I rose pretty early on Christmas morning, considering the fact that I’d been up super late the previous night. Taking my cozy blanket along from my bed for warmth, I tiptoed up the creaky basement stairs as silently as I could. In our living room, my mom and two younger sisters were still asleep on the couches where they’d been since we got home last night. Dad was in the kitchen quietly looking over the paper.
I wished my father a very Merry Christmas—it already seemed bright, cheery, wonderful, and merry—before attempting to wake the rest of my family up. In spite of my efforts, they seemed too tired to get up, so I strategically placed myself between the colorfully decorated Christmas tree and our two sofas. This way, no one would get up without me noticing. Even if I fell asleep, I’m a very light sleeper, anything can wake me up.
Well, with my soft, warm blanket wrapped all around me, I must have fallen into a half-sleeping state, because an hour or so later, my 12-year-old sister began to shake me awake. “Britni, Britni,” Brianna said enthusiastically as I woke from my peaceful slumber, “We’re going to open the presents now!” I quickly sat up and wished the rest of my family a Merry Christmas.
As we unwrapped brightly wrapped boxes and unloaded our bright red stockings one by one, smiles lit up our faces. We received perfume, small toys, arts and crafts, games, make-up, and a few other thoughtful items from each other. We all decided to try out our new gifts before we headed to our friends’ house for the day. As soon as we cleaned up the mess we’d made all over the floor, we played with our new things for a short while.
Not long after, we strolled through the front door into our friends’ home, with carefully selected gifts. We showered our friends with manicure kits, video games, and small reminders of our friendship. I received a stunningly beautiful black “B” necklace and matching earrings that glistened in the light.
We stuffed ourselves with delicious food and each other’s wonderful company. We all played games like “Jeopardy” and “Guess Who” with index cards, which was set up for us by another friend.
In Guess Who, a piece of paper is taped to each person’s back with the name of a person or animal, real or fictional. Sometimes we get people like Pocahontas, Cinderella, or Minnie Mouse. They then ask each other yes or no questions about their characters. Generally, the person to guess first wins, but we continued to give new characters to everyone until we were all ready for the next game.
Everyone made fun of my mother after she got Derek Jeter. “Well, I think he’s number one,” they said, “but in reality, he’ll always be the ‘# 2 guy’!” They drove her crazy with that silly pun!
Another woman ended up with Justin Beiber—she had no clue who he was! In fact, although the kids’ team ended up losing to the men’s team in Jeopardy, we were best at Guess Who!! Quite a few names were those of this generation’s celebrities.
We didn’t get home until past midnight, but who cared? This was one Christmas we’d always remember!!!