Home

People say you can't go home again and they are very thankful for that.  I am not one of those people.  I also don't have a very "normal" home that I go home too...  Most people don't have the types of family get togethers that my family does (and probably couldn't handle the weirdness of my family) and that's okay.  They have their families and I have mine and I am very thankful for the one I do have.

This past week was Christmas and when some people think of Christmas, a classical Normal Rockwell painting or a classic Christmas special may describe their family.  Neither one of those could describe my family - mine could almost best be described with the movie National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (although there was no S.W.A.T. team or cat being electrocuted).  Christmas morning consisted of my parents and I running around making sure things were in the oven that needed to be, things were in the cooler, cookies were arranged, bowls filled with chips, dishes washed to make room for new ones in the sink or because all of the spatulas were in the soapy water and one was needed; all while trying to keep the dog from eating things, each trying to get a shower and get dressed before everyone else was supposed to arrive by one pm.  Now I don't know about your family gatherings but for mine, when we say one pm, my parents and I were already here and knew that the first group would arrive between 1:15-1:30, the next between 1:30-1:45 and the last by 2 pm (this is pretty much what happened).

Now my family when we say "everyone," it includes my parents, my older sister (and her new husband and her 8 year old boy and 3.5 year old boy), me, my brother (and his girlfriend) and my youngest brother (and his wife and their 3.5 year old boy) and the dog.  When everyone arrived, we had to all eat, find food that the three little boys would eat (while telling them yes, they had to eat and no, they couldn't just dive into the presents under the tree), keep the dog from helping himself to food off the table or anyone's plates when they weren't looking.

After everyone ate, a "normal" family would peacefully gather in the living room and calmly open gifts - or I'm at least assuming that's what occurs since that's not what happens in my family...  We gathered in the living room and my brothers and parents started to juggle because mom found some great juggling balls while she was Christmas shopping and then one of the 3.5 year old boys decided to juggle too by throwing stuffed snowballs in the air which then resulted in my siblings and I having a snowball fight in the living room (the youngest turned 30 this past year).  When we were having trouble breathing from laughing, the snowballs were cleaned up and the juggling balls were put away (one is still lost...) and mom decided that she wanted a photo of her kids in front of the Christmas tree - one of those posed photos of the kids sitting in front of the tree (once again, the youngest is 30 and is subsequently the one who is 6 foot 5 inches and ended up in my lap and me leaning on my older sister who is 5 foot 3 inches and pregnant and the other brother behind all of us and he's leaning against the couch).  The photos are hilarious but those make for some of the best memories.

Since the little boys could hardly stand it anymore, we let them become mini tornadoes as they tore into their gifts.  After the wrapping paper storm subsided, they began to entertain themselves as the adults began the first annual white elephant gift exchange.  We had agreed on the predetermined amount of $13.64 and then found out the rest of how the exchange was going to work.  Mom had sent out a message that morning with instructions of when we got there, we were to take a sticky note with a number on it (she had them pre-written out 2-12), place it on our gift and put it in a box.  We then took turns rolling a pair of dice to tell us what gift to take (as we were rolling, we had the opportunity to "steal" if we rolled the same number of a gift already selected or roll again - neadless to say, some sibling rivalry and cutthroat-ness ensued).  After everyone had a gift (this took some time because of the cutthroat-ness), we then had to draw what could only be described as sinister fortune cookie slips telling us who to trade gifts with.  Some of the trades included: "trade with a boy," "trade with someone who is left handed" (me), "trade for one with a bow," "trade with someone on Santa's naughy list" (also me), etc.  We then got to open the gifts - some of the things included; a battery operated salt/pepper grinder; a gigantic flask; lottery tickets; a selfie stick; a "things to ponder in the bathroom" book; etc.  We have decided this tradition will continue.  Like I said, my family is weird...

Many other things took place that day that I'm not going to put on here (mostly because it's late and I've already had to write all of this twice because my iPad decided to delete my first post as I was finishing it so this is take two).

On Saturday, I spent the afternoon catching up with a childhood friend and then on Sunday, one of my brothers came over and he, my parents and I had a Wii tournament (more cutthroat-ness ensued).  After he left, my parents and I had a nice long talk in the living room.  We talked about a lot of different things including some of the things I've been dealing with at work and in life in general.  I'm not writing about this just because they read my blog (which they do) but because even though I'm sure they felt like they were just lecturing, I really was listening and taking it all in (and even was trying, at points, to not get overly emotional because who wants to be the 35 year old having a melt down in their parent's living room?).

After our talk, I have already make one of my resolutions for 2016 - that is to be more kind; to others and to myself.  Being kind to myself includes: not beating myself up for mistakes (realize they are mistakes and not catastrophes and I can learn from/move on from them; know things don't have to be perfect (and that includes my apartment and things I see when I look in the mirror); cutting myself slack and realizing that even I need to take breaks and "me" days (I'm not a super hero no matter if I want to be one or not).

Well, my dear readers, I am going to bring this to a close (for the second time) for this evening and want to leave you with a big thank you (even if just my parents and my grandma are the ones reading) for joining me along my quest and where ever that may lead.  And thank you for letting me come home again (even though we are really weird).  =)