Christmas!

As expected, it's been a beautiful two days of christmas celebration. it's funny how as you get older, your outlook changes slightly every year. I wish i could say that the childlike wonder and innocence is still there but of course, as a product of the "teen years" it has dimmed slightly. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Christmas and will continue to my whole life. But every year, your eyes open a little more. there are more distractions and thoughts buzzing inside of your head and, for me, i sometimes find it hard to be in the moment. nevertheless, i will always maintain the wonder and beauty of christmas in my heart. because what's life without christmas?

On christmas eve, we went down to my aunt and uncle's house in north caldwell NJ, which is always a great time. their house is beautiful, the food is good and, of course, you're around family. unfortunately, it was raining the whole trip down, which washed away most of the snow...it would have been beautiful to have fresh snow on the ground christmas morning. Since we're being thankful this season (really, it should be all the time) i'd like to express my thanks for my siblings. we argue. a lot. but we're also each other's lifelines, best friends and party buddies. if all else fails and we know no one at a party (which wasnt the case for this party), we stay close to each other and have fun amongst ourselves. we were taking crazy pictures and eating a lot and playing christmas trivia games with my crazy godmother/aunt. on the way home, we were getting tired. but midnight mass still loomed ahead of us. i absolutely love midnight mass. it is by far the most beautiful part about christmas, for me. because the church is silent, softly lighted, the altar is decorated with vibrant poinsettas. there aren't the distractions of gifts or secular things. father bob, our new priest, performed his first midnight mass and he did so well. getting home at 1:00 in the morning has become a christmas tradition. the upside is that it forces us to go right to bed so that santa can come ;)

christmas morning dawned 40 degrees and sunny. blech. but there was still a tiny bit of snow on the ground and the sky was a beautiful blue. so i couldn't complain. my brother woke me up, like always, but this year was frustrating because my mom chose to sing at the 8 am mass, so we, being good and patient children, waited until she got home to open presents (she likes to be there to see what "santa" brought) so the three of us partied in mariel's room until mom came home. as soon as she walked in, we sprinted downstairs. and santa treated us very very well. the beauty of christmas morning never looses it's spark for me. the lighted tree, the warm fireplace, the sun shining in the windows and the brightly colored wrapping paper. the material aspect is obviously not the most important, so i wont list what i received. lets just say we were all very happy =)

as also is tradtion, my grandparents and my aunt and uncle come to our house for christmas day. so we spent the beginning of the day preparing and cleaning. and once everyone showed up, the house looked beautiful, we had christmas music playing and the food was all set up. i absolutely love spending time with my family. we have so much fun together. of course, there were more presents ;) overall, the day was beautiful and i think we kept the christmas spirit very much alive. i love this post-celebration feeling of satisfaction.


my thankfulness list is extremely long, but i'll keep it to 5.

1) spending time with family
2) being happy
3) our cozy home
4) having the rest of the vacation to enjoy
5) the spirit of christmas