Saturday, December 25, 2010

Christmas Festivities

My favorite day of the year is Christmas Eve.
It's the day we actually do stuff, whereas Christmas is reserved for lounging and be lazy all the day long.
The first thing we do to celebrate on Christmas Eve is to have a grand dinner. Usually, it's like Thanksgiving, only we have honey baked ham instead of turkey. This year, however, we switched things up and had a German Christmas meal. It was way tasty and fun to try something new.
Following dinner, we gather in the family room and sing Christmas Hymns. Not to brag, but I think my family makes up a fine little choir. I decided this year that my favorite Christmas hymn is With Wondering Awe. It's a good song yes, but I love it because of the family memories I have attached to it.
Once singing concludes, we do a family testimony meeting. This is my absolute favorite part of the year. It's a time when we all take a moment to stand and bear testimony, as well as reflect on the year and how we have been blessed and how we have moved forward and grown. It's a really special time.
After the Spiritual portion, things get fun. All the nieces and nephews open presents and usually we play a dice game where we have a huge jackpot of presents to win. We postponed it this year and did it a few days later when more siblings could make it.
The final Christmas Eve tradition is to watch the George C. Scott version of "A Christmas Carol". Once the movie is over, it's bedtime!

Then Christmas morning happens. It's pretty chill now days, since we're all grown up. I realized this year that Christmas day won't be that exciting again until I have kids of my own. Alas, we opened presents and I was surprised with a new camera and riding boots. My parents are so generous.
Normally, we have the same breakfast each Christmas morning-- breakfast casserole and sticky buns. I HATE breakfast casserole. The sticky buns are delish, but ugh that casserole makes me wanna hurl. Now, seeing that I was the only child home, I voted that we pass on the casserole and make waffles instead. And it was so! I was quite pleased by this. I ended up making the waffles while my mom made some sausage and other breakfasty sides. It was yummy.
This is the third year that we have decided to see a movie on Christmas. This year, it was Tangled. I fell in LOVE with that movie. Way good... and I cannot wait to watch it again.

And that is essentially what we did for Christmas. It's spent hanging out with the fam and relaxing. I love it. It has been so nice to be home with all these people I love. Three cheers for holidays!

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