I love Christmas so much. I’m worse than a little kid. I think that Christmas is truly magical. It just warms the heart. I have already Netflix’d about every Christmas movie there is (Miracle on 34th St, Love Actually, The Holiday, Charlie Brown Christmas, Elf, Fred Claus [terrible movie], It’s a Wonderful Life, and Planes Trains and Automobiles [technically it’s a Thanksgiving movie but it still fits the season]. I have more coming including Holiday Inn, White Christmas, Meet me in St. Louis, etc.

The roommate and I have decorated our tree with beautiful ornaments, hung candy cane rope lights and stockings. Our house looks like a winter wonderland cottage. I love love love it.

I think my favorite part of Christmas is Christmas Eve. But before I get into that I should note that my family also likes to celebrate Christmas Adam (the day before Christmas Eve – get it Adam and Eve). And by celebrate, I mean we say to each other, “Happy Christmas Adam!” and a few times we all had dinner together – which isn’t that rare.

Anyway… Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Eve my entire extended family (which is actually pretty small) goes to Grandma Susie’s and Grandpa Lola’s House. First we take about 548151352375321680243 pictures. We take them by immediate family, by cousins, by sisters, by every type of grouping possible. However we’ve gotten faster as the years have gone on the boys’ pacience has waned.

After pictures, it’s time for dinner. We have ham, and casseroles and wassel and all that good stuff that warms the tummy. In a new tradition our family (being the game lovers that we are) have created our own Trivial Pursuit! Yep that’s right, our OWN!!! We have categories that include “The Grandparents” “The Sisters” “The Boys – as in Dad and Uncle Greg” “The Little Boys – Adam and Mike” “the Girls”. We now have new family members so we’ll have to revise our questions.

My questions include: What sorority was Bess in? A: Pi Beta Phi. What was Bess’s Major and Minor? A: Communications and Political Science What’s Bess’s Favorite Book? A: Some acceptable answers include – Little Women, Gone With the Wind, Blind Assasin, What I Loved, Harry Potter

etc
etc

Then… after the game the grandkids open our stockings. Poor Grandma and Grandpa. They keep trying to end this tradition but WE WILL NOT LET IT DIE! Every year our stockings consist of an orange, a toothbrush, and some socks. I love it.

After stockings comes my favorite 5 mins of the entire year.

Grandpa reads the Christmas Story out of Luke

Look at that pic. Is it not a perfect Christmas image (except for the sock clouding the image). Every year the oldest male, Grandpa, reads the Christmas story before we give out gifts to put us in the right focus. I can’t image not having that tradition. It’s the most perfect moment of the year. Although, one year Grandpa had a version that said, “Mary was pregnant” instead of “with child.” For some reason this gave Grandma the giggles and she could not stop laughing the entire time. The next year she started giggling thinking about last year when she laughed. Of course, Dad won’t let her live it down. But it’s honestly my favorite moment of the year. The entire world is at peace in happy in those few moments.

ahhhh

After that it’s time for presents. The youngest (that’s me – and probably will still be since Brody will be too little to give out his own gifts) distribute their gifts to everyone. Then you open then in order of youngest to oldest.

After everyone is done with their gifts, you play with your presents! I remember when we were little very distinctly, Anne and I going to Grandma’s front window and staring out the window. We were convinced we heard Santa’s sleigh and saw it. That’s just how magical Christmas is.