my Thanks-Mas

This one's a public journal entry. As I explained in "why I think Jesus would let Thanksgiving have its own time", my family combines Thanksgiving and Christmas so that we get to celebrate them both with my dad's side. It's against everything I stand for to call it Thanks-Mas, but that's what it is.

My friend group from high school started a Friendsgiving tradition, and we had a wonderful brunch together on Wednesday. While that was going on, my cousins were driving down to us from Illinois and arrived at our house some time late in the evening.

We follow roughly the same schedule for Thanks-Mas every year. We get them set up in their sleeping arrangements (the three girls with me in my room, my boy cousin and my aunt and uncle in my brothers' room, and my grandparents in the guest room). The girls and I and my grandparents all share one bathroom for the week. Then, we catch up for a while before going to bed.

The next morning, my cousins and I snack and play board and card games while we wait on my brothers to arrive. My parents cook our Thanksgiving lunch consisting of: ham (we don't like turkey), green bean casserole, corn, rolls, mac 'n cheese, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. The girls and I sit at "the kids table", and everyone else sits at "the adult table". Of all that yummy food, my youngest cousin's plate usually only has some rolls and maybe a piece of ham on it.

After lunch, we gather in front of the fireplace for a family photo. And each year, my uncle spends an entertaining 10 minutes stacking things to set the phone up on. And each year, he forgets how he did it the last year. Here's this year's contraption:

Then, we sit down in the living room and open presents. When we were younger, my oldest brother, Nathan, would put on a Santa hat and pass out the presents to each person with the help of his "elves" (my four cousins). We open presents in a very specific way: youngest to oldest. We never deviate.

That evening, we have our annual Johnston family poker tournament. We even have a trophy each year. I had never come close to winning until this year. I got second :( But, I feel like it needs to be known that at the beginning of the game, I had to ask if a straight was three cards... It's not. This year, Grandpa took home the trophy.

The next day, it's officially Christmas time!! This year, I got to do something special that I haven't done in a long time (since we have a fake tree smh). Go to a Christmas tree farm. I went with my boyfriend, Macrea, and his family to pick out a tree for their house. We drove three hours, drank hot chocolate, and got some gifts for my mom.

Once we got home, I brought Macrea over to my house so he could meet my family and see what it's like for us over the holidays. He brought his VR headset which brought, to the kids (who aren't actually kids anymore), fun and laughter, and to the men in the family, competition and smack talk. For the next two days, Macrea, Nathan, and my dad took turns playing Beat Saber trying to beat Macrea's high score. But, alas, he still reigns at the top of the leaderboard. The VR headset was so well loved that Nathan went and bought one as soon as he left the house.

Both Friday and Saturday night, we always play Bunko. If you've never heard of it, you've lived a sad life. Basically, you just roll a pair of dice over and over again and try to win points. If you end up having the most points at the end of the round, you get to open a candy prize. Everyone ends up getting a prize and it's really just a good family-fun game. Hannah won this year.

Sunday morning, my IL family packs up and we send them on their way up north. And then we all take a nap because it's been a long week.

Thanks-Mas photo album

P.S. Links in the text lead to photo proof!