It's almost Chirstmas

December is already half over. Amazing how it seems to fly by every year. I have one more weekend to Chirstmas shop, and I still have no idea what Justin and I are going to buy when we do go shopping. It really frustrates me that they are his parents, yet he hasn't even thought about what to get them. Instead, it's up to me to stress about it. I may be working on Saturday since we're super busy at work and that only makes it harder to get everything done. I also agreed to babysit on Friday. Oh well, it will get done and Christmas will be wonderful.
This year, I purposefully did not make my birthday public on Myspace and Facebook. The last few years, I got bombarded by birthday wishes--more than I've ever gotten in my life, but it's all very fake. My birthday often gets ignored since it's sandwiched between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm often disappointed by the effort my friends put into my birthday. I have thrown parties, bought gifts, made cakes, and received nothing in return time and time again. The one major exception to this rule is James who has lovingly shared his birthday with me for years. All through high school he included me in whatever celebration or party he had and last year, he came to Columbus and we celebrated together.
So this year, I didn't make my birthday known to anyone who wouldn't remember on their own. I got texts from James and Tiffany. A card from Sarah Jewell. Myspace comments from Ashton and Lauren and again from Sarah. Brian was sweet enough to find belated comments for me. And Erin even said happy birthday on her status. So six friends. That's it. It just reenforced what I already knew; that I'm a better friend to some of them than they are to me. Jonas would call them "Clearance Friends" and I agree. However, I have a hard time letting them go. I have met some really good new friends lately and reconnected with others. I should just foster these relationships and appreciate the friends who appreciate me. But it's hard to just write people off you know? But thank you to everyone who remembered my birthday and took the time to say something.
Other than that revelation, my birthday was great. My parents visited with my grandma. They met the dog and we had lunch. It's so nice to have them visit. I really enjoy that Grandma lives with them now. I get to see her when I come home and she's able to travel down with them when they come. I tell my family and friends that there's an open invitation to my house and I love visitors.
Well, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas. We'll be hosting our casual New Year's thing again this year, so feel free to come by. Like always, it's laid back and not that fancy. But we always seem to have a house full of people.