Hold me close

Christmas Traditions


Every year I look forward to Christmas, not necessarily for the presents (although that is a plus) but for the traditions we have. My mom is big on traditions (I think she got that from Nannie). Every morning my dad wakes up really early (like before the sun is up early) so that he can go downstairs and start the fire and make sure everything is ready. When Matt and I were younger, we would wait on the stairs until we heard the Chipmunk music, which meant we could go downstairs. Now that we are older though, my dad usually makes sure we are up and ready for present time. My mom would always shower and get dressed before hand because my dad would tape christmas morning, but now that we don't do that anymore I think she does it just to be funny. I remember begging her to hurry up when I was little because we weren't allowed downstairs until she was done. When the music started my dad would be at the bottom of the stairs, probably more excited than we were, and so we raced down. We always open stockings first in the family room. We have to force my mom to open hers because she's always too busy watching us. After thats over my dad leads the way into the music room. He opens the door and we see that once again, they have outdone themselves. We aren't one of those families that open presents one a time because we get too excited. But we do have to wait until mom and dad hand us our presents. They always have some little plan of what order we have to open them in. For example. One year I think I got to open American Girl doll accessories so that I knew I was getting the real thing! They are so tricky. Anyway after presents my mom has us eat breakfast in the dining room. We always eat breakfast casserole and it's always great. As soon as thats over we have to clean up our presents and trash right away and bring everything up to our rooms. Presents, breakfast, and cleaning is all over by 12 noon. Crazy huh? But then we have the rest of the day to enjoy and celebrate!