Christmastime

I begin thinking about Christmas way earlier than any sane person should.  I mean, I start listening to Christmas music in late July.  I just love Christmas, I have so many fond memories.  Helping my dad put up the Christmas lights, then running inside to make some hot chocolate because I am absolutely freezing even though I am wrapped up in almost every item of clothing I own.  Then a few weeks later my family and I are blasting Christmas music and drinking Egg Nog while decorating the inside of the house from top to bottom. Then after a lot of begging, I finally convince my dad to go ice skating with me in -20° weather.  It's not only the pre-Christmas activities that I love, I love Christmas day too.  Waking up to frosty windows and silent, snow covered streets then running down the hall in my pajamas to wake up my parents (usually by jumping on the bed).  Tearing down the stairs to take the presents from underneath the perfectly decorated tree in the office and organizing them in the living room.  One of my favourite parts of Christmas morning is the moment right after we've all opened our presents.  When everyone is just admiring their gifts with bright eyes and a giant, goofy smile and the wrapping paper massacre is still spread across the room.  Christmas dinner is pretty amazing too with the giant turkey and everyone gathering in my dining room.  Our table set with the perfect stuffing with cranberries (my mum's secret ingredient), and vibrant orange, mashed sweet-potatoes and obviously the turkey that is mouth-watering enough to be in a magazine.  Although the dinner is amazing without a doubt the best part is dessert.  Pecan pie is the reason I wake up on Christmas.  My grandmother makes the best pecan pie; I haven't found one to rival it to this day.  All these Christmas activities still happen but it just used to be a much larger affair before my grandparents bought a home in Arizona and became "snowbirds".  On the bright side my aunts and my uncles still visit a few weeks before they fly down to see my grandparents and I still get to see my other grandpa.  Christmas will forever bring me that warm, fuzzy feeling and I will continue to get ridiculously excited for it no matter my age.  

“One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day..." -Andy Rooney

Your Almost Name #438

During the holidays, mainly Christmas my family and I always end up sitting around and looking through the extremely embarrassing baby photo albums of my brother and I.  We always eventually start talking about my brother's and mine almost names. He was almost a Stephanie (if he was a girl of course) and, I was almost a Zoey or Sarah.  Which I find to be the one of the weirdest thoughts ever.  I couldn't picture my name being anything but Paige, and I certainly couldn't picture my older sibling being named anything but Christopher.  For my brother, the name Christopher was the only thing they considered, my parents were always so sure of his name.  Unless he was a girl, then he would be Stephanie.  My parents had his name figured out, it was simple.  For me they threw around several different names, until my now late grandmother suggested the name "Paige".  My parents instantly fell in love with it and it was set, I was going to be Paige.  I love my name and would never change it for anything. My name has a little more significance to me,  I think ever since my grandmother passed my name has meant more.  It helps me remember her everyday. Even though she's gone, she still appears every time this topic of conversation comes up.  The main feeling I have when my family and I discuss this is just a very strange feeling.  I hate thinking that my name could've been different, because I believe that I would have a completely different personality.  I guess that a person is who they are no matter what their name is, but I couldn't imagine going through life being called Zoey, or Sarah.  For me names are very important, they bring you back to your family and show the world who you are.  I am 100% a Paige, nothing else.  Not that I would ever want to be anything but a Paige.

Laughing Until We Cry

It was probably around 2am, both of us were all snuggled in bed, the big, blue, fluffy comforter warming us on a fairly cool, breezy summer night. We were attempting to watch Finding Carter on the laptop. But of course the website wouldn't load, so after plenty of frustration, agony and about 5 minutes of advertisements later we eventually got it to work.  At this point Kennedy and I were both extremely close to passing out from exhaustion.  It was a long day of suntanning, hot-tubbing and just general summertime things.  All of a sudden during one of the most serious scenes in that episode the actor playing the father messes up his line, he mispronounced the word "partners".  Now normally this wouldn't be funny at all but since no one editing this TV show caught his mistake, the fact that Kennedy and I were beyond tired and it was 2am, it instantly became hilarious.  Kennedy and I immediately started laughing hysterically, we obviously rewound back to that part at least seven times over and laughed until we cried.  I know we both had that aching feeling in our stomachs because after about the fifth time rewinding, we were both onto our stomachs saying "ow" in between long fits of laughter.  We were gasping for air, holding our stomachs, with tears welling up in our eyes.  I still don't understand why the actor stuttering over one word could throw us into fits of laughter but I bet if we watched that episode all over again the same laughing fit would occur all over again.  Without a doubt the feeling uncontrollable laughter brings is the best feeling in the world.  Sure your stomach aches for a while afterwards and you need tissues to wipe your eyes but you're laughing with a best bud until it causes you physical pain and that's pretty awesome if you ask me. 

CAMPING

My favourite memory of camping is when I was no older than 6 or 7 and my grandparents, brother and I had all settled in around a roaring campfire beside the ginormous motor home stuffed to the brim with marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate.  Before the perfect marshmallow was made the perfect golden brown, my grandmother began explaining how not to react if your marshmallow caught on fire.  As my grandma was explaining that gently blowing on the flame would cause it to stop burning and that the worst thing we could do was whip around the stick to douse the flame, my grandfather did just that.  He began flinging his burning marshmallow around and before my grandmother could get him to stop, the still burning marshmallow slid rapidly off the end of the stick and flew haphazardly through the air and "SMACK" plastered itself to the side of a motor home across the RV park.  While the half melted, yet still on fire marshmallow stay stuck on a stranger's motor home the four of us just stood in astonishment.  After we picked our jaws up off the floor, my brother and I could barely hold our childish giggles in.  My grandfather told us to keep quiet and stay beside our campfire, ignoring the marshmallow on the side of the RV.  My grandmother obviously scolded her husband but not to harshly, because she found this situation absolutely hilarious.  After the whole flaming marshmallow fiasco my brother and I made sure never to fling around the marshmallow stick.  At least my brother and I understood the lesson my grandmother was trying to teach and we never disobeyed that rule.  I know that every camping trip I have taken with my grandparents was memorable, with the crackling fireplace and riding my bike as fast as i could through the RV park but I can say without a doubt that my favourite camping experience was this one, seeing as I can still remember it around 10 years later!  I couldn't imagine my childhood without camping in the enormous motor home my grandparents used to own or spending late nights by the fire with them.  Having these memories brings a warm feeling to my heart and a smile to my lips because I can still picture the flaming marshmallow flying through the air and splatting onto an RV across the park.