Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Day 1: Christmas\Holiday Traditions

My favorite childhood tradition was spent on Christmas Eve. As a family, we would attend church. After church, my mom would cook Bird and I a special Christmas Eve dinner with Egg Nog and all. We would spend quality time as a family by a fire chatting about what we thought Santa would bring us. My mom would read us the story of Baby Jesus' Birthday from the Bible and my Dad would read us "Twas the Night before Christmas." Of course, Bird and I prepared cookies and milk for Santa and my parents would then put us to bed. My mom and dad would have a candle lit dinner with just the two of them (Which I will do when we have kids) typically with steak and wine. They always thought they were by themselves until they would look upstairs and see Bird and I poking our head through the banisters hoping Santa had already visited our home. :)
Things have changed since I was a child, teen and young adult because I am now married and spend Christmas with two families. And, I am 100% ok with that.
As a married adult, my favorite tradition is that we get to have two Christmas'. My brother nor my BIL are married, therefore, we don't want to take the Christmas excitement away from them. So, typically we spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at one house then drive to the other Christmas afternoon. This year is going to be much easier on us because my in-laws moved from JC to Austin a couple of weeks ago, so the drive is only two hours rather than three. It's important to E and I to spend wonderful, quality time with our families, so this works best for us. Another tradition that I hope never goes away, is my Dad acting as Santa. After all our gifts are opened, we make drinks, pick up all the boxes and gift paper, my Dad puts on a Santa hat and presents us with our "Santa Gift." This gift is specially picked out by him. Sometimes, my mom gives him ideas, but other times she doesn't even know the gift. It adds a fun surprise every year!
What are your favorite Christmas\Holiday traditions?

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