It's Christmas Time!
In honor of 2007, I figured I should write at least one blog entry for the year! I promise to try and do better in 2008.
Christmas shopping is finally finished, as of last night. I’m still looking for a little something for my sister, but overall, the list is complete. Nate says he has a surprise for me that will come on Friday at noon. What could it be? The anticipation is killing me. I managed to get him some surprises this year too, which I think he’ll really like.
This will be our first Christmas together as a married couple – and first Christmas together PERIOD! We’ve been together more than 8 years now, so this is a big occasion. We’re heading to Dallas this coming Friday, then fly to Indiana on Sunday. We’ll be in Indiana for Christmas Day and then head back to Dallas to celebrate with his friends and family on the weekend. So far, the major difference we can see between our Christmas traditions is that in Indiana, Santa leaves presents under the tree, and in Texas, he leaves them by the couch. =)
What are your Christmas traditions?
Mine:
Christmas Eve is always spent at my Grandma Durham’s house. She only has a tabletop tree now, but all the presents go under it, and then the 2 youngest grandkids (which are my sister, who is 16 this year, and my cousin Jaylyn who is in college) pass out all the presents, then we tear into them. Various “Cool!”, “Thanks Grandma”, “Hey, look at this!” exclamations can be heard throughout the gift-opening fiasco. Dinner always consists of Lasagna, and I’m not really sure where that started. Someone usually brings a small ham too for anyone that wants to stick with an old fashioned favorite. At the end of the night, my Grandma always makes the statement, “Well, we had a good Christmas this year.” My family then leaves to drive back to my Dad’s house, and it invariably snows on the way home. When I was little, I would stay at Dad’s house until my Mom and stepdad got finished with Christmas Eve service at his church, then they would pick me up on the way home, always after midnight.
Christmas Day is started with me waking up before everyone else (although it’s later and later each year), going downstairs, and peeking in my stocking. For some reason, my mom doesn’t hang the stocking – she just lays it on the brick fireplace. After I’ve devoured the contents within, I try my best to wake up the parents. That usually takes a while, and eventually consists of my mom and I “yelling” at Ron to get up, and when this doesn’t work, we go upstairs and take a picture of him sleeping. For some reason, this does the trick. Once the family is downstairs, I sit on the floor by the tree and start passing out presents, one at a time. We watch each other open the gifts, Ron tries to keep the wrapping paper in the trash bag, and tries to keep each bow for next year. After all the gifts are opened, we make a mad dash to put everything upstairs and then frantically clean and get food ready for my mom’s family for lunch. Mom tries to finish the insane amounts of food right until the first car pulls into the driveway. Then she rushes upstairs to get ready and I entertain the guests until she’s finished. Normally about 17-people come to celebrate, and they all tend to leave around 4:30 so that they can get home before dark. The rest of the day is normally spent just relaxing, watching TV, playing with new gifts, etc. I think this year, Nate and I might go see a movie with Dad and Nancy that night.
December 26th used to be filled with shopping with my mom and I, but that tradition has slowly slipped away as we started dreading the hour-drive to the mall, long return lines, rude people that left their Christmas spirit at the door yesterday, and entirely too much traffic. The Meyer family Christmas is usually held on the 26th, and this year will be no different. It’s an evening meal, but usually they start “games” in the afternoon, so we head over to Mark & Nan’s house whenever we get around to it. Nate’s excited to play his new uncle’s in ping-pong. We eat dinner (more turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, oyster dressing, etc) and then let the kiddos open gifts. Once they’ve finished, we send them downstairs to play and the adults do a white-elephant type gift exchange. The rules are always debated for 10 minutes while people argue over how many times a present can be traded before it’s found the rightful owner. Eventually we start the game and it’s always a good time. The women barter over the home decor items, and then men always trade around for tools, flannel shirts, and flashlights. Once the gift exchange has finished, we play some Euchre, snack on cookies, and eventually head home, exhausted and glad that Christmas celebrations are finally over.
