25 December 2002

25 December 2002

Merry Christmas!

My mom had just got back from putting the turkey in the oven down at my grandma’s house and told us we could come out to eat breakfast before we opened our gifts when the phone rings. My dad was the first to the phone answers it and then says it is for me. I can’t for the life of me figure out who would be calling me at 7 am on Christmas morning, and all of a sudden I think Justin decided to call just to make my day miserable. I get to the phone not looking forward to it all. I say hello and hear the sweetest voice answer me. I can’t believe it is him. He thinks I don’t know who he is, as soon as I heard him say hello I knew, but I couldn’t make myself believe, I had to be dreaming, he isn’t allowed to call me, but he did. It was the most wonderful Christmas gift.

It has been almost a year since I was able to talk to Nathan on the phone. I was so shocked I really couldn’t find the words to say anything meaningful to him. I asked if he had called his grandparents already and if they were okay and if he was going to get in trouble. Then we talked about how we always feel like we have so much to say to each other but when we get the chance we get so excited just hearing each other’s voice that we forget everything. We didn’t talk for very long because it is so expensive to call the states from Mexico it was just great to hear his voice.

Once I got off the phone, I had to tell everyone that it was Nathan and that he says hi, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year all that great stuff and then we ate breakfast and opened gifts. I got a new cordless phone with caller id, a pair of jeans from Old Navy, a purse from Old Navy, the Amy Brown 2003 Faeries calendar and a bunch of other small things.

After all our gifts were opened my dad grabs something off the Christmas Tree (which was a real one for the first time in ages) and hands it to my mom. They had celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary back in July and my dad wasn’t able to get her a gift then. My mom opens this little Christmas tree ornament ring box and sees one of those 3 stone anniversary rings. It is absolutely beautiful, ½ Karat diamond set in white gold. The ring box had been hanging on the tree opened when Jennifer passed out the gifts she never saw it.

We got the living room cleaned up and got ready to head down to my grandma’s for Christmas dinner with the family. I got to make the gravy I think that is what I made last Christmas too. Not like I really did much I just stood in front of the stove and stirred. Dinner was great, I was glad we had a ham this year to go with the turkey. I love my mom’s ham.

After dinner we had the little gift exchange with the family. I was so disappointed, not by anything that I got but with my cousin Jacob. All I heard at after Thanksgiving last year was how much he was changing his life around and how great a kid he was turning out to be. He must have put the train in reverse or something because he was terrible. He wasn’t even going to come for dinner but his sister talked him into coming up for a little while before he went to his other grandma’s. Because my mom never knew whether or not he would be there she didn’t buy him a gift. She knows it is about the giving not the receiving, but she thinks it is pointless to give when she doesn’t even get a thank you. So she decided that if he did show up she would do a gift certificate from Lander Marine for him.

Both of his sisters took off before we were ready to do the gift exchange but he had to stick around because Aunt Roz always gives the best gifts. I was sitting next to him when he opened the envelope with the gift certificate in it and he says, “Well maybe I can buy a racing glove.” No thank you, no nothing-just disappointment because it was only worth $20. I for sure didn’t see what everyone saw in him last year. The day that we went down to Cyndi’s house to visit when he came out of his room he asked where the presents were, when we said we didn’t have any he went back to his room. I’m not seeing any great changes in that kid this year. He was the same kid he was when I saw him 2 years ago.

As soon as the gifts were all opened he had his mom take him to his grandma’s and that was the last I saw of him this trip home.

After everyone left our family worked on the clean up for a couple hours, loaded up our car ran home really quick unloaded our car and ran over to Riverton to go to the movie. I’m glad we left when we did. The line was already forming. We dropped mom and Jennifer off at the doors and I went with dad to find a parking spot. It has become a tradition to go to the movie Christmas night and just because Jerimiah was in Louisiana with his girlfriend didn’t mean we were going to break tradition. Usually there is almost no one at the movie Christmas night, but spending time with family wasn’t going to keep people from seeing The Two Towers. One of my friends from school at CWC and his brother ended up sitting behind us. I never would have know he was there I was so busy watching the ads and trying not to fall asleep, but my dad’s elbow has been bothering him and Brian M. thought that he had kicked the back of dad’s seat and hurt him or something. I heard his voice and knew exactly who was sitting behind us. I turned around and said hello and he said he was wondering when I was going to turn around and say hi. I kind of wondered why did didn’t just say hi to me but oh well. I joked about being stuck up now that I was living in North Dakota. And the lady sitting next to him had to ask which part. So my family, Brain, his brother and the lady next to Brian spent the rest of our hour-long wait for the movie chatting. It was great fun.

In the car on the way back to Lander after the movie all my mom could talk about was how funny Brian was. My mom is so silly sometimes.

All things considered I had a great Christmas. That was probably one of the best nights to be had while we were at home.