Happy Holidays

Ah the holidays, for me that means good memories and bad memories. I will start with some good, go in chronological order here. Ever since I was really little, our tradition was that we would go to my grandma on my dad's side for dinner on Christmas Eve and open presents from my cousins, and one present from my grandma and grandpa. Then on Christmas morning, me and my brother would wake up really early cause we could barely sleep, then we would go downstairs and the unopened presents were from "Santa" and then we would open our stockings, waiting for my parents to come downstairs, and after they did we would all open our presents. After that my mom or dad would make breakfast. after a couple of hours of playing with new toys and getting all prettied up, we would go to my grandma on my mom's side for Christmas dinner, after being there for a couple hours we would then go to my other grandma's for snacks and opening the rest of our presents. This was pretty much our tradition until 5 years ago when things started to slid downhill, and I lost a little bit of Christmas spirit. Five years ago my mom died 6 days before Christmas, I remember my last present from her, I remember opening it in her hospice room, it was a Nike shirt. Then the next year my dad, my brother, and I went to Seaside for a couple days over the weekend to get away for the weekend of the date she died, then on the way home we stopped at his girlfriends house in longview and opened presents. The year after that my grandma went into the hospital a couple days before Christmas to have spleen surgery because she was having pain, that year my dad's girlfriend spent the night Christmas eve and then on Christmas we went to the hospital, and then had dinner at my house, and I remember hitting my new volleyball up the stairway and almost knocking the clock off the wall. Are traditions now are, Christmas eve at my grandma's house, then my dad's girlfriend comes over in the morning since she lives down the street, and then we have dinner at her house. Some other traditions are I always putt up all the decorations where my mom put them cause she loved Christmas so much, and then I decorate the tree except for two ornaments, they say Christmas 1987 and I leave those for my dad to hang up because it was the year of his and my mom's first Christmas after they got married.