Week 4

I have lived in the same spo for the last 20 years now. Well, every year about this time I get as my c-workers would say "giddy". This is the time of year that people show different sides of themselves. They are giving, caring emotional (in a good way), and happy. I love the season of Christmas.

I come from a big family. There are five in my household, one of them is me. My mom has a medium sized family and my dad comes from a big family. He alone has 6 brothers, a step-brother, and a step-sister. Anyway, every year we have family holiday traditions. We go to my moms parents for Christmas Eve. We have dinner and once the table is cleared and the dishes are in the dishwasher we all sit in the livering and get ready to open presents. We pass the all out and get one from my parents which takes about an hour and a half. Once that is done its getting late and we pack up and head home.

We get up early except for me. I sleep to the last possible second that I can. Once I'm up we eat breakfast, then we open presents, and finally we change for the day. This process takes about 4 hours. We get in the car and head to my dad's parents place. There is a buffet style of food laid out for us to pick from. Once everyone shows up we open presents. Once that is done with and things are picked up we head home. When we get home we all spend the rest of the day putting away presents.

This past Christmas however was different. My parents and siblings are off to North Carolina to spend the holidays with my aunt and uncle. My best friends mom, step-dad, and siblings were off to Portland to celebrate the holidays with thier family. So we were going to spend the holiday together at her house. They would be gone from Christmas Eve til sometime after New Year's Eve.

So Noelle and I grabbed food from the store, movies from the movie place, and dessert from the bakery. We drove home and put away the items. We grabbed a bite to eat and sat in the family room and popped in a movie. We got half way into it when she says "You know what we should do tomorrow"? I'm like what. "We should have the guys come here instead of going to the resturant. I'm like sure, why not.

Chrismas Eve was spent just her and I watching movies, chatting up a storm, and decorating the tree. We wrapped presents in our seprate rooms when we went to bed. Now it is Christmas Day and dinner is cooking and presents under the tree. Once the guys arrived at 6pm we have dinner (meatloaf and mashed potatoes). We ate, drank, and talked. Once the meal was over the guys did the dishes and Noelle and I fixed dessert. We took dessert into the livingroom. When we were finished we opened presents.

Noelle gave me mine and I gave her to her. I got a pair of flips-flops, a new wallet, and a locket. She got a Viking's football shirt, some make-up, and a locket. The lockets were the same ones and they each had pictures in them. Mine had my mom and her mom in it. Because they are both my moms even though her mom is not my biological one. I put her mom and her grandmother in hers. Her grandmother passed away when she was 10.

The guys wanted to give us our gifts in private. Brandon took me into the room off the kitchen. He gave me a dozen roses that had a card with them. I turned around and put the flowers on the counter and read the card that says "Turn Around :)". I do as the card says and there was Brandon kneeling on one knee with a ring box in his hand. He says "Will you marry me?" I say yes an hug and kiss him. I then go find Noelle and when I do I say "I'm getting married", but all I could here was the same thing come out of her mouth as well. We look at the guys and they tell us they planned it this way all along.

Christmas was deffinetly different but for what it's worth the Christmas season is about: EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED!!

Life is full of surprises.....