Christmas Update

Michael is out of the hospital; thank God.

The Boyd family Christmas was still cancelled, but we will make it up with some big family bash in the middle of the year.

The Mangas family Christmas was a blast as usual, with 6 bajillion little tykes running around. Some are not so little, like Lacey, Jaycee, Taylor, Kobe, and Jaron, who now range from 6th to 9th grades. Sheesh, they're old! My little baby Blade is in 1st grade now, and was reading to me; he even knew words like "auditorium." Fantastic! He and I are madly in love, and he really makes family get-togethers extra-special. I played Spades with Aunt Jana, Shawna, and Tracey, and we had a blast. I even sat at the adult table for the first time. It's nice to be considered an adult after being the baby for so many years!

The holidays are supposed to be a really difficult time after a family member has died, but it was just as bustling and exciting as usual. The only bad part was when family pictures were taken. Dad was always messing with that old camera and rearranging the wiggling kids and the uncomfortable adults for the perfect family portrait. Aunt Jana took over as photographer, but it just wasn't the same. The worst part was when individual family groups had photos taken. Aunt Jean's crew had theirs taken, then the giant Estle clan, then the Mangas'. That consisted of Maryann, my step-mother, and me this year. Mike and his new fiance, Jenny, had already left, and Doug, Stephanie, Benji, Shelbi, and Jason were all missing this year. Talk about awkward. I could feel people looking at our meager picture and fighting that sad look. At least Aunt Jean had a huge family to cover up Uncle Glen's absence. She must have been having a really hard time, too.

I guess Christmas turned out a lot better than I thought it would. I'm really relieved that it's all over. I've always felt like I'm kind of the black sheep with Dad's family. I don't even know why. No one has ever shown me anything but love, but I feel different for some reason. The drive to Grandma's every year is a bit tense, but 3 seconds after I walk into the door and have ribs crushed by my army of little cousins and have 20 "SUZANNE! We're so happy to see you!"s, I wonder what I was ever nervous about. That feeling comes back every year, before every family holiday, but it just seems unfounded. Hm.

I went Christmas carolling with the (get this:) Christmas Carrollers...HA...it's a group of Carroll High School Alumni (plus one random kid), so we have named ourselves with that play on words. Cute. Anyway, it was filled with the traditional versions of many Christmas favorites and the fun, jazzy, "Doop doop, doop do do" version of "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas". We were loud, sometimes off-key, and full of enough Christmas spirit to make Delilah, the Lite 99.9 all-Christmas-all-the-time station deejay, seem like the Grinch. We shared old memories, listen to Stephen Brandstetter's AWFUL jokes, and drank more cocoa than should be humanly possible.

After carolling, I met Nate Watson, and old high school friend, at Waffle House. We drank coffee and talked for 4 hours, and had a blast. He moved to Texas, and I really miss him. He said he's going to try to come visit me in Maryland during break, so I hope he is able to!

This blog was boring; I'm so sorry. I hate writing these bland update blogs, and I'm sure you hate reading them even more, but I think they're important. Aunt Jean told me today that she reads my blog, and I'm so glad. I'm able to keep people updated about things going on in my life, and I completely suck at keeping in contact with people. It's no reflection on how important they are to me...I'm just awful at it with everyone! So I apologize to those of you whom I haven't spoken to in a while. Leave comments, and let me know you're reading.

Love and Christmas spirit,

Suzanne