I only had to work Monday and Tuesday the week of Christmas but Garrett had to work Christmas Eve Day until about noon. Because we knew we'd be heading up to Mammaw and Bills' house for Christmas Eve, we didn't want to lug all of our presents up and overwhelm their tree with presents just for Garrett and I from our families. We had our own Christmas Eve celebration on Tuesday night and opened about 85% of our gifts. I had Christmas music playing in the background and a Christmas-scented candle burning just like my mom usually does. It's really important to me to create an atmosphere I guess! We took turns opening (just like I'm used to doing) and drug it out because otherwise we would've been done in about ten minutes. I've noticed that people who come from larger families don't take turns while opening gifts - everyone just kind of grabs one, rips it open, admires it (or doesn't), then sticks it in a pile next to them and repeats the process until everything is opened. To me, that's pretty anticlimactic. In my little family of four, we were sure to take turns so each gift could be oo'd and ahh'd, passed around, tinkered with, then set on display. It made me appreciate each person's gift and the thoughtfulness that went into it. I can totally see how that strategy might be torture if you had, say, ten people opening gifts together (though we still did it that way when we had Christmas Eve at my grandparents' house in Salt Lake). To each their own!
I was overwhelmed with the nice things I received this year from my parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles, sibling, inlaws, and Garrett. I was sure that, this being our second married Christmas, we'd receive a lot of joint gifts or household items. I was wrong! I was treated to some things that were just for me to enjoy and same for Garrett.
That night, Bill had a surprise adventure for us and loaded us all into his truck. It was really dark out so I wasn't sure what was in store, but then I realized we were on a hunt for Christmas lights! The houses around Houston and Big Lake aren't very close together so it literally is a hunt for lights since there are very few neighborhoods. I thought we were just going to drive on the road around Big Lake when I heard that was our destination, but suddenly Bill pointed the truck down toward the frozen shore and maneuvered us right onto the ice! I'll admit, I was very nervous about driving a big truck on top of a lake. That's not something I've ever done, let alone thought of doing. I soon realized that there was an actual road plowed into the snow covering the iced-over water. It was explained to me that graters - those enormous, heavy pieces of equipment - actually make these roads so people have a more direct path in and out of their houses in the winter. I was amazed! You could see people's vehicles parked on top of the ice by their docks as a sort of makeshift parking lot...even though, six months later, their boat would be floating in that exact spot instead. So strange! Big Lake is gigantic so we drove around for quite a while searching for Christmas lights. We found quite a few and were not disappointed - some people went all-out. Pretty soon I forgot we were driving on top of freezing cold water and fish and enjoyed our ride. There were some scares - going over a temporary bridge from one lake to another that was very treacherous, avoiding a soft spot in the ice at the last minute, crossing our fingers that the ice closest to the shore wasn't "too thin" - ah! But we made it home safe and sound.
Christmas day was different but very fun. We all slept in a little then lounged around the living room drinking coffee and chatting while Mammaw made some delicious little sausage and biscuit rolls to snack on for breakfast. They eat Christmas dinner much earlier than I'm used to so there was no enormous quiche that filled you up until about 4:00! The sausage rolls were addicting, though, so I probably defeated the purpose of "eating light" when I ate two pounds of them...
I was nominated to be the present-passer-outer (how odd!) and got to dig under the tree and hand out gifts to Mammaw, Bill, & Garrett. We all got spoiled and had a great time playing with/looking at/trying on our new things.
"Dinner" was scheduled to be between 2:00 and 3:00 so Mammaw went straight to work with prepping. She had already done most of the work for the side dishes so I felt useless. Brian and Sandy, the same people that came over for Thanksgiving, showed up for dinner and it was nice to have a larger group to share the meal and Christmas mood with. After cleaning up, we sat around and chatted, read, drank some hot buttered rum and other fancy holiday drinks, and watched a little of It's A Wonderful Life. It was snowing pretty heavily - which was just what I wished for! - but that didn't stop Bill from suggesting we go cruise around on Cheri Lake on the four wheelers. Garrett, Bill, and I got all bundled up and rode the short distance down the road to the shore by a neighbor's house. Bill was in front and he drove right onto the lake! Normally I would've panicked but after our adventure the night before, I felt completely safe. I was on the back of Garrett's and we zoomed around, doing "cookies" and sliding in the snow. It was fun but super cold! The snow was really wet and the wind was freezing. I hopped of so Garrett could be a boy without his wussy wife shrieking in his ear to stop or slow down 90% of the time. We brought the dogs - Hooch and Remy - and they were having the time of their lives chasing the four wheelers and each other on the lake. Last time we brought Remy to this lake when it had first iced over and was completely transparent, she was not impressed and did anything to get back to the safety of the shore. She knew it wasn't normal! But this time, since there was a good four inches of snow on top of the ice, she had no idea and ran around like a crazy wolf dog. Walking on the snowy icy lake was pretty cool. It would've been awesome to hook up a tube behind the four wheeler, too!
We played dice and card games that night until pretty late. In fact, we ended up doing that every night until we left on Sunday because it was so fun! We played Liar's Dice (a game Garrett and I learned this summer at our friend's family's lake cabin), Gin Rummy, and BS.
The rest of the days of our long weekend consisted of sleeping in (it's so dark!), lounging, reading, eating, long walks outside, and chatting. It was nice and relaxing. I got to talk with my parents and grandparents on Christmas Day despite the bad cell service I have at their house. It was odd not being with my family on Christmas and partaking in our structured traditions (this was the first year EVER that I wasn't with them) but it was somehow ok. Change is good.
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