Christmas Traditions

Every year we "do" Christmas about the same way. So I guess those would be called Christmas traditions, eh?

Christmas Eve~
We cook and clean. Actually we start cooking on the 23rd.
Otherwise, we have a family gathering with my Dad on Christmas Eve. We head over to my Dad's about 11:30 am. My sisters and their families will be there, Dad and Cay, Cay's mom, and my paternal gramma. We have pizza and chicken and then Santa comes! Doug plays Santa and the littles get SO excited! I have my annual picture taken with Santa :)

Then the extended family gives their gifts to the littles and we leave them to play. The adults go into the next room and exchange gifts. It is SO fun!

We also go to Christmas Eve service at church on Christmas Eve evening. I love this service. It's mostly accoustic guitar and carols. We take communion. It is nice.

Afterwards we drive through McD's for dinner and then drive around for an hour or so and look at the Christmas lights.

Doug and I have a nice little Christmas Eve tradition after the kids are in bed. We have a glass of wine, shrimp and cheeseball, and watch the lights and listen to music. It is so relaxing and usually quite late. But so nice.

Christmas Day~
Doug reads the Chirstmas story out of Luke.

We have coffee while opening the stockings. Then I pop our casserole in the oven and it cookes while we exchange gifts.

The guys clean up and I finish preparing our brunch. Mostly just setting things out, whipping the cream for the eggnog, stuff like that.

My Dad and Cay drop by on their way to my aunt's house. My Gramma comes by for a little visit.

Then we hang out in our jammies playing games, watching movies and napping :)

My in-laws will be by for dinner and then we'll exchange gifts and head to the movies. I think we'll see National Treasure this year. We've been going to the movies for 5 years now. It is a nice time.

Dec. 26~
We have a family gathering with my mom. My sisters and I take turns hosting. This year is my turn. So that evening my sisters and their families, my Mom and Dave, maternal gramma, great aunt, aunt and uncle, their 2 grown boys with their wives and children will all come over. It will be a nice time of fellowship and holding the 2 new babies we've had this year :) :) :)

Dec. 27th I'll have a jammie day :::snort::: Actually, I told the boys they could ALL, at the SAME TIME, have a friend spend the night! Yep, I am INSANE!!!

So that's a little glimpse into our Christmas traditions. I'd love to hear about yours. Please leave a comment on my blog that you've posted on yours so I can come by and read all about yours.