I was so unbelievably relieved to be done with the holidays. Since I planned activities for every day last week, I spent every one of those days dealing with my anxiety and stomach problems. I also ate pretty poorly because my anxiety makes me lose my appetite. All of this culminated in a rough couple of days this weekend as my poor stomach recovered from all the medicine and fatty food I put in it all week.
Despite all this, I'm still going through my typical Christmas-is-over mini depression. Everything pretty much goes into warp speed during the last week before Christmas, and it didn't help that this year I wanted to push through each day to stop the anxiety. I would tell myself every day that I just needed to make it to tomorrow. With that mindset, weeks could fly by in a matter of minutes.
As I mentioned last week, Christmas Eve was pretty much uneventful, as it usually is. We celebrate with my mom's side of the family, which is comprised of a total of nine people (well, technically it's thirteen, but my uncle and his family rarely attend). Usually the day is spent sitting around and talking, with the main activity being the clean-up after dinner and the serving of dessert from Judicke's Bakery.
Christmas Day is the more exciting counterpart to Christmas Eve. My dad's side of the family is a little more exciting, dramatic, and all-around more fun. Plus, we still exchange gifts on this side of the family which is always a good time. After everyone arrived and got settled, we started handing out gifts to the "kids" (in quotes because, well, the youngest is fifteen and the oldest is twenty-four).
We girls are always put in charge of, well, everything.
We're good at being Santa's helpers.
Matching Victoria's Secret PINK shirts, from my aunt!
The "kids," for your own personal reference.
My cousin and I went out earlier last week to buy dresses from Forever 21 and we both unknowingly wore little black jackets over them. We rocked those dresses like no other two people could.
It's funny that we both wore sweaters. She's covering up her cleavage while I'm covering up the fact that I don't have enough cleavage to keep my dress up. Still, I LOVE our dresses.
When Christmas Day is held at my aunt's house, her husband's family also attends. Add to that my aunt's friend and her family and you get a total of eighteen people. It was pretty insane fitting everyone into the dining and living room. Even though the seating was chosen completely randomly, we all joked about where we sat. I was at what one would deem the kiddie table, since it was the three-person square card table. My cousins at the main dining room table told me they'd put in a good word so that maybe next year, I could move my way up the ranks.
Trying to get a view of all three tables.
After dinner, the activity of choice was Rock Band, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Even Aunt Sandy let her inner drummer loose.
From front to back: Brian (family friend), Dan (brother), and John (cousin). And in the background there is Lynds and Aunt Kimmy.
That's Aunt Sandy in the middle. This is topped only by the year we got my other aunt to play DDR.
Overall I had a wonderful two days and received a bunch of lovely gifts (which I'll probably blog about in the next day or two). The idea that it's all over already makes me unhappy, but I'll soon be distracting myself with picking and outfit for New Year's Eve and making all the plans for my birthday. Yay, distractions!
