From Christmas Day to Groundhog Day

I really believe what I said in my last post about Christmas Day -- that, when it comes down to it, Christmas is just a day on the calendar that can be celebrated any day your family chooses.

My first Christmas away from home didn't feel like Christmas at all. For starters, the food: K's Italian family eats ravioli each Christmas. My family has switched up our main course a few times over the years -- from turkey before my dad bought his store, to brisket, and even an entire luau pig before we settled on prime rib each year -- but we always have the same staples: a small ham, some kind of fruit salad, mashed potatoes, and most important, deviled eggs. We've never had ravioli. And instead of pecan pie and my grandma's fudge and legendary peach cobbler for dessert, there was some kind of white cookie that tasted like licorice (ew) and a pepper cookie (pepper? in a cookie??!).

I realized that we had all the same people there for Christmas as we did for the ravioli day three weeks ago. The only additions were K's brother, who'd been hunting the ravioli weekend, and K's 13-year-old nephew, who wasn't there since his dad didn't come.

Christmas Day in K's family wraps up around 6 or 6:30. (Everyone was actually trying to leave even before that, but we had to take take the annual family picture.) My family Christmas lasts until 10 or so. We spend the whole day together!

The thing I liked about K's family's Christmas is that everyone puts money into a bucket, and each person writes down a charity of his or her choice on a piece of paper. We draw two slips from a hat, and the money is split between the two charities as a donation from the family, rather than us buying presents for each other. Very cool.

At about 7:30 Christmas night, instead of devouring leftovers from our yummy feast, I fixed myself a sandwich for dinner. Then, K and I headed over to his friend's house for the rest of the night. Definitely not my normal Christmas.

We slept in on the 26th until about 10:30. I hate sleeping in that much. Yesterday, we ran some errands during the day, then met up with K's friends at a bar around 8:30. We were out until about 1:30, when I got to play DD and drive us home. It's 11:30, and K is still sleeping. I slept on the couch because drunk K is even more stubborn than sober K, so he refused to not take up the entire bed and get in the covers.

I'm guessing tonight will offer the same. That's all there is to do here. Even K was bummed about it yesterday, talking about how depressing this place can be. (Side note: He actually said he might feel better if there was snow on the ground. Yet, when I checked the forecast 10 days before Christmas and it showed there was a chance of snow, K had no reaction. He said he's used to white Christmases, so he didn't care. Yet when he doesn't get one, he gets all moody.)

Ugh. I reeeeeally want to be in Oklahoma right now.