Christmas

Well my time in the midwest has been nice. Mom and I went shopping almost everyday before Christmas (well not really but it felt like it). My sister and her family came over Christmas Eve to have lunch and open presents. My neice liked the scarf I made for her. I ended up undoing all of it (2 small yarn bunches worth) a week before so I could make it thinner. It was too wide for an almost 9 year old. But I do wish I had made it longer, but oh well. she said that with the yarn I have left I can make her a hat.
Christmas day we went to my grandparents' house. All of our extended family was there including my grandpa's brother and his wife. In all I think we had 23 people there! That's the most we've had in a long time. And my grandparents' house isn't very big. There was even a table set up in the living room; that was the first time in all my life I was allowed to eat in my grandmother's living room. :)
After we all open our presents we have a wrapping paper fight. It's a lot of fun.
Being around all of them got me to thinking about some things. My grandma mentioned how thankful we all should be. My cousin got in a pretty bad car wreck a few months ago. (i think it was during the summer) he hurt his back pretty badly, a lot of ribs, his thumb, and some other bones were broken. From the looks of him yesterday he has recovered pretty well. Something funny he said was how when he got thrown from the car, his shoes came off, his wallet came out of his pocket as well as his cell phone, but he was still holding his cigarette. He cracked up about that but did add that he got rid of it right away. how crazy is that?
My other cousin had her little boy, her live-in boyfriend, and his daughter were there. I could definitely tell the daughter feels very left out of the family. My cousin doesn't seem to treat her very well. . .and her dad although he has gotten better definitely likes paying more attention to his son. I watched her throughout the day and she definitely looked sad. I don't think she has any contact with her mom at all. I only see her once a year maybe so it's hard to feel like I know her at all. Plus she's only like 11; I don't do well with 11 year olds.
My family does have a lot to be thankful for really. To the point that thinking of some of my friends' families really makes my heart just ache. Well it makes my heart ache anyway. I have a few that have really faced some challenging things over the past year or so. I try to pray but the words seem so hollow and I've never been good at the encouraging bit. I hope they all know that I am always thinking of them anyway and know my heart goes out to them.
OH! and now I know how to quote stuff and creat a link! All of the little buttons at the stop of when you type an entry don't show up on my computer when I use safari (the mac web browser). I'm using my brother's computer and all this new stuff just pops up! ha!