Day 359: CHRISTmas

Christmas day. Everyone looks forward to it. I mean, why wouldn't you? It's Christmas!! We're celebrating the birth of our Lord JC! This time of year has always been one that I enjoy; I'm pretty sure there hasn't been a Christmas I didn't enjoy. Today was a family day; I literally spent the entire day with family and relatives. In the morning, my family went to Pittsburg to see grandma; as tradition, we took her for breakfast at IHOP (I'm really taking a liking to IHOP now; who knew ten months away from here could make their food taste SO amazing?) After that, we took a trip to Mi Pueblo, which is basically a massive Mexican supermarket where you can find lots of food for super cheap prices. It's cool to be in a place like that, because it's full of Latin American culture and the kind of food my parents are familiar with from their childhoods. After spending a couple hours with our relatives, we dropped off grandma and came home. Throughout the day I kept practicing with my new camera, and so far it's going well. I spent a good 20 minutes just going through the manual, and I had to stop due to an overflow of info to my brain. I could have picked just about anything to do once I got home, but I found myself in front of my TV reliving one of my favorite pastimes: Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus on the Playstation 2. What was originally going to be a small play-through of the first and second levels ended up being me playing for about 4 hours and eventually beating the game; frankly, I'm surprised I beat it so quickly. Looks like I'll be playing through the second one pretty soon =)

Okay, so maybe this Christmas wasn't like the ones you see in the movies or television, but the fact that I got to spend it with the most special people in my life was well worth it. One thing I would complain about is that today's society is moving away from Christmas's purpose and inspiration. I guess I don't really see what's so controversial about saying "Merry Christmas"; obviously me being a Christ follower can make me feel uneasy when I hear modern America saying "Happy Holidays" as if they're trying to take away the deeper meanings and spiritual connections of Christmas out of the picture. All I can really say in the end is I'm going to stick with the way it was meant to be from the beginning. Think about it; 'tis all.

God bless,
Steven