Unconventional Christmas

To be honest, I've never had an American Christmas as described in the movies. I never woke up on Christmas morning excited to open gifts. In fact, for as long as I could remember, Christmas morning was a day to sleep in and play with the toys that I unwrapped the night before. That's right, we celebrated on Christmas eve.

It was always like this. Only candles lit (even on the tree) and music playing softly in the background. We always went to church be ause we were in the children's Christmas play. Once we got home it would be 10pm or so and dad and my brother would put on the act of pretending to see hoof prints on the ground (indicating that Santa stopped by while we were gone). The fact was that dad would be the last one out of the house and would place the gifts under the tree while my brother and I got settled in the car.

Over the years, Christmas became less celebratory. We stopped going to the children's mass and dad was always too tired to go to midnight mass. We started opening our gifts by 7pm Christmas eve, which were never that many, and then proceed to watch movies and eat a decent meal. When it's just you and your dad there really isn't a need to make a huge meal. Christmas to me isn't my family's biggest holiday. In fact we celebrate Thanksgiving more than Christmas.

This year I am celebrating it early. Today to be exact. The boyfriend opened his gift from me this morning (a samsung blu-Ray player with wifi for netflix). We are currently on the road to his parents house to celebrate there (yes I am blogging from my iPhone while in the car). Point is that we just don't follow society's version of the holiday. We don't care much for the tree or the shopping or the gifts. We would much rather spend time together than deal with all of the other nonsense. Besides, it's more fun being with family than going into debt at the store anyway. I would much rather do this instead. ^_^