Merry Christmas, a day late

Some interesting things happened over the past few days to my family, and since this blog is mostly anonymous, I'll post them here:

1) My aunt's car was broken into on Tuesday and the presents she had for her little nieces and nephews were stolen. WTF? SO NOT THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT!!!!! Thankfully she was not hurt and the car wasn't too damaged (just the passenger window was broken) so all will be OK. She will probably get reimbursed by the insurance company for the stolen items, but her coworkers took up a collection and gave her money so she could replace the stolen gifts. My cousins were so good about it too, telling her that it wasn't about the presents. They are getting so grown up!

2) After Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, DH's grandmother decides to have a confessional and lets out a huge family secret to just DH and I. (other people know this, they just weren't there) She told us that when she was 16, still living in the "Old Country", she was raped by a Russian soldier (occupying her country) and got pregnant with DH's mom. DH and I had guessed that something like this had happened--the age difference between his mom and grandma, how they had the same maiden names, etc. But we never knew for sure--actually we'd thought that maybe his grandmother had gotten herself into "trouble" at a young age and didn't get married. Who would have thought? This certainly puts a different spin on things. Poor DH's grandmother, especially back then when there wasn't help for these things.



Otherwise, Christmas was pretty good...our families were very generous this year with money and gifts. I got a little stressed out on Christmas day, but I need to learn to chill the eff out. I had a hilarious time at my parents' house with my two cousins from my dad's side (it's just the 4 of us for grandchildren on that side) who are in their early 20s, listening to the hijinx that they encounter in life.