Worst Christmas Ever

It's been a while since my last blog, and a lot has happened since then.  I think I'll be posting several blogs tonight, so without further ado, here's my first blog of 2010.

This past Christmas Day was the worst of my life.  I'm not even kidding.  I wish I was.  It was just a complete and utter disaster.  Right from the get-go, I knew that day had major potential to be a fail.  Our schedule was tight.  We had two parties to attend--lunch with my stepmom's family and dinner with my dad's family.  Whenever all of that is over, my sister and I, along with our dad and stepmom, will drive down to LA.  Yup.  That was the genius plan.

Disaster #1: It turns out my stepmom's family party was not for lunch.

Yup.  It was for dinner.  At 4 pm.  That's exactly what time my dad's family party started... wonderful, hmm?

Disaster #2: Super Filipino Time

My family (aka myself, my sister, and my dad) makes it a point to get ready on time.  When you tell us to be ready at 3 pm (as was the plan) we're usually ready by 2:59 pm.  Apparently, not everyone functions this way.  My sister's room is connected to my stepbrother's room via a shared bathroom.  THAT could have been a disaster too, but we took that into consideration when we figured out our schedule for the day.  Despite having to wait more than an hour for the bathroom door to unlock, my sister and I were dressed, ready, and fully packed by 3 pm.  We take our stuff downstairs so our dad could load it onto the truck when, lo and behold, there she was--our stepmother still in her pajamas.  My sister goes into the kitchen and our dad was still frying eggrolls for the family party.  Apparently, stepmother dearest assigned him to fry the eggrolls AND load our luggages AND fix the house AND load the mountain of presents.  So at 3 pm, both of them were nowhere near ready.  Plans got pushed back an hour.  Fine.  My sister and I try to pass the time, already in our dresses, all dolled up.  We come back downstairs around 4 pm.  Oh what a Christmas it sure is when you see your dad furiously throwing presents into a garbage bag in his frustration and frenzy.  Tight.  Sooo... when are we leaving again?

Disaster #3: RIP Spot

My sister and I decide to check up on the bunnies and make sure they have enough food and water.  One of them looked strangely still.  After a few minutes of trying to figure out what's wrong and why it was in such a strange position, we realized the little bunny that was still hopping around that morning must have died sometime during the day.  Poor little seastar...

Disaster #4: Change of plans

Since some people weren't ready on time *ahem* we ended up leaving the house at 6 pm.  Three whole hours late.  The new plan was to go to our stepmom's party for about an hour, deliver her gifts to her family, go home to pick up the rest of the presents and our luggage, go to my dad's party, then drive down to LA.  Ohhh boy, here we go...

Disaster #5: Don't make impossible plans.

We end up overstaying at my stepmom's family party, of course, because what does she care about what we want, right?  She's all that matters.  Finally, around 9 pm, my dad gets a call from his sister.  All our relatives were leaving the party.  My cousins have all left and my aunt and uncle were leaving soon too.  Great.  Now, not only did my sister and I miss out on spending Christmas with our family in LA but also in San Francisco too.  That was it for me.  That is just NOT acceptable.  Christmas shouldn't be spent with people you have to pretend to like and with a fake smile plastered on your face.  Christmas should be fun and relaxing, a day to make memories and enjoy the ones you love.  There shouldn't be any yelling, any presents furiously being thrown about, frustrations and frenzy.  Christmas is my favorite holiday.  I should have been smiling, but instead, tears were streaming from our faces from the day utterly ruined.

The only highlight of the day?  We were finally on our way back home to LA...