Family Christmas

 I met my Mom this morning at Target to do a bit of Christmas shopping as I had printed off some coupons my Mom had emailed me. We stopped by the bank and got some quarters for our LCR gambling game tonight at Aunt Jo's and then went to On The Border for lunch. After lunch I went to Best Buy to pick up a gift for Marshall and then met back up with my Mom at Old Navy. I ended up finding a cute hat for Harper and some clothes for my Dad for his birthday in January.  After shopping, I went home and wrapped the presents and hung out with JoJo for the rest of the afternoon.

My Mom and Billy picked me up around 4:45pm so we could head to Goldsboro to Aunt's Jo's for our Family Christmas night. My cousins Cristal, Chuck, Parker, Candie, Brent, Ashley, Erika, Matilda, Amelia, Mason and Steve were all there and my Aunt Jo and Uncle Brooks. Brandy was missing this year as she and her fiancé Bryce weren't returning from their trip to Costa Rica until 11pm tonight. We all enjoyed chatting, eating and drinking. Aunt Jo even bought some alcohol free wine so Uncle Brooks and I would have something to drink if we wanted it. My 14 year old cousin Ashley even tried it since she could. When Brent, Ashley and Billy left to go play basketball down at the park, the rest of us set up the LCR game and started playing. Everything except Steve and Chuck. Amelia won twice in a row and after that her brother Mason quit. By that time they were back from playing basketball, so Chuck, Billy and Ashley all joined the game. Amelia went on to win two more times. The other winners were Ashley, Erika, Matilda, Candie and myself.

We eventually gave up playing as most people had run out of quarters. The girls all changed into their pajamas and turned on the Kinect. They played skiing first then tennis and eventually boxing. Some of my other cousins ended up getting in on the Kinect fun. It was a lot of fun as always. A little bit before we left my cousin Brett showed up as he had just gotten off work at Andy's. I ate way too much food but I guess that's what the holidays are all about. The whole evening wasn't all fun and games though as we did learn that one of my older cousins had just recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. It appears as though they caught it fairly early, but they don't seem to know everything just yet. It scares me for my younger female cousins as they now have their maternal grandmother, maternal aunt and now mother that have all been diagnosed with breast cancer. Fortunately, they have all been successful so far with beating it but discovering it early has been key.

We finally left Aunt Jo's around midnight and headed home. I was so exhausted and couldn't wait to go to sleep. JoJo was glad to see that I finally made it back home and after a pee break she was anxious to jump in the bed and snuggle with me. It was a fun Family Christmas as always, but I wish Marshall, Brandy and Bryce could have been there too. It would have made it complete to have them there.