1. Ornaments
All the "kids"/"grandkids" of the family get an ornament each year. Actually, my sisters and I get THREE a year! (No wonder my mom had to have two trees while we all lived there! No wonder my tree is already full and I'm only 26, and I don't have kids, yet!) My grandparents on both sides of my family give us each an ornament every year, and my mom gives us one as well. This is my 26th Christmas. You do the math!
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We draw names each year in my husband's and my family. In my family, we all put our names in and draw out one per person. Then within the limit, we buy each other gifts for the following year's Christmas. In Vance's family, we only draw names among the siblings. (There are 8 of us, including myself, but this year we also included my brother-in-laws girlfriend and my sister-in-laws boyfriend.) It's so fun to keep it a secret all year long (on my side) and for a month (on Vance's side.) I love buying presents for people!
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We have Christmas four or more times. Seriously. Christmas Eve is church, Vance's family's house for dessert and games, and the last two years, we've spent the night at my parent's house where we open the presents from my grandparents who live in NY. Christmas Day has three different houses! Whew. I'm tired already! We open presents on Christmas morning with my parents and sisters. We have breakfast there (monkey bread and orange juice!) and then head over to my Grandma's house for a non-traditional Christmas tradition dinner of Northern BBQ, noodles, jello salad, punch, etc. THEN...later that afternoon, we head over to Vance's parents' house and have Christmas dinner with his family and open presents with all of them. THEN! We have Kahl Family Christmas on whichever day works for everyone's work schedules that current year (this year is Dec. 29th.) We all get together and have a traditional Christmas dinner, tons of goodies, and exchange presents. :-) Christmas times a million!
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So, just to clarify, we no longer hold this tradition. When you read on, you'll understand why! When Hannah was about 2 (she'll be 17 in March), Hannah, Kristin, and I would all sleep in my bed on Christmas Eve. (Now you see why we stopped this. Adding my husband to the mix makes it creepy!) I had a queen sized bed, so it was always in my room. I also had cable TV in my room before Kristin did. We would watch tv (usually A Christmas Story) and fall asleep in my bed. Throughout the night, Hannah would usually end up at the end of the bed...or on top of one of us. As we all grew up, we decided to kick Hannah to the end of the bed before we fell asleep...and then eventually to the floor. (She was ok with it!)
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Depending on your family, you may wait until Christmas Eve to "trim" your tree. Some people wait until December. In my family, we always put the Christmas tree up right after Thanksgiving. The reasoning? My birthday is December 6th and I wanted it up for my birthday parties! :-) I still carry on with this tradition. It just isn't my birthday anymore if the tree isn't up!
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| My tree this year! |
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