Merry Christmas Eve!

Hey everyone! First off, Merry Christmas Eve to those who celebrate :) I was thinking about doing a "Christmas Eve Vlog" on my second channel, but a video usually takes me a few hours at the least (all day at the most) and since today is my favorite day of the year, I decided to spend it with my family. Hope you all don't mind! I feel horrible since I haven't been uploading as many videos as I normally do, but like I said in my last blog post, you all have been so loving and supportive it makes me feel better. After the holidays I'm going to throw myself full force into my videos and it's also one of my top New Years Resolutions! To keep my channel on a consistent schedule of videos so there's never a big gap.

I think lots of people's favorite holiday is Christmas Day, but mine is actually Christmas Eve. (and my birthday!!!) Lots of families and households celebrate Christmas differently, but we have our big meal or "feast" on Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day. My grandmother ("Blah Blah" and yes, that's the name we call her to her face. Don't judge! LOL) is in town, but other than that we're just with our immediate family. I don't know why my extended family doesn't get together. I have friends who will spend Christmas Eve with one set of grandparents, Christmas morning with their immediate family, Christmas afternoon with the other grandparents, Christmas night with their Aunt's and Uncles... and so on. My family has never been like that. All of my extended family lives far away, the closest are a 6 hour car ride, and they go all the way to Istanbul, Turkey! So it's more stress than fun trying to get everyone together at once.

To me, Christmas Day seems like it's more about the presents. We wake up as early as 3 AM and run into our parents room, then we wait while they go "check to see if Santa came" while they make their coffee. Then they yell "OK girls! He left you a present, come see what it is!" And we run into the living room all excited. I go through my stocking first, then look at the main gift he left me. In my family, Santa fills your stocking, and leaves you one "big gift" but it's never wrapped, and everything else is from our family members wrapped and under the tree. After the initial excitement of Santa, Elle and I start distributing the packages to each family member. Then we take turns opening each present, and then eat breakfast, which is always moms famous egg casserole, which sounds disturbing, but is so delish! After breakfast, we all carry our presents up to our room then go back to sleep. When I was little, I was still too excited to sleep and I would stay up playing with my toys, but now that I'm older I understand why my parents always went back to sleep. 3 AM is early! We spend the rest of the day sleeping, eating leftovers, relaxing, watching a movie, but kinda doing our own thing.

This is why I like Christmas Eve better. First off, the excitement in the air is so thick you could cut it with a knife! Especially having a little kid in the household, it makes everything so much more magical. Christmas Eve is all about the excitement and being with the family and wrapping last minute presents (dad likes to get his gifts to us on Christmas Eve. Every year, without fail, he buys it on this day. That's actually where he is right now while I write this post!!! Talk about procrastination....) cooking, baking, eating, watching Christmas movies, listening to Christmas music. Chrismas Eve is just more "family oriented" than Christmas Day, and that's why I like it more! To me, the holidays are just about being with my family. I used to take it for granted more when I lived with my parents, but now that I've moved out I cherish every second I get to spend with them. Mom and dad are both off work during this time of the season and it's just a time for us really to bond and be together as a family.

OH! I also wanted to just touch on this really quickly. Lots of you are requesting that I do a "Christmas Wish List" and/or "Christmas Haul" video, and I just want to go ahead and let you know I won't be doing that this year. All I really wanted for Christmas was to be home with my family, and as a present I'm hoping for either a pink iPod nano, or a digital camera. I have a video camera, flip camera, and a SLR - but I want one of those small digital cameras so I can carry it around with me and snap pictures where ever I am. I've been using my phone, but I find I don't take that many picutres. I used to have a digital camera (RIP) and I would take SO many pictures with it! I want to start adding albums to facebook (my fan facebook is down at the moment because facebook didn't believe it was really me in charge of it.. but it is/was and it's being put back up soon!) So I'm hoping for a either the iPod, or a small hot pink digital camera. & I won't be doing a Christmas Haul cause I feel like that would be bragging and being like, "OMG look what my parents can afford to buy me!" Whereas, I only haul items I purchased with my own money so that I can show you guys that if I love it enough to spend my own money on it, you probably would too!

So I just wanted to do this quick blog post to say Merry Christmas Eve! This year has been the best of my life (so far) and I wouldn't change a thing. Thank you so much for giving me the gift of support this season and allowing me to spend this magical time with my family. I love you all and I can't wait to get back to doing videos consistently!

So tell me, how do you spend Christmas with your family? & What's on your Christmas wish list?

-B