Our Christmas

Well, it’s almost here and I feel like a kid again, anxiously and not patiently waiting for Christmas to arrive!  Thought I’d bore you with the details of what we do every year for Christmas. 

On Christmas Eve I pick up my sister and we go to church at 4:00 to wait for the 5:00 service.  If we all want to sit together we have to go early to get a full pew.  There were years as kids that we all sat by ourselves, my dad refuses to go early (Scrooge!).  So we sit there and sing along with the choir to the Christmas songs.  About 4:45 our families show up and then my folks walk in with the priest (ha ha, inside joke.  My dad seems to walk in with the bride more times than not.)  We all sit together and celebrate the real reason for the holiday then head back to my parent’s house for supper and gifts.  We always have something simple for supper, like soup or lasagna.  Anything that can be made ahead of time and ready to eat when we walk in the door.  After supper, dishes get piled up (not washed) and we get to the fun part – PRESENTS!!!  My mom swears she doesn’t mind washing up the mess in the morning. 

My niece on the left and nephew on the right, our two boys in the middle.

My sister, mom and I have a tradition of getting each other a funny pair of underwear every year. (My dad, getting in on the fun.  He’s so funny!)

We go around the room one at a time opening a present and keep going round and round until they’re all open.  We let the kids open theirs first, one at a time, then they can play with their new goodies while the adults open theirs.  About 9:00 we head home. 

Christmas morning I wake up Andy bright and early and then we lay in bed waiting for the boys to wake up.  They are usually up around 6:00 so we don’t have to wait very long.  Then we come out to the living room and get excited over the pile of gifts Santa left in front of the fireplace.  The boys open those then the four of us go through our stockings. 

After that I make breakfast (Farmers Breakfast Casserole, yum yum YUM!), then get back together in the living room to exchange gifts among the four of us.  After that it’s showers and getting ready to head out for the next family get together.

Lunch time is at Andy’s folks’ house.  We vary from year to year on what we have. Some years it’s a big feast (turkey, ham, the fixings) other years like this one we are going simple and having loose meat hamburgers, chips and dips, relish tray and dessert.  I am taking a yummy hot Hamburger Cheese Dip and Cherry Cheese Pie.  To me it’s not Christmas if I don’t get my Cherry Cheese Pie.  We used to take it to my Gma Wehr’s every year when I was growing up and now I take it to Andy’s family party every year.  I’m a stickler for tradition so if I don’t have this I’m a little grumpy.  So we eat, clean up (dishes are done here) and then head downstairs to the tree and MASSIVE amounts of gifts.  (The boys and our 2 nieces.)

First we go through our stockings.  A couple years ago I found giant stockings at Dollar Tree for $1 a piece so I got enough for everyone (plus one, knowing we might have another baby) and now we don’t have gifts sitting outside the stockings like we did before.  Everything fits.  So we go through those and everything in there is wrapped which makes it take a little longer. Andy’s brother always give lotto tickets so we take time scratching those off and complaining that no one won AGAIN. 

My in-laws prefer to give a lot of little gifts instead of one big gift. Makes the opening more fun because it takes longer.  We’ve been known to take 3 hours to open presents before.  Mainly because we each take a turn, we take breaks every 45 minutes or so and because my in-laws are s-l-o-w as molasses when opening their gifts. Whatevs, it makes Christmas last that much longer.  Then we go crazy packing everything up and picking up all the wrapping paper and breaking down all the extra boxes.  We load the cars and, if it’s almost 5:00, we take off for our last stop of the day – my Grandma Marie’s (last name Marie, not first).

At Grandma’s it’s a little different now. My Grandpa, the host with the most, passed away a few years ago so it feels a little off now.  But we go out there with all of my mom’s 5 siblings, spouses, families and their families.  A boat load of people, lots of noise, lots of laughter.  It’s wonderful.  Oh, and LOTS OF FOOD!  My gma makes the BEST cheese soup, a staple at Christmas supper every year.  She’ll also have another soup and some meat, usually a pork loin.  Then the rest of us fill in the gaps.  This year I’m taking BBQ Chicken Wings.  My gma also makes a ton of desserts, cookies and candies. She makes the most amazing homemade caramels.  I don’t like caramel in every day life, but these?  These are TO.DIE.FOR!!!  I can’t wait. 

Ever since I was a baby we’ve taken a picture of all the kids together.  Now that we’re all grown and have babies we take a picture of them now.  We also do this at mine and Andy’s parents with our kids. This picture doesn’t show all the great grand babies, some couldn’t make it last year.  My 2 are all the way on the right.

So after we all stuff ourselves and clean up the mess we gather up the littles and find a safe place for them to settle and unwrap a present from their Great Grandma.  There are so many people and kids it’s important to find a ‘safe place to sit’ so they don’t get trampled. Ha!  So fun.  Then we clean up the paper mess, make sure Gma’s house isn’t too messy then head home, usually about 8:00.  Most people have to work the next day so it’s not a late night.  But it is a wonderful night with all the family. 

There you have it, my Christmas.  We do get together with my dad’s brother and his family the Sunday after Christmas.  It’s a big meal and a few presents for the littles there, too (there are 5 now).  I am getting gag gifts this year for all of the adults.  My sweet little Gma Wehr used to give the boys (my 2 cousins) boxes of popcorn every year so I am giving all the guys popcorn and the gals hot chocolate.  Small and meaningless to most, to the rest of us we’ll get a kick out of it. She used to give my dad jeans every year and every year they were the wrong style and the wrong size!!! So the first year after she died I did the same thing for him, wrapped in some of her leftover paper and signed it ‘From Mom’.  We all got a chuckle, I cried and it was a great Christmas memory made.

Okay, dear friends, time to shut this down.  Up to 1200 words already.  Words go fast when you’re having fun, right?  I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a most special day with your loved ones.  Hugs to all!

Erin