Paper, Pen, and Polaroids.: Christmas Day.

Since we had a late Christmas Eve [delivering presents]
we had all decided we would sleep in
But after Aleksi had woken up at ten and sat around waiting for several hours
she had, had enough.
"Wake up!"
"It's Christmas!"
"Wake up!"
Blinds opened, blankets torn off, and lights illuminated.
[such a nice way to be woken up on Christmas Day]

Santa came!
Clothes, candy, money and lots and lots of polaroid film.
I was ecstatic.
Mitchell sent us a package - and had letters for us to open this morning.
He sent me the Glee Christmas CD - which means I now have three.
We did alright - just a small tear session.
Nobody should cry on Christmas.
So we composed ourselves.

It was such a bummer not having him here this Christmas.
I can't really send him much - so I'm just sending him a ton of photos and
possibly a few polaroids for Christmas.
I got Cassie a onesie and Aleksi a gator alumni sweater.

We have this Christmas tradition where every year we get a collectible,
starting when we turn 11.
We get a letter from our parents along with our new collectible.
Aleksi and Cassie collect charms, Mitchell pocket watches, and me pocket knives.
This year, I got the knife Dumbledore uses to slit his own hand in Half-Blood Prince.
After being choked up from Mitchell's letter - my parent's letter was tough to get through.

After presents, we had a great Christmas breakfast - french toast and eggs.
Mitchell was going to call at two and the missionaries were coming over at three, so we straightened up the house and got all ready.
Reagan came over around 1:45 and I warned her - how we already had a small breakdown
and that she should expect the same during the phone call.
At exactly two o'clock the phone rang.
"LDS Missions"
"It's him! It's him!"
"He's calling!"
We all ran into the office - I answered - and the phone went on speaker.

He told us about everything he could in 45 minutes.
[I knew it would go by fast - and it did - so fast]
We told him what we've been up to recently - school - our recent Okeechobee adventure - Christmas Eve.
It was cool to talk to him.
It went well though - nobody broke down - just tears.
We're getting better.
At exactly 2:45 the conversation was wrapping up.
Until Mother's Day.

This is pretty much how everyone felt after he hung up:

[depressed]
But we didn't have much time to mope,
the missionaries arrived early - so we put on a smile.
During the socializing part of Christmas, Cassie mostly stayed in her room
But I found these during dinner and I told her I would put them up - as payback for
one: going in my room
and
two: using my camera.
[cute, huh?]

For dinner we had paella - yellow rice with sea food.
It was delicious.
Padre's recipe.
Good stuff.

The missionaries left soon after dinner.
We planned on seeing the new Narnia as a family, but the parents weren't feeling well.
So we [kids] saw it.
Little did we know we were paying for a 3D movie.
But it was the only one playing at the time we went - so it's not all my fault.
It was a good movie, definitely not the best of the Narnias.
There were some good lines - and symbolism - but also some really cheesy parts.
The cousin really annoyed me.
We saw it with Chris and after he came over to watch "The Sasquatch Gang"
Aleksi got it for me for Christmas.
We watched it over our road trip this past summer - and it's hilarious.