A Perfect Christmas

This Christmas was truly wonderful. It was the most low-key Christmas my family has had...ever. Seriously. Both sides of my family are centered in my hometown, so on most years, we end up rushing around from meal to meal. One year, I did breakfast at home, lunch at Grandmama's, supper with my mom's side of the family, and then went to Joey's house. But oh no--not this year.

The Family Rule is that we cannot go downstairs until 6 AM. When we were young, we were usually awake around 5, and we would huddle up in someone's room, literally counting down the minutes. This year, we flipped the ritual on its head: after Jessie went to bed, the rest of us holed up in Jim's room until 1, playing Rook and having fun.

At 5:55 AM, my sister burst into my room like Kramer, scaring the shit out of me as she woke up. We all crashed downstairs at 6 to see our Santa presents. As my dad made the traditional Christmas breakfast, we watched Jessie continually get owned on her new roller skates, making me believe that Santa had brought them for all of us, not just her.

After breakfast, we opened the presents from our parents, and most of us promptly went back to sleep. After our morning naps, we went to Grandmama's to have a soup lunch, then back home to play Balderdash, which I had gotten for Christmas.

In the evening, Joey and I went to his house to open presents with his parents, who are--as always--too good to me. Then, his parents had to take his Uncle Glenn to the airport, so Joey and I went to his bedroom, where I promptly fell asleep. For the rest of the evening, we just hung out, like we always do, which is what made it a perfect Christmas. Perfectly calm, perfectly bright, with a perfect ending--falling asleep beside the best gift I've ever gotten.