Christmas 2006

Things about Christmas 2006 I would like to forget:

• Waking up on 12/22 and throwing up from taking too much cough medicine
• Going to work anyway and throwing up at work
• Having to ask my dad to drive down to pick up my grandparents and myself
• Taking Etta out 4 times during that night to have soup ass
• Getting incredibly frustrated because my mother made a few, non-fatal mistakes in the grocery shopping
• Getting frustrated and snapping at my grandmother on Christmas Eve at lunch
• Waking up Christmas morning with no power
  
• Pop-aw's "episode" on Christmas night
• Getting a call from my dad that Etta was throwing up blood
• Getting up 3 times with Etta on 12/26 to have soup ass

Things about Christmas 2006 I would like to remember:

• Hearing and seeing Will say "Sissy" and knowing he knew it was me
• Having my 85 and 82 year old grandparents present and healthy for yet another
  Christmas
• Cooking with my grandmother and learning yet another secret to her famous dressing
• My sister's exclamations of joy upon biting into the Christmas Eve tenderloin
• Will's OCD and excitement over his new car on Christmas morning
• Will's new ability to give hugs and his impeccable timing in giving me one as I opened my present from him--and seeing how it affected my dad
  
• Carrying out the traditions of Christmas morning for the 31st year of my life

So much of my life has changed since I was a child--different houses in different towns. However, our traditions of Christmas have followed us no matter where we landed. Being able to have that for one more year, being able to watch my grandparents love my nephew and vice versa, being able to watch my parents continue to work on their relationship after 38 years, being able to watch my sister be a mother--these are the things I am thankful for each time we are together.