CHRISTMAS! and thanksgiving

It's almost Christmas (I know thanksgiving comes first)! I love the Christmas music and listening to Delila on the radio. I know she is super cheesy, but I just love all the people that get together and let go of grudges to celebrate for just one day (or week really, we have to include New Years too). One of my favorite things to do this time of year is spend as much time as a I can with my sister. I know that everyone thinks we hate each other (its all a fisade...), but we do like to spend time together and go see the latest Christmas movie phenomena. Our favorite will forever be the Santa Claus (you know the one with Tim Allen and Bernard the head elf that my favorite nephew... the bunny... was so rightly named after). And of course I cannot forget the family calender, complete with the threatening emails from my grandpa saying that if our family page is not done by thanksgiving we can expect to be ejected from this loved (and new) family tradition. We must not leave out the family gatherings complete with all the little kids running around reminding us of the true meaning of Christmas... getting the right present!!!!!! Just kidding, having the entire family together will be nice (this year is the BIG year). It may be one of the last times before our family gets so big that they break off starting their own traditions. On that note, who is it that decides when it is time to break off from the extended family into your own little extended families? On the Tippetts side of the family they did this when Grandpa died... but the Parker side hasn't yet reached this milestone, and I am unsure how it will be handled. Because the family is getting so BIG, I can't imagine that it will be much longer before the breaking off has to take place, with all my cousins getting married (including those younger than I, they make me feel like an eternal spinster) and having handfuls of children, we will eventually run out of room and the cousins will want to spend these precious moments with their children and not their extended cousin's handful of children. But until this takes place, I must treasure the time that we have with the entire family gathered around the 5 tables it now takes to accommodate us all. I guess, it is appropriate now to say that our entire family will not be around this year. The cousins from Cali will be absent, although we do miss them every year.

Now it is time to discuss the best part of the Christmas season... and the main reason why I love this time of the year is that (after finals) I get a break from school!!!!!!!! It is a much needed break after one particular professor (he is Hutton for those who may feel the need to attend the U and take his very intriguing philosophy course) decided to, figuratively, take my brain and stomp on it a few times. The sad part is that I signed up for another beating next semester, I guess I have a need to cause my self severe mental pain... I think this is a habit that will not subside until after at least the 3rd year of law school or maybe even the day after I turn in that future dissertation. But none the less, I LOVE Christmas because it means finals are over and my brain has a few weeks to recover from the beating it took to make it through finals. And for this reason, I love Christmas more than Thanksgiving. For those of you who are attending college or have attended college... you know that Thanksgiving is the small break before finals... good luck if you make it through without even cracking a book or logging onto the online course you are taking. But Christmas... Christmas means no homework and much needed "light" time with the family. (for those of you who are wondering what I mean by light... I mean the time without the dramas of being in a large family... for those of you in a large family, you know exactly what I mean).

I know this has turned into a novel that I did not intend it to be... but alas I need to get out my utter excitement for this time of the year!!! And I would like to add a congrats to my cute cousin Nick!