UH mazing.

so i'm currently in Oklahoma visiting the fam...

we always have...special...memories that are made whenever the whole clan gets together. we're all kooky in our own ways. makes for some good stories. sometimes the stories are kind of embarassing...:)...but they're always worth telling. i love the wonderful memories that we've made already, and i look forward to the rest of the time i get to spend with my marvelous family. i really don't see them enough, and the sad thing is...i'm going to start seeing less and less of them. what with most of us being off at college, some newly married and living farther away...you just really learn to cherish the small amount of time you can spend together over the holiday season. i've been reminded these past few days of the things i love most about Christmas...

my great grandmother, and the wild stories she tells from when she was young...my grandmother's pecan pie which, though it may make my stomach unhappy from the sugar, is worth every bite. that woman makes the best pecan pie in the whole world, hands down...seeing my younger cousins again, always astounded by how much they've grown...seeing my older cousins again, and remembering our childhood together...and being totally clueless as to how we got here so fast...fitting our entire family into my grandparents' small house...
actually having time to get done with all the reading i wanted to do...having time to sit and chat with the older, wiser ones who have so much wisdom to bestow...heck, just HAVING TIME...

as much as i can try to complain about the close quarters, or the fact that i'm spending most of my break away from the friends i haven't seen in months...i just can't complain. there's too much good here. too much heart. and whether i knew it or not, i missed times like these. i'm going to cherish every moment of it, because the next few years will fly by just as quickly as all of the others.

i love Christmas. :)