12 Days: Favorite Holiday Memory

This morning, I woke up at 5:30am after sleeping for two hours so I could get my recovering boyfriend to a town, an hour or so away, so he could take a training test for a job he will be starting in January.  Why couldn't he take himself?  Because he had his gallbladder removed on the ninth and can barely get off the couch by himself.

So, I expected to spend the day there, sitting at Starbucks, drinking hot chocolate and eating a chocolate croissant while reading The Hunger Games.  Then, shopping at the mall, where I found the perfect peacoat. Too bad it's $100 and California doesn't get cold enough for $100 coats...

Two hours into my shopping day, I get a call from the boyfriend saying he is ready to go.  WHAT!?  I had barely just stepped into the mall.  What is this craziness?  I can't leave him there though, so I pick him up and take him home.

What does this have anything to do with one of my favorite, or at least most memorable, holiday memories?

Let me take you back to around this time last year.

-cue flashback fuzziness that transitions the viewer to last year-

I had been dating my boyfriend for a little over a year, but this was the first time that he was meeting my parents.  He was incredibly nervous about the whole ordeal.  Didn't help that he was afraid of heights and planes at the time.  The height fear has since been conquered, not sure about the planes. 

We get off the plane in Cleveland and search for my parents, who were picking us up.  Hugs are given, we find our luggage and head to the car.  My dad is already cracking jokes, because that's just how he is.  Then, he decides that instead of going home right away, he wants to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.   He had never been.  We were in Cleveland.  So why not!?  It closed 15 minutes after we got there.  That's why not.

Somehow, it takes like three hours or something crazy like that to make it home.  Cleveland is an hour away from my parents house.  The entire time, everybody is joking about embarrassing things  and I'm just sitting in the backseat, totally mortified, clutching the boyfriend's hand for dear life.

Finally, we make it home. I walk in the door and I'm attacked by my family's new slobber monster.  Cassie is a licker and spared no inch of my face.  I sit down for maybe, two seconds and then the boyfriend starts nagging me about going to the movie theater, which is twenty minutes away from the house and WE JUST GOT THERE.  In his defense, The Hobbit came out that day and I made him sit on a plane for hours rather than going to see it right away. 

We grab my brother and sister, pile them in a car and take them to see The Hobbit.  Movie tickets are a lot cheaper in Ohio than they are in California.  We paid for four, what we would normally pay for two tickets!  Because of this, the boyfriend went spoil happy and bought popcorn and soda for everyone.  Pretty sure he tried to force us to get candy too.  Did I mention that my family never goes to the movie theater so my siblings probably didn't know how to react?

I haven't even gotten to the good part yet.

The next day, my mom takes us back to where we were the night before, when we went to the movie theater.  She hasn't gotten my dad's Christmas present yet and wants us to help pick it out.  My dad is the type of guy who is pretty easy to shop for.  Just get him tools for his shop.  The problem is knowing what he doesn't already have.

We are all huddled up in the tool section of Sear's and my boyfriend is looking for black people because he's in culture shock and has only seen white.  Back at the airport, he started counting the black people he saw.  Currently, he was at zero or maybe one.  I don't remember

Out of no where, I feel this heavy weight upon my shoulders.  The boyfriend is leaning on me, but then he stops.  We walk a little bit and I feel it again.  The next thing I know, I'm on the floor.  HE LEANED ON ME AND THEN FELL ON TOP OF ME.  Great way to make a good first impression on my folks, hun.

Not only did he concern my mother, but one of the ladies who worked at Sears walked by while I was on the floor and she was black.  One of the first black people he saw in Ohio was right after he fell on top of me.

-cue fuzziness that transitions viewer back to present time-

It was a long weekend after that.  Lots of shopping and movie watching.  We also made it back to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before hour plane left!

Also, despite him crushing me, in front of everyone at Sears, my family still loves him.  He can be silly at times, but so can I.  He is perfect for me and I would do almost anything for him, even if it means having to wake up at some ungodly hour.

Follow Here! Bloglovin | Facebook | Twitter |  Pinterest