After the cameras stopped rolling for this week, I jumped on a plane to Hawaii for a quick vacation. So, you’re getting this from the airplane while I’m coming home. Christmastime is one of my favorite times of the year, especially since it’s so close to my birthday! And this year was extra cool since I”ll be turning 18. But this year Christmas was just so sick because my mom was way excited this year. When I said that our place looked like Christmas, I was not kidding. All the lights my mom puts up on the house (with a little help from my grandpa), plus the huge tree in the living room with all the decorations makes the house look dope. She even has this toy train on railroad tracks running around in a circle on the floor with all the presents and stuff there. Kane likes playing with that one. Our tree and basically the whole house looks like something you’d see in a Bloomingdale’s catalogue. Everything was decorated and the mood around the house was way different from last year when nobody even felt like celebrating.

I wish there was more time for you to see the rest of the party. It was so much fun! My mom cooked almost everything. The house smelled so good all day. You guys all already know that my mom is a great cook and how I’m a huge fan of her taco nights, so you can only imagine how good this food was as well.

When my mom first mentioned doing some kind of gift exchange for the party, I thought, no chance! Kayla was helping my mom plan things and wanted to do a Secret Santa, but then mom threw out the “white elephant” thing and I just kinda went along because she swore that it was the best thing ever. I didn’t really get how it worked when Mom described it (it was really confusing and at one point Kane said “let’s get this show on the road!”), but once we actually started playing, it was pretty funny. The rules were the gift had to be under $25 bucks and we were supposed to get these gag gifts. Then you put all these gifts into a pile, draw numbers, and pick gifts in number order. You open the gift and everybody sees what it is and then, like, the next person can either “steal” your gift or pick a fresh one from the pile. It goes on and on and then everybody ends up with something. One person got a robotic dog that humps your leg. I bought these dumb things like an extra large remote control and that football helmet that has straws you can drink from that Mom’s boyfriend, Bruce, opened up. Out of that whole pile of gifts from like 20 people, it figures that the first thing I pick up is a photo from Shane signed “thanks for the support.” On top of it being hilarious, I was kinda mad I didn’t think of it first.

Oh, and on a side not, did you notice that Tony brought a girl to the party? Not just any girl, but his girlfriend. I can’t remember the last time Tony had a girlfriend. It was cool to see him so happy with her. She’s cool and seems like a good fit for him. Speaking of girls, this week was intense and Kayla was totally cool with listening to me vent about everything that was going on. It’s cool to have someone sick like that who will just listen, even though she admits she doesn’t fully “get it” since her parents are still together. Between having this party at the house, not being able to invite my dad, hearing Dad’s side about the court case, and then that gnarly blowup with my mom…this was one of those weeks where everything was hitting the fan at the same time. Just kinda how my life goes, I guess. I’m grateful that my mom saw our argument as something that needed to happen and that me blurting out what I did was healthy. I realize it wasn’t me that caused them to get divorced. They had their own problems that were beyond anything that was going on with me. Yeah, it was an ugly fight, but getting that thought out of my head ended up making things with my dad a whole lot easier too. We had the best time out on the golf course playing a quick round. That day was awesome and now I want all of our time together to be – just chill. When there’s no stress like that, I get really hopeful that someday soon we’ll all be able to hang out together again.