20 December 1999

Five days to Christmas! Whoo-hoo!

Matt and I went with my parents last night on a light tour. We drove around a few neighborhoods looking at the decorations, and then Matt and I directed them to the Christmas House that we'd found with KT and Kevin a week or so ago. Yes, I took pictures, finally. You can see them in the December photo album, which I've finally gotten around to putting up.

Actually, it's less than five days until the celebrations begin. My grandparents will arrive the evening of the 23rd, and we're having a family brunch on the morning of the 24th, before we open John's presents. (John is leaving the afternoon of the 24th to go spend Christmas week with his fiancee's family, so the presents to and from him are getting opened early.)

There will be a spare bed in the house if Matt and I want to spend Christmas Eve at my parents', but I think we'll stay home. I never sleep well on Christmas Eve (yes, that's an understatement, and no, you can't remove the word "well" altogether, because I usually get at least a nap) and my grandparents being there will make things worse.

My grandparents are constitutionally unable to alter their morning routine. Which means that they wake up when they wake up, and then take showers and spend approximately forty-five minutes brushing their teeth. (This is not an exxageration. When I lived with my parents, I used to have to share a bathroom with them when they visited.) Then they get dressed, which for old bones takes about half an hour or so, and Grandmom has to draw on her eyebrows, and then they're ready to emerge.

If I'm there through all this, I'll go bananas with the anticipation. So what I'm going to do is stay home. From my own bed, which is easier to sleep in anyway, I can see a clock and force myself to stay in bed until at least four. (Yes, I'm really like this.) Then, since I'll be in my own house, I can sneak out of bed and quietly keep myself amused until Matt gets up. In my own house, I can get on the computer and write an early-morning journal entry, or surf the Web, or play games. I can go downstairs and watch A Christmas Story three or four times on TNT, or even watch all my own Christmas videos one at a time. I couldn't do any of this at my parents' house - not even watch TV, because the TV is just on the other side of my parents' bedroom, and even at very low volumes is likely to wake up my mom.

So we'll stay home, and my folks can call us when the grandparents emerge, which gives them all time to have their morning coffee before Matt and I show up. Or we'll head over to their place around 10, which is plenty late for anyone to sleep on any morning, much less Christmas.

Five days. I hope I can make it.