It's practically gone before I realized it was here

Is it REALLY Christmas? I mean, I put up my tree a few weeks ago, but it just doesn't seem like it's REALLY time for that! My calendar says December 24, but it just came around so dang fast this year. Time is a weird thing...I swear my clock speeds up every year. And you always hear old people say it gets faster every year. So basically, by the time I hit 50, I'll be living in a time machine traveling at the speed of light? But it's cool though, because this year I am more excited for Travis than I am for myself. Last night we opened presents with Michael's dad's family...more on THAT later...and Travis figured out that he's supposed to pull the paper off the presents. He did it rather slowly, but next year he'll be a pro at it, I am sure. Jacob was clueless...he just had this look on his face like "Great, can I put it in my mouth?"

Now let's talk about last night in terms of who all was there...Michael's parents, and our household of course, and then his sister (these are all half siblings) Theresa, her two kids (Brent & Brianna), his sister Cindy and her daughter (Misty, who is also Michael's 21-year-old niece), Misty's little boy (Brentley), his brother Chuck, his wife (Kathy), and their two daughters (Jennifer & Lauren), so we had a house full of like 15 people. We ONLY see these folks at the annual family reunion in October, and on Thanksgiving (sometimes) and of course Christmas. Now Jennifer & Lauren are very nice...I can carry on a conversation with them. But the others just have this attitude towards me like "Oh, and what's your name again?" These are the people that missed the birth of our son. Well, actually, Chuck didn't come to our wedding and he didn't so much as CALL when either of our kids were born...and this is supposed to be Michael's one and only brother. And then Theresa...she didn't call or anything when either kids were born. And when Jacob was born, her freakin' restaurant she owns is literally 5 minutes from the hospital, and I was in the hospital 4 days. Her excuse was something along the lines of she didn't have time to come see us. And then Cindy, she did come to the hospital when Travis was born, but that was only because she just so happened to be in the area, and even at that, she brought the baby Ole Miss crap.

I KNOW giving presents is NOT about how much money you spent, but there is something wrong with when the brothers and sisters exchange decent gifts, and then give Michael (their baby half-brother) something that looks like it came from the dollar store. It's understandable if someone doesn't have the means to buy someone a nice gift, but when they give their other siblings something nice, and give one sibling the shaft, it's kind of wrong.

And there is also something wrong when Michael's 21-year-old niece has to walk a certain way every time she walks in front of him. That's fine that she belongs in a house of ill-repute (sp?), but does she have to act that way in front of my husband WITH ME SITTING THERE? When she hugged him "bye", I had to hold my tongue to keep from saying "Get your trashy Ole Miss hands off my man." Okay, that was mean, but 'TIS THE SEASON! Thank goodness we only have to see them a couple times per year.

I just now got onto Travis for throwing a mini basketball in my face. I didn't even have to tell him to go to his room. He gladly shut himself up in his room. He's scared of me, lol.

We are going over to my parents' house at 3, and then this evening around 7 or 8 I think, we're going to Michael's parents' house AGAIN to open presents with Michael's MOM's family. It's cool though...it means 3 days of opening presents. We'll open the presents under our tree on Christmas Day morning. By that point, I hope Travis isn't like "Okay, yeah, yeah," but somehow I don't think so. This will be the GRAND FINALE when we get to see his face light up and he'll scream ELMO!!! And as always, there WILL be pictures :-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!!