Christmas traditions

I know what you're thinking. Yes, it did take me five minutes. 

I kinda like it so I'm posting it. It is my blog, after all... 

Anyway, it's December. 

Abby, you have a keen grasp of the plainly obvious. 

Thank you. 

You didn't let me finish: It's December, which means CHRISTMAS!! Christmas is my favorite time of year. The carols, the baking, the decorations... Oh, don't get me started on the Christmas lights! Driving down our street is like walking in a winter wonderland...Ok, no its not 'cause this is California and when the heck does it ever look like a winter wonderland here. BUT STILL it's pretty magical. All the decorations and the colorful lights are so beautiful, it reminds you that Christmas really is upon us. 

Every year, we get together with our cousins and our grandparents. Usually we go up to our cousins house, but this year they're coming down here. We have a bunch of family traditions we do together, and this post is basically going to be covering those. I love Christmas traditions. XD 

So lets travel back in time to one year ago...

We departed on our six-hour car trip up to our cousin's house (It's Maddie and her family. I'm getting tired of typing "our cousins") on Christmas Eve. We reached their house that evening and got settled. The older kids and the adults went to the midnight service while Maddie, Lanie (Maddie's sister), and I stayed back to babysit the younger kids and watch movies and drink hot chocolate. 

The next morning, we opened our stockings and had a Christmas breakfast. Then Maddie, Lanie, myself, and whoever else hadn't gone to the midnight Mass went. 'Cause we're good Catholics and all...XD. Then we opened presents and had our annual Christmas concert. This is one of our Christmas traditions. All the kids sing Christmas carols for the adults. Its mainly our Christmas present to our grandmother because her birthday is around Christmas (and before you call us cheep, she ASKED for this). The kids in my family do a song, then our cousins do a songs, then we partner up and do songs together. Theres a lot of practicing beforehand, and we do little twists sometimes. One year someone sang Silent Night in German. Another year, Blaze and I sang Silver Bells, him doing melody and me doing high-soprano. It sounded pretty good actually :). 

My cousins live right next to this HUUUUGE reservoir. Its big and brown and amazing (no snow, but the chilly wind and ice-y cold weather make up for it). There are all these hills and trails, and the view from the top of one of those hills is absolutely breath taking. Last year, we all went for a walk around there. We all had our thick sweaters, windbreakers and scarves, and we set off. 

Theres something you should know about me and Maddie: movies. We love watching them and making them. I think I mentioned this before, but we love old movies; Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Audrey Hepburn, etc. Any chance we get we'll whip out a camera and start filming. 

So the others went home after the walk, Maddie, Lanie, and I got inspired and spent Christmas afternoon filming and editing. It was amazing. Being out there, running around the gigantic reservoir, the cold wind biting, coming up with a plot, editing ideas, characters... It was perfect. Absolutely perfect. :) The movie didn't win any academy awards, but I don't care. I loved making it, and that's what matters, right?  

So, that's basically Christmas with my family. We don't have any big reservoirs here, but I'm sure we'll find something XD. What I'm trying to say with this post is: I love Christmas, and I can't wait for it to come. 
Of corse, for Christmas to come I have to survive finals first.... 

--Abby