Today is probably the wrong day to wish you a Merry Christmas considering it’s not Christmas anymore, but I have been busy like no other. I’m normally never this busy, but I’m finally at home and I’ve had time to sleep and contemplate these past few days of mine.
Christmas Eve, for starters, was quite a busy day. I went with my Aunt Marlene to visit her husband’s family’s Christmas party. To be honest, I really did enjoy myself. It’s not my family, but everyone is so welcoming and so loving, it’s almost like they are my family.
They had piñatas, and they had amazing good food! I didn’t expect anything less, they always have good food! From a DJ to a bingo, they sure do know how to throw a cracking party. It made me think a lot about family, in more ways than one. My family – well the ones I always spend Christmas with (my mom’s side) – in contrast: consists of my 2 uncles and their wives, and my 2 aunts and their husbands. We all fit inside of my Aunt Marlene’s house, so in consideration: it’s a pretty small family. My uncle Julian, Marlene’s husband, has 10 siblings – with himself included that’s 11 children! Imagine 11 to start with, then their wives/husbands, and the children! Each couple has no less than 2 each! They had their party outside for that matter, but since they had a tent it wasn’t so cold.
It made me think of myself, and my Uncle Julian’s family kind of inspired me to have a lot of kids. I used to think I would only have 1, 2 max, but seeing how much fun it was to have everyone together, it made it seem like a good thing to have a big family. His family doesn’t spend everyday together, or hang out every single weekend like my mom’s family does, but I think it’s more joyous to not spend every weekend with each other. It makes you cherish those moments more, look forward to those days together, you know? That’s just my opinion though, and I’m not complaining either, I like seeing my family all the time, especially my baby cousin Julian Joseph, but it just made me see the other side of what family is like.
Something to add to that thought, after the Christmas Eve party with my Uncle Julian’s side of the family I went to visit my dad’s side of the family. I saw my cousins Ruben, Edgar, Adrian, and Angel. I got to spend time with them. In a way, I get the best of both worlds, because I have a family that I get to see everyday, but I also have a family that I look forward to spending time with because I don’t get to spend a lot of time with them. They are such good house hosts; I always have a blast when I visit them.
We had a mini light show inside of my cousin’s room. That happens to be a huge thing with the teens now a day, especially the crazy rave kids. It was a pretty good photography experience; I’ve done light art before, but never to that extent. It was amazing, and the shots came out wicked cool. Heh, does anyone ever say wicked now? LOL.
My Aunt Lilia and my Uncle Ruben got to spend time with my mom, and with Julian and Marlene. My Uncle Venancio was there too; he doesn’t talk much, but when he does, it’s always very deep. He reminds me of my dad, which makes me think of him a lot.
My dad, man, I miss him. I would have done anything to spend Christmas with him. I don’t really like talking about him much to anyone, not even my sisters. He’s a very sensitive topic in my list. He currently lives in Mexico with my grandparents. I think the feelings are mutual, he would have wanted to see us too, I haven’t seen him in years, and honestly: I don’t know what I would do when I finally see him. I’d probably cry, hug him, and I wouldn’t want to ever leave. I’m a daddy’s girl, I look him up to him, and there’s no one in the world that I respect more than my father regardless of the mistakes he did in life. Nothing anyone can say about him, or say to my face will ever change my opinion about him. I know that he’s a good man, and I know that he loved us more than anything in the world. I know that he has a heart, and that even though he realized it a bit too late, we mean the world to him: my mother included. Also, I know for a fact that he’s not crazy like everyone says. He’s not depressed, or “need” a psychiatrist, I refuse to believe that. He just needs to hear it from us that we still consider him as family, because he needs his family. I love him, and I wish he knew that.
Christmas Day, secondly, I spent it with my family. As I’m writing this on Word, I’m also looking through the Christmas pictures. It’s cheesy I know, but as I look through the pictures I took, I remember every single emotion I felt that day. It’s a bit weird as well if you think about it, but I’m the kind of person that recalls things as emotions as I look through pictures.
When it comes to family, I wouldn’t trade my family for the world. The Kardashians can offer a million dollars to trade families, but I would never. Or any other family for that matter, I just wouldn’t. My family, and my extended family for that matter, is my life. They have made me who I am today. This Christmas was a memorable one because we blessed my cousin Jennifer with a few words of advice from the heart. My mom’s side of the family is very connected, people see us and wonder why that is, but it’s a blessing to be this close. Even though we sometimes get on each others nerves because we’re only human, we’re always going to be there for each other. Through every mistake, through every downfall, our family is there.
My cousin Jennifer is turning 15 on December 28th, the big 1-5 as my cousin JJ called it, and to be honest, it really is a big deal. I’m turning 17 in a couple of months, but I clearly remember when I turned 15, and everything I was going through at that age. I was still battling with wanting to remain a kid but also wanting to experience the liberties of being a teenager. I wanted to have freedom, but I didn’t want to deal with the responsibilities that came with it, and now that I think of it, it was a bit child-like.
We all did a round table, and each of us told Jennifer something that came from our hearts. Something that I would have liked someone to have told me when I was 15 was to immerse myself in God: completely. That’s something Jennifer doesn’t struggle with though, we’re each our own individuals, and Jennifer is truly blessed to have started from such a young age. She’s pure, and she has an honest heart. She lives a life being guided from the bible; she has parents that have submitted themselves to God as individuals and as a couple. I know she’s going to get far in life, and even though she’s younger than I am, I can honestly say she has taught me a lot and I look to her as an example.
Every year, we do a Secret Santa gift exchange among the family. The kids always pick another kid’s name from the list, and the same with adults. Although to be honest, this year it wasn’t so secretive, a lot of people were asking one another to ask a certain someone what they would like for Christmas. It would make it so obvious, you know?
There were a lot of highlights throughout the Christmas Day now that I think about it. It was Julian Joseph’s first Christmas. Jennifer was turning 15. Ivan was acting childish when he saw that Sandra had gotten a Medieval Times ticket as well as her Secret Santa gift, (Jennifer got a Medieval Times ticket from her Secret Santa), so he easily guessed what he would get once Sandra got hers. (He got a Medieval Times ticket from his Secret Santa if it wasn’t obvious enough). My grandpa actually got really excited about his gift: 2 new books, a shirt and tie, and cologne. Our family friends, The Pineda family, actually spent Christmas with us. The men in our family bonded over thoughts on the bible at the dinner table. My Uncle Sergio would randomly creep into pictures and smile; it was honestly MY favorite memory. It was spontaneous, and I’m looking through the pictures and it’s funny to see him in the background just creeping. Ha ha. It was just a very successful Christmas Day. It was filled with a lot of laughs and joy.
As I’m rereading everything, it’s a super long post, but there’s still so much to cover! I’ve only covered the family part but I still have to cover some of the church stuff that went down.
I already talked about the Youth Christmas Dinner in my “What is a Friend?” post. The Sunday right after that, we had a somewhat “Christmas” related service. The youth’s ministry blessed the children’s ministry with gifts. I think I mentioned this already too, but in the slideshow, I added some pictures as well because I didn’t get to in the last post.
The slideshow consists of all the events I have talked about, from Julian’s family event, to the youth blessing the children’s ministry.
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas yourself, and are preparing your resolutions list for this upcoming year because 2011 is just around the corner.
I’ll be posting more news about my plans for 2011 hopefully before 2011 comes. I’m just a busy bee so we’ll have to see! ~ God Bless ~ xoxo.
