Missing my Lottery Tickets.

I am listening to XM 822 holly. Macy Gray is butchering the song This Christmas (Hang the mistletoe). Inigo keeps walking over to the TV and doing the famous pug head tilt. This is when a pug want to know "What is that?" You can see a demonstration here. I am very picky about my Christmas music. I prefer instrumental classics. I fond that too many singers want to put their own spin or signature on Christmas carols. That bugs me. Don't mess with the classics. Reminds me of Britney Spears doing a cover of the Rolling Stones. Sacrilege I tell you. I do like Kelly Clarkson singing My Grown Up Christmas List and Whitney Duncan - All I Want For Christmas Is You.
I like tradition. This Christmas my traditions are missing by half. We are not going to TX so we will only have my family instead of both families. On the one hand I am happy I will get to stay home for a Christmas. We have made the 620 mile drive for the last 5 years. It kills. With one kid it was torture. With two I feel like I need to pack a noose in the suitcase. I am sad that we will miss seeing all of J's family (dad's side).
The Christmas eve celebration is always a blast. We have great food to munch on and it is BYOB. Gotta love that! I get to sit and talk with relatives I rarely get a chance to catch up with. J has one cousin that I am especially close to. I hate that I will be missing out on her this year. There is this one wacky tradition they have that I think is truly unique to them. J's Aunt Taylor always buys gobs of lotto scratchers to divide among the family. There are almost 20 of us and we usually get 6 or 7 tickets a piece. No one ever wins much more than few bucks but it is hilarious. We never seem to have more than one or two coins amongst us so we all have to share them. The family that gambles together...