The Christmas Bustle

Justin, performing the sacred Christmas Tree Dance

Christmas is a time where friends and families come together, most of the time whether you want to or not. For the record, we want to, we really want to (in case any of the families are reading). It also means that Justin and I have a lot of people to get together with and meet. Our first foray into the holiday zeal will be the 18th for a family white elephant with Justin's mother's side of the family. We haven't figured out what either of our white elephants are going to be but we have to stay under twenty dollars each. The celebration was scheduled for the 17th but Justin and I have the terrible habit of planning multiple things on the same day. That day, Justin is scheduled to be the groomsman in the wedding of long time friend, Ryan Walla. The sad thing is we didn't realize that we had scheduled Christmas with his family on the same day. His mother was the one to tell us. This is not an unusual circumstance. Justin planned the bachelor party the same night as a birthday party engagement. We had George Carlan tickets and work the same day as his cousin's wedding (although to our defense George Carlan tickets did come before the wedding announcement and we thought the wedding was in October not September, so we didn't get out of work on time... we wouldn't miss a wedding for George Carlan... really). As punishment for not going to the wedding, George Carlan didn't come into town out of fear of Hurricane Rita and we missed Jason, the groom, strip dance.

This was the second cancellation in George Carlan’s trip. We have been waiting a year to see him; it was rescheduled for the 30th of December (another date we double scheduled stuff on). Justin got the tickets last Christmas. Oh, Justin would like to point out that we didn't get a drop of rain from the Hurricane and Coldplay came which makes them tougher than Carlan... Coldplay! So, his family moved the date to the next day, which is a good thing since I don't think Ryan would move his wedding.



Our next holiday meeting will be on the 21st. This is a party for Justin's store, Amy’s Ice creams, at our house, also a white elephant except this one is under five dollars. Thank God, our pockets are stretched and about to break. The planning for this party involved Taylor saying “If they get drunk and act like jerks I am kicking them out” and “No, it will not be a kegger. Our neighbors like us right now”. Note: the last kegger we had did lose us the affections of a neighbor and did get the cops called on us (unjustly, I might add and the party was broken up before the cops got there, ha). You might be thinking, “Prudey Taylor. What a party pooper. Why can’t they get drunk? Why can’t the have a kegger?” I don’t mind the alcohol or drinking or a good time. What I don’t like is drunken, puking idiots (because alcohol does that to you) ruining the house we own and making my neighbors hate us. If this was an apartment, I wouldn’t mind as much because we don’t own it (except the last party was in an apartment. So, really I mind all over). Justin would like to add that he does not condone drunken idiots ruining property and neighborly relations either.

The next holiday adventure is with Justin's family again, except this one is an immediate family celebration. It will be just us, his brother, mom and dad. It will be the 24th. I am glad that we are doing something small like that with his family. I really love all of them. Justin and I have the majority of our Christmas shopping done and I can’t wait to give them their gifts. Justin had a good idea for his Dad who is insanely hard to shop for. We lost brain cells in the effort of trying to figure out what to get him. His mother is coming up on Saturday to go shopping with him, which I think is so cute.

The 25th we are meeting with my immediate family. This is a tradition with my family, where we get up at the crack of dawn, drive over to their house to meet my wide awake alert brother. We drag Mom and Bob out of bed and groggily revel in present opening. Might sound kind of greedy but it is a lot of fun. Then Bob makes breakfast and everyone is happy. Bob is another insanely hard person to shop for. My father is really hard to shop for too. I think it’s a weird guy thing. I hate generalizing but with my family it fits. After that, the same day, we are possibly meeting with my Aunt, Uncle and cousin (they are the only members of my extended family that live in Texas). My Dad is over seas right not in Qatar. He won’t be getting his gifts until after Christmas (it takes that long to ship apparently) but I am sending him a picture of them in an email the day off for him to open as if it were a present.

We were supposed to go to another extended family Christmas with Justin's father's side of the family on the 30th. There are several reasons we won't be making this trip. To begin with, they live 5 1/2 hours away. That is an 11 hour drive in one day and it has to be one day because of the dogs and a cat we have made dependant on us for survival. We make this trip once and year because it takes an entire year to forget how painful it is to be crunched in my Honda civic hatchback for 11 hours and this year the trip was Thanksgiving. We got there, ate some amazing food, chatted a bit and left three hours later to get back into my car, which I hated by the end of this trip. Justin probably hated it more because he drove the entire way. At the end of the meal his grandmother began to plan Christmas and asked everyone when they would be able to come. Can you imagine the pressure of that? Justin and I made immediate eye contact of fear, knowing that grandmothers everywhere have the amazing ability to make you do something you really don't want to do. It's not that we didn't want to go. If we had a magic machine that made us appear in a matter of seconds, then yeah we would be there immediately, but unfortunately they haven't made this machine yet. And our trip for the year was Thanksgiving. Christmas is not a year away. That is not nearly enough time to forget the car (insert horror music). We wiggled out of that one but will face the same predicament next year. They are good people and it is wonderful food but until magical transportation machines work...

I have done Justin's extended family experience many times over compared to his interactions with my extended family. There is nothing like the boyfriend/girlfriend extended family experiences. I think Justin is genuinely missing out here. Not to discount the warmth or welcome of Justin's family or mine. It is just odd going to an event that involves a cliche or group and not being one of them. My family doesn’t live in the state which is why he has only met them once. But it is only a matter of time.

Our Christmas lights on our trees in the front yard.