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Merry Christmas!!

I hope you had a good few days off with your family and friends. My Christmas celebration was spread over three days, the first being at home in San Diego with my mom, aunt, and her goddaughter.

I usually do the Christmas decorating, but since I didn’t come home until last Monday my mother decorated the entire house….so I wasn’t able to stop her from putting this golden floral explosion on top of the tree that as you can see from the picture, she thinks is majestic or aesthetically pleasing or something…

Christmas day is usually spent at my aunt’s house in Temecula, but my newly graduated cousin is now a counselor at a group home and had to work Christmas Day, so we decided to have the normal family celebration on the 26th.

The day after Christmas I drove up to Temecula, where we had dinner, and then went outside to see “the show.” My aunt’s next-door-neighbor spends all year building attractions for his house for Halloween and Christmas. It gets more huge every year, this time including a video presentation and Disney characters (which were his reluctant kids):

L-R: Mickey, my cousin Courtney, Minney, my cousin Tiffany, myself, & a shy Santa…I asked Santa if he was getting paid and he shook his head “no.”

I suppose there always has to be at least one family fight, this time because one of my little cousins thought he was too mature to take a picture with Mickey…the truth was that he had no choice in the matter…

After the photo ops, half the neighborhood came over and we cracked open some wine and spent 45 minutes trying to figure out how to sing the “12 Days of Christmas” until someone thought to Google it.

My cousins got a Wii for Christmas, so we wrapped up the night with a tipsy old folks (including the grandmas) vs. kids tennis match.

That was the point in the night where I sprained both of my arms. We’re a hardcore competitive family that once upon a time made a family friend’s boyfriend cry during a game of Taboo. (That game has been banned from all family functions since ‘95.)

And yes, my arms still hurt.

Pax Christi, Rebecca.