We talked a little bit about Christmas traditions at book group this month because that seemed to be the main focus of the book (I thought). I mentioned that Frank and I have always been with extended family on Christmas and Christmas Eve until just a year ago. Since we have our own Christmas morning now we have just started to develop our own little family traditions.
On Christmas Eve we eat a dinner of ham, rolls, chips, dips, veggies, and some fun drink with my family, then play Christmas pictionary and perhaps other games. Then Frank and I pack up the kids and go home where we read a Christmas book to the kids (a new one every year-we are getting quite the collection) and put them in bed. On Christmas morning we get up, open presents, eat breakfast (Sausage balls, puff pancakes, hot-chocolate/egg-nog) in front of the tree and play. At 1:00 pm we meet my cousins, Aunts and Uncles at my grandma's house for gift exchange and ethnic foods (this year it's Mediterranean). Then we go back to my parents house where kids open gifts from them and they open gifts from us and we hang out, play more games, or just relax. Then back to our house. A couple of weekends before Christmas is our big family party that my parents are in charge of. This year it was the night of the big storm and we still had 60 people show. It's always fun to see cousins that I don't usually get to see throughout the year. So... in a nutshell that is what we currently do.
Now I ask you, what are your favorite traditions? Any special foods? Traveling? Please share.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Christmas Traditions
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5 comments:
I am so impressed that your parents get everyone together - cousins and so forth! In my family, no one wants to be in charge of that kind of shindig. I might take it on in the summer - park so the kids can play and not trash anyone's home! You know how we roll for Christmas...
Sounds great!
The Gibsons have a long standing traditions of having Chinese food for dinner Christmas Eve. This started with Darin's grandma. We used to go out, but there are too many kids now. We order Dragon Diner (in Holladay) and stuff ourselves full while we exchange cousin and sibling gifts. It is so fun, and yummy! Then Santa's Elves give all the kids pajamas so they can get ready for bed and we head home to wait for Santa.
We do a similar kind of family party. My dad's side of the family all gets together at my uncle's house and we do a live nativity (they live on a farm). While the characters are doing the nativity, the rest of us are singing christmas hymns. It is very spiritual (and very cold it's in Idaho). I have always loved this night, there are always a million people and lots of little kids, but everybody is excited. We always have soup and rolls for dinner.
Then we all head back to our homes and wait for Santa. I am so excited this year to have Alex old enough to kind of understand some of what goes on. He will love the live nativity.
Our traditions have been changing lately. This year no one wants us for Christmas so we are doing our own thing. Thanks for this post so we can hear other ideas.
We are going to try your sausage rolls for Christmas breakfast.
Our Christmases seem to be different every year, so we don't have any solid traditions. We are flying to Georgia tomorrow, so we'll be spending Christmas Eve and Day with my family, obviously. We always have a big breakfast on Christmas day, which I love. My parents have an awesome Internation Farmer's Market near them, so they always get exotic fruits to go with the meal. It's the best!
Merry Christmas, Heidi and family!
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