A Canadian in America...

A Christmas Eve unlike any other....

I was reading the comments from my sister on either my blog or my mommy's blog, and I was taken back to a time of Christmas Eve's spent with lots of family. I remember when we used to spend the first part of the day at Lynwood Bowling Alley, as they usually had a Christmas Eve party luncheon thingy. Then, I THINK we would go over to see my great grandma Gibson. I forgot about that part...and then (this was my favourite part) we would go over to my Grandparents house and spend the evening with almost my entire family on my mother's side. This was the one day of the year where it was guaranteed that we would see most of our family. We sang carols, had cookies and other snacks (I think at one point we would all eat dinner together too, but then our family just kept getting bigger and bigger). I loved it. It was possibly my favourite part of Christmas, other than getting gifts of course. Then we would all come home, write a letter to Santa and leave him some cookies, mincemeat tarts and eggnog, hang our stockings and go to bed. At the crack of dawn we would rush to the tree and our stockings to see what Santa had left us. We'd drag mom and dad out of bed, open our stockings and then our presents.....and then after a nap, we would eat breakfast together and play with our toys. Ahhhhhhhh, Christmas.
Now, over the past few years a few things have changed, such as not spending Christmas Eve at any of the above mentioned places, but we would still spend it together, somewhere, even if we didn't see our whole family. As we got older we would have to make coffee for mom before she got out of bed on Christmas morning, and eventually we started sleeping in a little later too...haha:)
But this year, things are weird. I have found myself amongst different traditions (or lack thereof), and I don't like it one bit. For one thing, Eric had to work today, and I have no idea when he is going to be home. They are "soft" closing at 6:00pm, and apparently what that means is that if there are still customers in the store, they stay open until they all leave. As a result, I have spent much of the day all alone:( I did brave the outdoors and took some cheques to the bank to deposit, and after standing in a long line (not necessarily long in people, but long in time because people do stupid things at the bank on Christmas Eve, apparently) I made my deposit and went on my way. There's a Blockbuster really close to there, so I walked across the parking lot to see if it was open. It was, amazingly, so I rented a fabulous holiday movie ("The exorcism of Emily Rose":) and got back into my car to come home. I would have gone to the gym, too, but it closed at noon today. After I came home I made myself a good healthy lunch of White Cheddar Mac and Cheese, and sat with the dogs for a bit. I also read a lot, and am within pages of finishing my book. Hooray! Oh yes, and I played some Christmas carols on the piano. Wait a second, why am I not listening to any right now? BAD JOJO!!!! *PAUSE* Ahhh, that's better. John Berry's Christmas album. I made my kids listen to it for nap yesterday. Bahahahahaha. I could have gotten in trouble I suppose, but everybody else there has been listening to Christmas music in their rooms lately....
ANYHOW, so after Eric's parents left for church, I headed down to the basement for a quick run on the treadmill, and then back upstairs for a shower. Which brings me to now. How very Christmasy.....I'm not sure what's on the menu for tonight. Hopefully a viewing of "The exorcism of Emily Rose" and maybe some Christmas cookies (apparently Eric's mom is going to bake). I think they're going to watch a Christmas special on TV. All in all, I wish I were home right now. I was planning on phoning, as not only is it Christmas Eve, but it is also my sister's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY JILL!!!!!)however I will wait until Eric gets home so we can both talk to people:)
If anything else 'exciting' happens, I will be sure to let you all know, but I wouldn't hold your breath.....

posted by Jo @ Saturday, December 24, 2005