Christmas Blog 1: Love and Prayers
I'm in the choir at my church. Every year I sing at the 10 pm Christmas Eve Mass. This year my choir friends and I sang out as we always do and as always, I loved it. Directly after Mass, my family and I drove home. My brothers and I exchanged gifts and then we went to bed excited for the next day!
On Christmas morning we prayed the rosary as a family, and then my brothers and I ran downstairs to open our presents. I got a wristwatch, and a lot of stuff for me to start my podcast. After we had all opened up presents, we thanked our parents and hung out for about an hour. Next, I went over to my “sisters” house and we hung out and enjoyed the rest of the morning together.
Every year for Christmas we go to my Aunt Melissa's house for dinner. There we share some of our family traditions. One of those is the white elephant exchange. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, here is how it works: Everybody brings a few gifts. Usually small things, mostly things found around the house. All the participants sit down and roll dice- five, seven, eleven get you a new gift, doubles, you steel a gift, and snake eyes, you have to give a gift away. Once a gift has been stolen three times, the person who stole it the last time gets to keep the gift.
About 6 years ago my Aunt Cyndi introduced a gag gift. An ugly women's fuzzy white sweater. The sweater has been reappearing every year since! The first year the sweater was “won” by my Uncle Bob. It was so funny to see him receive the sweater, I think it is the memory of that first time that has kept the sweater in rotation to this day. After the adults (including myself) do their white elephant exchange, then the kids do theirs.
Another game that we always play is Blackjack with my Uncle Andy. He is always the dealer. He gives us around $10 to start out with. I'm pretty sure he started playing it with us kids to teach us to never go to Vegas. I’ve never made too much money, but once I'm a little ahead I always drop out so I can keep what I have made. It's really fun to watch everyone else go crazy as he wins his money back!
Christmas and the holidays, in general, is time for family and friends to be together. I was fortunate enough to spend this Christmas with my family. Unfortunately, not all families got to do that. My brother Ryan went to grade school with a girl named Savannah. Her little sister is named Kiera. Kiera is 13 years old and has been missing since Sunday night. She was last seen near Livingston Ave. and Alum Creek Dr. area of Columbus, Ohio, wearing a black Adidas hoodie and leggings. If anyone in the area has information please call the police. I can't imagine what Savannah and her family are going through right now, but I know that they need our support. My family will be sending love and prayers to hers and I hope you will join us.
Be safe.
J. Mitchie Ulibarri
No comments:
Post a Comment