Tuesday, December 6, 2011

{Fabulous Holiday Blog Challenge} Our Christmas Day

Fabulous Holiday Blog Challenge

When Handsome Husband and I started dating, we ended up really lucky as far as the holidays go.  The holidays that are more important to my family are not the big ones in his, and vice-versa. 

As far as Christmas goes - our schedule for the day happened to work out perfect.

This is a little taste of our annual Christmas schedule:

Christmas Eve
We have Christmas Eve dinner with my parents at their house.  Since HH and I have been together, Mother-in-Law Red has joined us for the past few years.   Gardening Mom cooks, MIL Red brings some wine, and it's an awesome dinner every year.  After dinner, we drive around the neighborhood and check out all the pretty lights before we go home and hit the hay early - gotta get in bed before Santa comes!

Christmas Morning
Our Christmas Morning has been the same since I can remember.  Me and my little sistos wake up and head straight for the living room where our "big" gift has been left out by Santa when he came in the middle of the night!  We always end up chatting and checking out the "Santa gift" for an hour or two before we try and coax Gardening Mom and Hat Dad out of bed.  

Once the 'rents have made their way downstairs, and gotten a cup of coffee, we start working on the stockings!  Does anyone else love love love stocking presents?  Sometimes the best stuff is in there!  Santa (or Gardening Mom) is good with stuffing those stockings!

After stockings, we start the long process of unwrapping gifts.  We take a good couple of hours, due to the fact that only one person opens a gift at a time while everyone else watches (the way it should be), and we have lots of out-of-town family that sends in gifts that we wait to open until Christmas morning.

This is probably the last year I will wake in my bedroom at my parents' home on Christmas morning, and this is the first year that Handsome Hubster will be there all night long and the next morning bright and early.  While it's bittersweet, I plan to soak in this last year!

After presents, we head to brunch!  We have tried a few different locations, and still try new ones, but we always do Christmas morning brunch.  It is our thing.  And I love it - it's something I look forward to every.  single.  year!

Christmas Afternoon
After brunch, we swing by my parents' house, drop off any stragglers we might still have with us in the car, and pick up any presents in our little sleigh Jeep Liberty.  We go over to Handsome Husband's grandparents' house, and it's time for the second wind of Christmas celebrations to kick off!

Usually, we get there before some other family, and get to spend some quality time with Gpa and Grandma Beach Bum and MIL Red - exchange presents, have some yummy snacks, and enjoy the merriment!  Family starts trickling in as the day goes on, and we get to see all the kids high on presents and Christmas music.

Christmas Night
We have an interesting (read: Lebanese food) Christmas dinner, most of which doesn't quite fit perfectly with my white girl tummy.  But I give it a shot, and love the passion that HH's family has for their food and their culture.

Shortly after dinner (and awesome desserts) we play Pass the Buck - aka The Dollar Game!  If you've ever played a dice game called Left-Right-Middle, it's the same concept - just includes money!  It is so fun, and it's the best on Christmas because there is usually the most people there!  

After Pass the Buck, we start trickling out and realizing Christmas is really over for a whole 'nother year.  We are usually the one of the last few to leave - I like to hold on to that Christmas day as long as possible.  We head home, always exhausted due to the long day.  But always grateful for the wonderful families we have that keep us busy and smiling all day long.

What is your Christmas day like?

7 comments:

Jamie said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jamie said...

Great traditions!

Mia Maree said...

Casey, I love reading your blog!I want to give you the Liebster Blog award! I don't know if you know much about it, but head over to www.msmiamaree.com to find out and pass it on!! :)

Victoria said...

how fun! great ways to celebrate Christmas :)

Monica said...

Wow sounds fantastic! Every year I wonder what it will feel like not to sleepover my parents and wake up there for Christmas morning.

LWLH said...

That sounds like such a fun day, I want to join :)

Also left right middle, love it....we play with dollars or barter random stuff if we don't have cash.

Betty said...

Stockings are one of the best parts of the day!! And we only have one person open a present at a time as well. I enjoy it!!

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