Does it seem like Christmas?

Today as I rode into Anchorage with m dad and Brigid, I totally didn't think that it was Christmas Eve. It just didn't seem like it was almost Christmas time. So throughout the day as we ran last minute errands and watched a movie, I kept on having to remind myself that it was Christmas Eve. Weird I know. It just didn't feel like it because of a lot of different things: not the typical white christmas that I always have pictured in my mind, it is still real hard adjusting to having Brigid and her kids around, our house is not in the usual decorations (which I like how Brigid decorated), none of the usual Christmas goodies, frosted sugar cookies, candy cane cookies (sorry Becca), no holiday puzzle to work on, no opening of a present on Christmas eve.

I know that times have changed since my mom passed away, but there are just certain things that make it Christmas time for me and I miss them. I know dad and Brigid work really hard to make it seem like home and Christmas time, but it just feels like I'm in someone else's house. As Christmas morning is approaching I can only try and remember how our Christmas' used to be. Brigid is going into work tomorrow for a couple of hours so my dad and I are going to wait for her to come home before we open some gifts, then we are going to wait for her 2 kids, Brad and Kim. Just not the norm for the Hackett family.

To change gears a little, I want to tell of what our Christmas traditions and Christmas day used to be like. Well on Christmas Eve the whole family would get to open one present from a non-immediate family member. We would always work on a holiday Thomas Kincaid puzzle (mom would usually be the only working on it and leo would help; I would only do a little cause puzzles frustrate me but I liked to hide a piece so I could finish it). Mom would make special Christmas cookies as mentioned above and I would eat them by the handfuls cause they were sooo good.

On Christmas day, we would get up and open our stockings first, then break for some breakfast then gather back into the living room. Usually a person (me) would be Santa and give one gift to each person and we would open gifts up from youngest to oldest (i always started). We would open up a gift at a time and write down on our own pad of paper what we got and who we got it from so we could write them a thank you letter until we were all out of gifts. Dad normally takes a picture after every gift and makes you grudgingly hold it up and smile in your best morning hair look. We clean up then mom and dad start cooking lunch/dinner.

I'm not sure how it is exactly going to go tomorrow/this morning, but it'll be similar to the way I mentioned it a couple paragraphs above. Yes it'll be a little awkward and hard, but that is life and we must continue onward.

Have a very Merry Christmas! Enjoy your family and remember why we are celebrating.