Hic. HIC!

I'm exhausted, but I can't sleep until these hiccups go away. So instead of lying in bed, tired and frustrated, letting the hiccups wreak havoc, I will blog and forget all about them.

Christmas began at 7:30 this morning. My brother woke up at 7:00, but was constrained to quiet until at least 7:30. From what I can remember he flung open my door, bounded into my room and said something very loudly before bounding out again. A few minutes later my mom came in and said something about enjoying the enthusiasm now, since soon he would be grown up and we would all sleep until 9:30. As though this will be a sad thing. I got up, went to the bathroom and washed my face. I then walked as slowly as humanly possible out of the door, across the hall, and down the stairs, just to give my brother a hard time. Not all that much has changed since we were 8 and 5. We were into the presents in no time though, and it was a good haul overall.

The next couple of hours we sat around in our PJ's and new slippers, eating breakfast, drinking coffee, and watching the Christmas versions of all of the morning TV shows. After we were we were clean and ready, the house was clean and ready, and the sweet potatoes and pie were ready to go, we headed off to Grandpa's house. We enjoyed his beautiful real tree and ate an incredible ham. For the grand Christmas finale we had some pie while watching A Christmas Story.

All day long I got text messages from friends - high school and college alike. It was a little thing, just a few "Merry Christmas's" here and there. But for the first time in a long time, it felt like things were coming together instead of falling apart. I realized that if I have something to leave behind and miss in both places, it also means that I have something to come back to in both places- it means I have something to be happy about, no matter where I am. And right now, still full of pie and Christmas ham, and toes warmed by gorgeous sheep skin moccasins, life feels amazing.

Even my hiccups are gone.