Today is Yule (or Winter Solstice) and I find myself reflecting on what makes the Christmas season special to me. Everyone has their own traditions so I thought I'd share a few of mine with you.
The Christmas season is really almost all of December in my house. With so many family and friend parties going on it make for a busy month. Usually the first big holiday tradition is my grandparents Christmas party. We get together for dinner and visit and play a few games but the biggest tradition with this part of the family is doing the Nativity. My grandparents are quite religious and have been doing this as a family tradition for generations. When I was young, we all dressed up and my Grandpa would read the story out of the Bible but about 6 years ago we put a new spin on the tradition. My Grandparents live on a farm and have a huge barn. My Grandpa asked me to take over the Christmas party one year when my Grandma was feeling particularly stressed and I convinced him we should do the party in the barn and make it a live nativity with the animals and everything. We now do it every year in the barn and have people from all over the town they live in come and watch. We do it a little different now. We don't read from the Bible anymore. In fact, we don't speak at all. The entire nativity is done to music now and features all different member of my family as actors. It makes may grandparents happy so we keep doing it every year.
Next is Christmas with my dad and his wife and my half brother. This tradition involves gifts and tacos and visiting. Just nice and low key.
On the 21st every year J and I do our gift exchange and drive around the city to check out the great light displays. We take 6 plates of Christmas goodies with us and when we find a house that we like, we give them a little treat.
Christmas eve is spent at my mom's place. We eat way to much food, go sledding, eat more food, watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation and exchange gifts by the light of the Christmas tree. I love the sledding and look forward to my brother popping his newest tube every year.
Late that night we pile in the car and drive out to J's parents farm for Christmas day. There is always the same thing waiting for me when we arrive every year. A nicely chilled bottle of wine and all the "Santa" gifts to wrap. I made the mistake of telling his mom that I liked to wrap gifts my first Christmas out there and now 8 years later it's a tradition for me to wrap everything. Eventually we get a few hours of shut eye before the kids are up and excited. We open gifts with plenty of coffee (with a little extra Christmas Cheer in it) and the spend the rest of the day gorging on my nephews amazing holiday fare. I think he's trying to make me fat.
I love the holiday season. The best part about it for me is getting to spend time with all my family and giving everyone that perfect gift. Speaking of which...it's time to go give J his gift this year. I can't wait to see his face when he opens it!
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