The date was December 25, 2004 and I was driving home from the extended family dinner, when the unexpected happened. I was never a fan of waking up early on Christmas, mainly because I knew it was a day I had to spend with my twenty-eight cousins, in addition to all my aunts and uncles. The day started out as my mother bellowed across the house for me to get up. It was a hectic day for all of us, but I got up and walked to the living room. Under the tree awaited multiple presents, cards, and the one "box " my brother and I got every year. It's always the gift that we share. That year it happened to be a desktop computer. After, we thanked my parents and I went back to bed.
Hours later, I'm re-awoken by my dad, it's that dreaded time. Every year we drive two and a half hours to spend "quality time " with the family my father says "we never see ". Funny, twenty-eight cousins means twenty-eight different birthdays. Sure dad, we never see them. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have such a large family or if we just lived closer to them. I carry on, washing my teeth, brushing my face, and eventually, I'm ready to go. It's then that I realized that my mom isn't ready yet, and the "five minutes " excuse is used. We all know what "five minutes"" means.
We finally arrived at my aunt's house, half past five. Dinner was brought out a quarter after six. It was a free for all, children screaming, older cousins roughing each other up, and me, caught in between it all. Today it's been better, probably because I have permanent hearing loss, but who needs hearing? Shortly after dinner, my fragile grandmother tries to yell for everyone to join her in the living room. My favorite part of the night, opening presents. Since I could understand, at such an early age, that cash is "king ", that's what I asked for. Every year is a broken ATM. Like in the cartoons, where the money is just spewing at you. Seriously, who doesn't like to see Andrew Jackson's wrinkly face every time they open a card? Or even the occasional Benjamin? .