"Frosty the Snowman
is a fairytale they say
He was made of snowbut the children know
how he came to life one day."
-Frosty the Snowman
Christmas is coming to an end, and I feel like I wont be blogging much while I am in LA, so here goes.
Monday my brother and I went shopping and we had a nice time. I really haven't seen him enough since I moved out, and I want to stay an important part of his life and all that older-sisterly stuff. So anyway, we ate lunch at Red Robin and shopped for our parents gifts and he helped me pick some things out for Luke. :)
Monday night and Tuesday I had an epic Heroes-catchup day with my housemate Justin. We were behind by 5 episodes, and we watched all of them over the course of those two days. I also spent a good portion of Tuesday helping Luke and our other friend Alex Hinksman with a Christmas song that they kind of sprung on me - but, honestly, they wouldn't be some of my favorite people to make music with if we DIDN'T frantically work on things last minute over email, so I had fun writing lyrics for them and stuff.
Wednesday I went to work, and then (with my bags packed and ready for LA) I went to my parents' house, where I have been ever since. We've done a lot of really nice family things. This is probably the longest I have stayed here since I left. I watched some Firefly with my dad (he made fun of my new hat Nick bought me - it looks like Jayne's hat and he said I look like an idiot when I wear it. Firefly reference. He likes the hat xD). We made two big awesome meals for Christmas Eve and Christmas day (I tried Cornish Game Hen for the first time - it was hard for me to get past them just looking like baby chickens though) and we opened presents on Christmas Eve.
Okay, I feel like I have the only family in the world that does this, so I am going to explain how we do Christmas and ask all of you if anyone else did it this way, or if we're just weird. Because I know MOST people leave out milk and cookies and Santa comes in the night and when you wake up, there are your presents, waiting for you. And you open them in the morning. Like pretty much every Christmas movie out there tells you to.
MY family, however, opens our presents on Christmas Eve. We eat dinner, and then after dinner, we go into the living room with the tree and we start opening the presents, which have been sitting there all along. Except the main present, which Santa brings. And by "Santa", I mean, my parents literally had someone (usually a family friend or relative) dress up in our Santa suit (which I have only recently been shown, out in a box in the garage) and come over to our house. Sometimes he would bring a little bell to ring, and he'd always ask my brother and I if we'd been good that year, and he would never give me my present unless I sang him a Christmas song. Usually Frosty the Snowman. Or Rudolph.
And I'm going to admit to you something right now that I never told my parents - before the years when I recognized Santa as my cousin Korrie or our family friend Pete - Santa SCARED me. I sang him that Christmas song out of fear. Because when I was little, I thought I was meeting the REAL Santa, and that's a lot of pressure. I mean, what if he didn't like my songs? What if I forgot the words? And then after a certain age, when the dressed-up Santa was more for my brother and less for me (since I was a big girl and found out he wasn't real) -- THEN there was just a strange man in our house (this being the years my Dad got a coworker I didn't know to do it) and THAT was scary too. I couldn't even fully enjoy getting my presents because I was so concerned with figuring out who the Santa impostor WAS. I didn't want to sit on some person's lap and sing for my presents. Nick never had to sing.
I mean, yeah, the fake-Santa was always giving me a Tattoodles doll or a plastic art studio desk or an Easy Bake Oven, but he also was wearing a false beard and a hat and talked in a loud booming voice and demanded I sing when all I wanted to do was finish opening my presents.
So there you have it. I was scared of the jolly man in the red suit who'd been hired by my parents to force me to sing songs in exchange for gifts.
Well, then there was the year my DAD dressed up as Santa. That's when my parents just got lazy. That was probably the year Nick stopped buying it too.
Now I am almost 22 and Nick is pushing 17, and we don't hire a Santa anymore. My dad still signs some of my presents "To Tina, From Santa", but we all know the truth. Santa is our neighbor, my uncle, a coworker, my dad, each other, etc. Not to be cheesy, but Santa is that part in all of us that loves seeing the faces of our friends and family light up when they open our gifts. I think it was a good tradition, even though Santa scared the crap out of me. I had to EARN my Christmas presents. Maybe that's why I became a singer. I had to, for fear of Santa Claus.
I wonder if I will need to hire people to play Santa for my kids someday. Maybe I need to instill in them some good old fashioned Christmas anxiety. Or is this just a super weird tradition that should be left in the past? xD
In other news, my Mom was showing me old pictures the other day, and I found proof that I actually WAS Sporty Spice. Check out that track suit. Check out those SHOES.
Anyway, this has been a nice Christmas. I went to church with my family today, which I honestly probably haven't done since LAST Christmas, and tonight we saw "A Christmas Carol" together in 3D. Tomorrow we're going out for breakfast, and then it's off to California for me. :)
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Right, the point of the blog entry: Does ANYBODY else celebrate Christmas like we do?
