christmas

away from school - amazing. i got christmas break off to a hectic start: a christmas shopping blitzkrieg with peter on thursday. trust me, nothing is more akin to lightening warfare than central park three days before christmas. we spent the whole afternoon battling horrendous traffic, long lines, and stupid people. i guess that's what we get for putting off buying presents until the last minute. we managed to get everything without maiming anyone in the process, though we did decided that we each would have given up hours earlier had we not been together. that, and i was in a ridiculously good mood because i'd found a great clothing sale earlier in the day. i should not get this excited about finding more student teacher clothes.

we drove to marion on friday. i slept the entire seven hours. it was great. we got together with most of mama's family that afternoon. the evans and crosses and us went over to aunt iris' for awhile. i hadn't seen isaac in a while, he's huge now and talking a lot. loooooves sports. and, just for the record, it is really funny to see two NCAA Division I football players playing ball with a three year old. we went back to graddaddy's and met up with uncle david, scott, and heather, then the whole clan went out to eat chinese food (picking up the morgans along the way). there were 25 of us in all - and there were still people missing. my family is big. it was really good to see jennifer. she's moving to maine next month to start a job as a professor at bowdoin.

that night the four evans, my sisters, and i went bowling. the boys just couldn't stand to be still any longer, they had to get out of the house. it was...interesting. white trash central. i think it was the constant stream of people carrying beer from the bar next door that really set the mood for the whole place.

spent the whole day saturday at grammer's cause mama and aunt susan went to south carolina to see all the old relations (as in numerous great-aunts and my 94 year old great-grandmother). i basically just watched tv all day, and sorted through a bunch of old boxes of grandpa's stuff. i found some great pictures. and a lot of random, random stuff. for example, why did he feel the need to keep owners manuals for guns bought in the early 70s? or napkins from the naval academy? or eight copies of my parents' wedding invitation? i did get some military scrip from the korean war, which was cool. i'm going to have to get some mylar from work to store it in.

i saw jeff that afternoon. he's going to help me get a job!! he knows all the people who work in the costume shops in NYC, and he said just to let him know and he would tell me who to call. and the shops aren't union, just wardrobe work on broadway. it's a little scary - i never considered just packing up and moving to new york. i'm still getting used to the idea.

saturday night was the annual concord united methodist church christmas eve service, complete with the off-key choir (with aunt lubie's voice ringing out loud and clear above everybody else), the advent candle burning down to the wreath and almost setting the place on fire, and baby jesus belching in the middle of the prayer and getting really, really ticked off half-way through the shepherd's visit and having to be taken into the back hallway because he was screaming at the top of his lungs. plus, the preacher almost set one woman on fire because he had an open flame right near her oxygen tank. grammer kept leaning over to me the whole time and making obnoxious comments about everything that was going on. but i enjoyed it nonetheless. christmas wouldn't be christmas if i didn't spend christmas eve in that little church.

today was nice. we went to church with granddaddy this morning after opening presents. i got some good stuff, a few dvd's, makeup, and a nice new coat (back to the student teaching clothing thing again). we ate christmas dinner with granddaddy, aunt susan, aunt becky, uncle jim, and jennifer. i really enjoyed it. it was really weird having a family gathering at granddaddy's with only ten people there. i slept all afternoon, and in the evening the lawings came over. isaac was adorable. he'd gotten a tiny nc state football uniform, complete with pads and helmet.

speaking of nc state football...i get to go to their bowl game on saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hooray for real college football played in a real stadium!!!!! (the panther's stadium, to be exact). mama's dropping me off in raleigh on tuesday, and i'm spending the week with the evans. thursday night we're going to charlotte. i have no clue what we're doing there for three days, cause the game isn't until saturday, but i don't really care. i never get to see katherine and quinn and aunt beth anymore, and it'll be the first time i've seen the boys play ball. and the girls want to show me around nc state and carolina, including the archives at chapel hill. yes, this qualifies me as a certified nerd, but i used a lot of their stuff for my historical research paper, and it will be cool to see what else they have.

tomorrow is the christmas extravaganza at grammer's. uncle john, aunt frances, and charlie are coming up from charlotte, so the total count will be 20 people crammed in grammer's tiny living room. should be complete insanity (as is normal for us).