surprise, I found the ugliest grandma dress. Not only was it ugly, but it reeked of old lady. I made a deal that I would wear it if he would wear what I got him. I bought him a Cardinal’s shirt, which is our city’s baseball team and he absolutely hates them. This year, the Cardinal’s won the World Series, and the entire time he was saying how they weren’t going to win, they weren’t going to win.
Christmas is the only time I will wear the ugliest grandma dress and Ryan will wear a Cardinal’s shirt. Christmas is never boring at my house.
After we had cleaned up all of our mess that we had made by opening presents, me and my sister started cooking for the Christmas dinner we’d be having later (since my mom can’t cook because of her shoulder). Rachel did the more complicated dishes and the ham, and I did the easier things, like green beans and fruit salad. I also made a peach pie for the first time, and I didn’t even cut a finger off or burn the house down.
Dinner was delicious like always, and afterwards I just went straight to bed to take a nap. I was so exhausted. But I was happy and it was nice just to have Christmas at home. We usually go to my grandparents house for Christmas, but the last couple years we’ve preferred staying home. Plus, it’s not really the same without my grandpap…
And now, my break is almost over, which is a bit sad. I haven’t done really anything much besides read and sleep. I’ve read a book a day (I know, loser!). I went and saw Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows which was ah-mazing! Critics gave it awful reviews, but I thought it was just as good as the first one. Robert Downey Jr. was as wonderful as ever. :*
It’s been nice to just be lazy after working so hard during finals. (I’m still waiting on my final grade for my AP Bio class. Kind of frustrating that my teacher is taking so long. I think I’m just impatient.) It’s a little bittersweet, knowing that I’m about to enter my last semester of high school; I can’t wait to graduate, but at the same time, I’m nervous about going off to college and finally being on my own.
I hope to be a little bit more productive with my last couple of days of break. I need to finalize some college things and I’d like to edit a good chunk of my NaNo novel, but we’ll see how that goes. 
