Catch Up

I know I haven't really written anything lately, but I promise to get some info up on The Gangs of St. Louis. I haven't had any time to sit and gather my info. I guess I could update you on the rest of my life, although it's been pretty boring without J. Over the weekend, I just cleaned, shopped and put Christmas decorations up outside. See? Told ya, nothing special.

Yesterday, I got my birthday gifts from my brother because this is the first time he's been in town since my birthday. I have some weird fetish about Trivia. I love it, I can't control myself. So, since I already have all of the other Trivial Pursuit games, my brother got me Trivial Pursuit - Totally 80's Edition which I canNOT wait to play. I think my brother should play with me at Christmas. Anyway, he also got me a tool kit (since J takes all of his tools with him on tour, I am left without a hammer, screwdrivers, or anything else I might need). I love this tool kit. It has everything - I was too excited. So I just went through everything last night like a little kid on Christmas morning.

Oh, Sunday night, mom and I put up the Christmas decorations outside. While we were digging through the Christmas stuff in my basement, we found some old ornaments from when I was a kid. Again, I was giddy with excitement after finding these ornaments. You see, my mom has a theme Christmas Tree (all glass, Old World or Christopher Radko ornaments) and I have a theme Christmas Tree (all red, white or silver ornaments), so we haven't used these old ornaments in at LEAST 10 years. I found a Strawberry Shortcake (I loved Strawberry Shortcake as a kid) , a Best Friends ornament (with Christine & Mikala written on it - we grew up together), some ballet slippers of mine and some of those old reindeer that we made out of clothespins (this is a picture of them just so you know what I'm talking about - these aren't ours though, these are off the internet). I used to take forever to put the Christmas Tree up when I was a kid, because I wanted to sit and go through each ornament before we put them on the tree. I loved all of the ornaments, still do. Man, I miss Christmas as a kid!

As a kid, my brother and I took turns each year waking each other up on Christmas morning. See, we usually celebrated Christmas Eve early into the morning of Christmas Day. We'd start out at my aunt and uncle's house or at my grandma's (my mom's brother or her mom). We'd stay there until about 10:30 pm. Then, we'd head over to my other grandma's house (my dad's mom). We'd either hang out there or head over to Midnight Mass since my dad's family were devout Catholics (okay, I'll tell the truth, I never went to Midnight Mas - except for maybe when I was real young). I guess we usually got home around 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning (maybe earlier). My parents always wrapped presents on Christmas Eve (that way it seemed like Santa came while we were asleep), so my parents would often be up until 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning wrapping or putting together gifts . My mom often comments that the worst was when they had to put together my Barbie Dream House because it had all the little pieces for the refrigerator like little eggs, milk, etc. Anyway, my parents would go to bed and get about 1/2 an hour of sleep before us kids woke them up. It's funny, my brother who is 6 1/2 years older than I am, would often wake me up. Then, it was always my job to wake my parents. After waking them, we'd run into the living room and start ripping open our gifts! Those mornings were the best mornings of my life (so superficial huh?). I'd open a few and then I'd stop to watch my brother open a few just to see what kind of stuff he got. Then, after everything was said and done, I'd get on the phone to my best friend, Christine. We'd talk about what each other got and then we'd go to each other's houses. In the afternoon, my mom's family would come over to our house - we'd eat ham, talk, show our presents to our cousins, see some of their presents and just hang out. By the time evening rolled around, I was so tired I would crash in the living room. I can almost smell the cinnamon candles and the food now. Man, I miss those days.

Geez, how'd I get off on that tangent? Oh yeah, with the ornaments. Sorry guys...I should go for now...