Merry and bright...

We just returned home from my grandparents house for our annual Christmas family get together. It was a good trip, here are some of the highlights.
- My hilarious dad. He is constantly saying and doing funny things without trying very much. I don't know anyone else who compares dogs to "Winston Churchill w/out the cigar" or can get crazy excited about a remote control helicopter like he does.
- Great Granddad moment: My granddad was asleep in his chair while I was unpacking some of the holiday snacks we had brought to add to the Christmas knickknack table at my grandmothers house. I asked my mom in the next room where I should put the tin of Chocolate biscuits. My Granddaddy popped right awake and said "we have Chocolate cookies? Well nobody told me that," got right up and went to grab him a few and a glass of milk. It's funny how chocolate biscuits can make both 8 year old boys and 83 year old grandpas jump up and run to the kitchen.
- Most of my family doesn't like that I have chosen psychology as a career path. I've known that for a while, but on this trip I realized that I may always catch a little grief for it. That's ok though, I really like what I'm doing and that's all that really matters in the end. It's just funny how families have all kinds of expectations for the members- what they ought to do for a living, where they ought to go to church, when they ought to get married or have kids, where to live, how to spend money, even what they ought to cook for supper. I guess it's human nature to find the bad rather than the good. I just don't know why we have such a hard time just being proud of each other. I'm convicted that I need to make a more sincere effort at expressing my acceptance to my family. Maybe it would change things.
- This year was the year of noah's ark presents in my family. What I mean is that it seemed like there were two of every present (often for the same person). I got two perfumes, my granddad and grandmother both got 2 snuggies, granddad got 2 sets of handkerchiefs, I could go on. In our family it seems that without fail, "great minds think alike" when it comes to gift giving. haha
- I'm a real adult. This year my dad got an ipod and toy helicopter for Christmas. I got dress slacks and trouser socks. hahaha I guess I'm a real grown up now (or at least I need to try and look like one).
- Great Christmas Day Moment: Snow flurries started to fall on Christmas morning while me, my mom, aunt and grandmother were making breakfast. When my dad announced that it was snowing, I started singing "I'm dreaming of White Christmas". My aunt, mom and grandmother jumped right in and we didn't skip a beat until we got to the very end. It was a great musical family moment while scrambling eggs, kneading biscuits and frying country ham.