merry Christmas, here's to many more

i love Christmas! without a doubt, it is my favorite holiday. i love the decorations. i love the food. i love the family traditions. i love getting gifts, and i especially love giving gifts. i love being home with the family, and i always feel like everyone should have to come home with me and experience a Christmas with my family!

a typical Christmas in my family goes something like this:
Christmas Eve:
...go out for family lunch or dinner
...Christmas Eve service
...play games and/or watch Christmas movies
...make baked goods, candy, and other food items for the next day
...go to bed way too late (usually caused by starting the previous activities much too late into the evening)

Christmas Day:
...get up really early! (usually somewhere around 6:00am-- maybe not too early for you, but after staying up too late, it definitely is early!)
...gather as a family around the Christmas tree and share gifts with each other!
...spend a few minutes playing around with our new toys and checking out what everyone else got
...rush around to get showered and dressed and to get the car loaded because we suddenly realize we only have about 30 minutes before we really need to be out the door!
...head to the community center that we have to rent out in a nearby town about a 20 minute drive away
...family breakfast with the extended family (usually around 70 people for this), usually consisting of: eggs, toast, biscuits and gravy, fried ham, fried pig brains (yeah, i know. that's gross. but it's tradition. and some people in my extended family really like it), fruit, donuts, and any other breakfast item that happens to be provided. this also includes a variety of milks and juices.
...after allowing a good amount of time for eating seconds and for letting the food settle, it's announcement time, which sometimes seems remarkably like a church business meeting.
...then the gift exchange. this involves passing out a number of gifts for the 'children'--all those still in high school or younger--who always draw names for their exchange. once they're settled (as much as it is possible to settle a young child with a new toy in a place where they have a huge audience...), the adults do some sort of gift exchange game with $5 gifts.
**side note: we exchange a $5 gift, because we decided we don't need to spend so much money on ourselves. we now each collect about $1/week throughout the year, pool the money, and help out some needy families in our area. it's pretty gosh-darn awesome.**
...once all the adults have settled, the rest of the day is spent munching on sweets and snacks, playing games, and socializing.
...deep-fried turkey for supper. then time to clean up and close down the building.
...this is usually followed by a small entourage of family joining us back at our place for an evening of game-playing. this year's game of choice: Apples to Apples.

the day after Christmas:
...do as little as possible!

my Christmas was just as wonderful as i had anticipated! and i hope it was the same for all of my readers! and all of my friends and family, for that matter!


"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
John 1:14