Christmas Memories: Christmas!
Guys, guys, guys! Christmas is two days away! Tomorrow is Christmas eve and the celebrations begin! My husband and I will be opening presents tomorrow morning, enjoying half a day to ourselves, and then heading up to begin celebrating with my mom’s side of the family for the evening. Friday we’ll go over early to my in-laws to open presents, eat breakfast, and then go to celebrate with my mother-in-law’s side. Being married and doing holidays is super complicated, but we’re figuring it out and ready to start our second Christmas as a married couple!
Growing up Christmas has always been super busy. My mom and dad each came from a family of seven kids and nine kids respectively and most of their siblings and their siblings families are still in the area. Family events are huge. So growing up I spent a lot of time with my cousins and aunts and uncles packed into someones house or other which wasn’t necessarily intended to hold that many people. There was always good food, though, and good times. When we were very small we would do Christmas at home, Christmas with one side and then Christmas with the other all in one day. Eventually this turned into Christmas Eve with Mom’s side and Christmas day with Dad’s. Much easier to manage.
My dad has worked shifts for as long as I can remember. This means that sometimes he would be working on Christmas and not be home in the morning to watch us open presents. To compensate for this, sometimes we opened presents before going to bed on Christmas Eve. Regardless, though, of if we were opening all our presents or not, there was always at least one present that we would open: Christmas jammies. Every year when my grandma was alive she would get each of the grand kids a set of Christmas pajamas to wear that night. At some point my mother took over for her when she couldn’t really go out and buy things anymore and she’s carried the tradition on ever since. We try to get a picture wearing the jammies in front of the tree every year, though sometimes not everyone is feeling cooperative.
Logan’s family has a more prominent Christmas morning tradition. After opening presents, the family sits down to a breakfast casserole. It is actually one of the most delicious breakfast foods in existence. My mom may have stolen it last year when we did Christmas morning up there. I hope they keep it, because eating breakfast as a family is honestly one of my favorite things. My side of the family doesn’t get to sit down and eat together that much in general, so any meal eaten around the table is kind of special, but there’s just something especially special about breakfast. It’s so much more chill than other meals, I guess.
Logan and I are trying to switch off spending Christmas and Christmas Eve with each side. Last year it was Christmas Eve with Logan’s side and then Christmas day with my side. This year we’re switching back to Christmas Eve with my side and Christmas day with his. It seems to be working out alright. Not everyone is completely satisfied with the arrangement, of course, but that’s how it goes. Maybe things will be less complicated next year when we’re in a different place. Probably not, but we can dream. Perhaps someday we’ll have a nice house and then everyone can come to us. My cousins on my mom’s side have started a white elephant tradition for the Christmas Eve gathering, which should be fun.
So today I’m finishing up my wrapping. This afternoon we’ll drive up to decorate cookies with my favorite small blond people and hopefully watch the Muppet’s Christmas Carol, because that’s my most favoritest ever. And tomorrow starts Christmas! Since this is the case, I’m going to take a break until the new year, when I’ll probably post my year end review. Then it’ll be back to business as usual, I think. I’m going to try and get back into Yoga for January, so you’ll likely hear about that quite a bit. So, until then; here’s wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! I hope you all have the loveliest of holidays, my friends!
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