For years, we’ve had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Now that my dad’s work schedule is odd, we’ve switched up Christmas a little bit and celebrated our family’s Christmas 1 week earlier — which is around their Anniversary (31 years now).

I got plenty of great dress clothes from my parents, as I had been wanting to try to dress much better than what I had been. That’s still a work in progress.

Our usual Christmas Eve thing is with my mom’s family (grandma, aunts, uncles) over at my parents’ house. I got space bags for clothes in my closet, and some neat salt and pepper mason jars.

Then it’s our usual Christmas Day thing, and that’s spent with my dad’s family (grandparents, aunts, uncles) at my grandparents’ house. Pictured at the top of this entry are frames that I got from my grandparents that hold my two (as of now) state championship articles: The one on the left is of the RF runner that won state (from the Gazette), and the one on the right is of the Forreston Football team winning state (from the Forreston Journal).

My uncle Mat and aunt Christine got me a travel book about interesting places in Chicago. I’m sure I’ve never heard of these places, but Chicago is a popular haunt for me.

More important than the presents was the time spent with my family.

I have been working a lot lately, and it’s to the point where I see my grandparents more often than I do my own parents it seems; since they own my house and are just across my back yard. I made sure to savor every moment I spent with everyone.

I’m proud of myself this year because I got BOTH Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off from BOTH jobs. No working around a schedule during it all, although I did have to leave earlier than I would have liked on Christmas Day to prepare for a 5 a.m. Casey’s shift. For the first time in a long time (and this includes Thanksgiving), I did NOT spend a couple of hours in my grandparents’ downstairs room taking a nap.

Instead, I had a great conversation with my cousin Jesseca, who will be going on a backpacking trip to Europe this summer; as well as my cousin Justin, whom I traded customer adventures with as he runs a nutrition store at NorthPark Mall.

I had to get to sleep Christmas Night for work, and got off from work at noon. My house is a disaster with Christmas presents and boxes here and there, as well as the usual mess from not getting around to cleaning — because of my work schedule.

This morning, I am covering a girls basketball game at Dixon High School; and after writing the article, I will be headed to Casey’s for a nighttime shift. That leaves Wednesday morning and afternoon to do things; and I believe I have Thursday off from both jobs.

Between all of that, and pending New Years Eve plans — a post for another time soon — this house is going to get clean at some point!