My Goodness! This is such a busy time of the year. I was back at the funeral home this afternoon, and I will either need to go tomorrow, which isn’t looking likely or Monday morning. I have always found this time of year to be especially hard on people. I don’t know what the statistics are, but it sure seems like right before the holidays and right after I spend way too much time in funeral homes.
Karen and I have been scurrying around trying to get the last minute Christmas preparations ready for tomorrow. We have celebrated our family Christmas on the Sunday before Christmas since our kids were first born. All of our family lives over in Illinois, so we would let the kids open their presents at our house early so that we could travel over to be home for Christmas.
I remember one Christmas when a relative was voicing a complaint that it wasn’t fair that after their kids would open their presents on Christmas morning, they would then have to hurry them up and leave their toys to attend the big family Christmas. Karen just laughed and told them that our kids have never opened up their Christmas presents on Christmas morning, because we were always in Illinois, and our kids seemed to survive ok, and in addition, when our kids left their new toys, it wasn’t for a few hours, it was for a week, so quit complaining. (Actually I’m not sure that she was quite that nice about it)
In reality, our kids always thought that it was great, they got to open up their presents as much as a week earlier then their friends, so we certainly never heard any complaints from the kids. The great thing about it was that we would end up with three Christmases. One with our kids the Sunday before Christmas, Christmas Eve which was the traditional time for my family, and then Christmas Day which was always the time set for Karen’s family.
What we have found, is that it really doesn’t matter when you have Christmas, it’s all about who you have Christmas with. We have always tried as hard as we could to make the trip to Illinois, and I think that in 28 years, the only time we weren’t able to go home was the year that Ben was born, and if I told you that he was born on December 29th, that might help you understand even better why we weren’t able to make the 15 hour trip from Atlanta GA.
Tomorrow we will attend church, which is part of the Christmas tradition, if you don’t attend at least one service, then no presents. Terri takes this threat very seriously, but Ben even more so, he has been known to attend both services just to be on the safe side. After church we come back to the house and have lunch. I think that tomorrow’s menu calls for, homemade bread, ham, chili, macaroni and cheese for the kids (and Terri), well she is one of the kids, Nacho cheese dip and whatever else sounds good while we are at the grocery store tonight. After lunch, we will open up the presents.
My family used to pretty much pass out all the gifts at the same time, then in mass chaos, everybody opened their gifts all at the same time. When Karen and I started dating (over 30 years ago, can you believe that) I saw that her family passed out one present at a time and everyone watched as the recipient opened their gift, and then we moved on to the next gift. It took a long time, but in reality what else do you have to do that is more fun than opening presents, and besides, people spend a lot of time (and money) shopping and it is really nice to get to see the expression on the persons face when they open their gift. I took this idea back to my family and after a bit of initial resistance, I won’t mention the family member who resisted, but we have done it that way ever since, and I really appreciate opening gifts that way.
Anyway, after we are done with presents, we will all go over to church for our Annual Christmas program, which should be a lot of fun. (Mary is going to be a pink lamb) I will have to explain that sometime. So, tomorrow will be a very busy, enjoyable day. I will let you know how everything goes.
Blessings
Karen and I have been scurrying around trying to get the last minute Christmas preparations ready for tomorrow. We have celebrated our family Christmas on the Sunday before Christmas since our kids were first born. All of our family lives over in Illinois, so we would let the kids open their presents at our house early so that we could travel over to be home for Christmas.
I remember one Christmas when a relative was voicing a complaint that it wasn’t fair that after their kids would open their presents on Christmas morning, they would then have to hurry them up and leave their toys to attend the big family Christmas. Karen just laughed and told them that our kids have never opened up their Christmas presents on Christmas morning, because we were always in Illinois, and our kids seemed to survive ok, and in addition, when our kids left their new toys, it wasn’t for a few hours, it was for a week, so quit complaining. (Actually I’m not sure that she was quite that nice about it)
In reality, our kids always thought that it was great, they got to open up their presents as much as a week earlier then their friends, so we certainly never heard any complaints from the kids. The great thing about it was that we would end up with three Christmases. One with our kids the Sunday before Christmas, Christmas Eve which was the traditional time for my family, and then Christmas Day which was always the time set for Karen’s family.
What we have found, is that it really doesn’t matter when you have Christmas, it’s all about who you have Christmas with. We have always tried as hard as we could to make the trip to Illinois, and I think that in 28 years, the only time we weren’t able to go home was the year that Ben was born, and if I told you that he was born on December 29th, that might help you understand even better why we weren’t able to make the 15 hour trip from Atlanta GA.
Tomorrow we will attend church, which is part of the Christmas tradition, if you don’t attend at least one service, then no presents. Terri takes this threat very seriously, but Ben even more so, he has been known to attend both services just to be on the safe side. After church we come back to the house and have lunch. I think that tomorrow’s menu calls for, homemade bread, ham, chili, macaroni and cheese for the kids (and Terri), well she is one of the kids, Nacho cheese dip and whatever else sounds good while we are at the grocery store tonight. After lunch, we will open up the presents.
My family used to pretty much pass out all the gifts at the same time, then in mass chaos, everybody opened their gifts all at the same time. When Karen and I started dating (over 30 years ago, can you believe that) I saw that her family passed out one present at a time and everyone watched as the recipient opened their gift, and then we moved on to the next gift. It took a long time, but in reality what else do you have to do that is more fun than opening presents, and besides, people spend a lot of time (and money) shopping and it is really nice to get to see the expression on the persons face when they open their gift. I took this idea back to my family and after a bit of initial resistance, I won’t mention the family member who resisted, but we have done it that way ever since, and I really appreciate opening gifts that way.
Anyway, after we are done with presents, we will all go over to church for our Annual Christmas program, which should be a lot of fun. (Mary is going to be a pink lamb) I will have to explain that sometime. So, tomorrow will be a very busy, enjoyable day. I will let you know how everything goes.
Blessings
2 comments:
I can't wait to open presents!! I think that you will LOVE what i found for you!
Whooohooooo :) I can't wait either:) But according to the time on your comment which is 1:45 AM I am a little worried about the getting up and to church part:)
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