“Mom, Dad. Are we there yet?” I asked in the backseat of our ’07 Suburban . “Not yet Allison, we have about two and a half hours to go.”My mom said in the front seat. I moaned. I was ready to be there. It was about 1:30 now, and I had already been in the car for three and a half hours. “Don’t worry Allison. We’ll be there in two more hours.” I kept telling myself. I was headed up to my grandparents house in Columbia Lakes, about an hour and a half outside of Houston. This is one of the only times I ever got to see my WHOLE family on my mom’s side. I was so excited!
Me and my sister Makenzie were watching the movie 101 Dalmations when we pulled up to the check-in box. My brothers, Taylor and Josh, were both asleep in the backseat. We said we were going to 2327 Olympia Drive, and we arrived there five minutes later. I jumped out of the car, almost forgetting I still had my seat belt on, and dashed to the front door. I went in and hugged my Grammy and grandpa, and sprinted to the guest bedrooms. Yes, I got the middle bedroom, the best room in the house, and my brothers got the pull-out couch! Once I got mine and Makenzie’s bed made up, I went into the kitchen for some cheese dip and ginger snaps. We all sat next to my Grammy because she has extremely bad alzheimer’s. We sat there and talked, but that year was different. I was only 9 years old, and I didn’t understand Grammy’ s disease. That year, she kept repeating the same questions, over and over again. She couldn’t cook anymore, she could barely walk without stumbling over her feet. I was asking her what’s wrong, and she wouldn’t answer me back. Then my mom told me that her alzheimer’s was taking over her whole system. I ran to my room and slammed the door and cried in my pillow. “This can’t be happening to me, it just can’t be!” I said to myself. I just wanted to be shut out. I wanted the whole world to be shut out from me. I just couldn’t believe it was actually happening.
When I finally stopped crying, I went outside to talk with the rest of the family. We have a really BIG family, so it’s always fun to get together, 3 uncles at the time, great uncles and aunts, and cousins girlfriends. We all ate dinner, then we opened presents. The next morning was Christmas Day, so I opened all my presents, and hugged everyone. Then I got dressed, got all of our presents in the car, and drove home.. This is probably my most memorable Christmas because of my grammys alzheimer’s, and I got to see my family.