Merry Christmas!

I've never been the person with the most Christmas cheer, but for months I've been dreading this particular Christmas because it would be my first without my paternal grandmother and maternal grandfather.  Every kid associates Christmas with three things: a break from school, presents, and visits to grandparents' houses.  I've never been the biggest fan of change, but over the past couple of years, each one is slowly slipping away.  Now that I'm graduated the first no longer applies to me, I bought most of my presents myself and gave them to my mom to wrap, and now I only have one grandparent left to visit.  Ever since we moved to Birmingham in 1997, my family's Christmas tradition was to open presents before going to Nanny's house for Christmas dinner.  This year, though, we started a new tradition of staying at our own house.

In the end, I didn't need to worry because Christmas is still Christmas, no matter where you spend it.  And actually, it felt more like a proper Christmas than any previous one because....it snowed!  I'm thoroughly convinced that my Christmas spirit is directly tied to the images of snow and coats and scarves that I get from television and movies.  A white Christmas is something that everyone in Alabama hopes for, but we all know that we'll never get it.  This year, though, a Christmas miracle occurred and slowly turned the rainy sleet into snow.

The snow started early in the morning, so I opened up the curtains in every room while we opened presents and ate dinner.  This was Buster Cat's first Christmas, but he was relatively unimpressed.  Like most cats he's not a fan of noise, so he stayed on the stairs while we all unwrapped presents.  After everything calmed down, he was excited that everybody was gathered in one room, which meant that he could get as much attention as he wanted.  He quickly wore himself out playing, and he curled up in my closet until late in the afternoon.

Mom made Christmas dinner for the first time in years, and it was delicious (although I did ask her why she made so much...no one but Dad and me ever eat leftovers!).  After that, everybody dispersed - Emily to her computer, Chris to his bedroom, Mom to her chair for a nap, and Dad to his laptop.  Which meant that I had uninterrupted access to the television and the Doctor Who marathon on BBC America.  I watched nearly twelve straight hours of Doctor Who, from a few older episodes and a short marathon of all previous Christmas specials to the new Christmas special.  Normally I have to download the episode in order to watch it on Christmas Day, but this year BBC America made the smart decision to play the episode on Christmas instead of the spring (when the new season).

I'm writing this entry on Boxing Day before we leave for a three-day visit to Tennessee.  My grandmother's house has no internet access (not even a neighbor with unrestricted wireless), and I didn't want to lose the momentum I've gained over the past couple of weeks.  If I can make it into the New Year with regular updates, I'll be very proud of this little blog and its perseverance!