Brian's World

Christmas Eve

I wouldn’t write a blog on x-mas eve unless I thought it was important or especially deserving of my time because x-mas eve tends to be a rather traditional night for me. But alas things are moderately upsetting to me and the water in my eyes is not representative of tears of x-mas joy.

On Christmas Eve its traditional for us to have the Michalski side of the family over for a Polish Dinner. Everyone enjoys some Polish food and makes fun of me for not eating any of it. After dinner we exchange gifts from names we pull in a pollyanna. I just had to look that word up, the definition is rather relevant ” A person regarded as being foolishly or blindly optimistic.” Ok so we’re using it wrong, but its essentially ‘Secret Santa’, with enough restrictions that there tend to be only a handful of potential outcomes. I’ve gotten used to getting insulted at dinner. I’m sorry I don’t like herring, kapusta [cabbage], or lima bean soup; nor am I a huge fan of pierogis [I’ll eat ~3 with lots of Ketchup]. I finish early and spend time sorting gifts in as efficient a way as possible, placing gifts where people will be sitting. Everyone joins me in the living room and usually we all open gifts in one big hoorah… but today dad decided we go in series.. one person at a time. La te da, everyone opened their gifts… when we got to the person who I got gifts for [Laura]. My mom helped me out with the shopping since I was at college and stuff and got her a fleece top that happen to match the color she was wearing as well as the color I was wearing. Everyone had to make fun of that for several minutes… then she opened a gift I bought her [Some lotions in a little bag thingy] and everyone decided there was no way I bought that on my own and that Katie must have helped or that somehow being in college has taught me oh so much about the ladies. I denied all that but no one believed me, likely because I was blushing as I tend to do. I ended up putting my head between my knees and just hanging out like that. I don’t like blushing. I opened my gifts, nothing awesomely exciting but that is to be expected. I got some gift cards and a fleece vest.

Everyone left blah de blah.. we cleaned up as usual. Then came one of the least pleasant parts of the evening.. carrying in the Christmas presents from the living room. A few years ago my parents stopped trying to hide Christmas gifts so they just pile up in the living room. Being tired from acting as hosts all night, they have Kevin and I bring the gifts in. I find this very lame and depressing. I enjoy waking up early tomorrow morning and trotting downstairs to marvel and the gifts under the tree thinking about whats inside. I dislike knowing in advance what gifts are mine, etc. I tried to carry as many of Kevin’s gifts as possible, so he can be moderately surprised with the presents. Unfortunately I carry gifts faster than him, so I had to carry a lot of gifts for me as well. Statistically speaking there is a low probability that there will many surprises tomorrow, but it is Christmas so I will remain optimistic… you never know what magic Santa will work.

I am also saddened by my family’s lack of Christmas excitement for tomorrow. While I don’t have high hopes for my presents, I am excited to open them! My family will be attending 10:30 mass at Mater Dolorosa. Since that is “early” in the morning, my mother, father, and brother have agreed that we shall open gifts after mass. Grr to them! I wake up early on Christmas just to rush down and get ready to open gifts.

I could blog about the amount of work to do and stuff like that, but thats not in the Christmas Spirit.

So I bid you all a good night, and I hope Santa delivers great gifts to all of you!

To quote my favorite Christmas book, this is the first year we haven’t read it as a family… “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”