Christmas Traditions

I can not believe that tomorrow is Christmas... so crazy! This year has gone by so fast. I just wanted to share some of our traditions growing up and the ones that we have now. This tradition started when we first moved to Arizona in 1990. On Christmas Eve we went to the Landmark in Mesa for dinner. My sister April arranged it and made sure that there was an extra seat for Christ. We were out to celebrate his birthday! Then we would go home and open one present. Usually from Nana and Papa (my dad's parents). The would always send us pajamas wich were nice to go to bed in that night! In the morning all of us kids would wake up early!! We were allowed to open our stockings but we had to wait for our parents to wake up before opening anything else. And we weren't allowed to wake them up. That afternoon we would go to the movies and when we got home we would have a Christmas feast!!! We always had ham and sparkling cider! Now that Chris and I are married we have to split the holiday between our families. On Christmas Eve we have a family party at his Grandma Sherry's house. All of his extended family (on the McCleve side) comes over. The last couple of years we had mexican food, but this year we had pizza. Chris' Great Grandma June always finds some clever way to hide money in something and we have to figure out how to get it out! Grandma Sherry also gives us money on something cute, and his grandpa hands out $20 bills to everyone. Gotta love the grandparetns!! I think this year was the best party yet. As Chris' sisters get older we build better relationships! It's fun to get to know them better! Anyways, it was really nice tonight, and I had a good time! On Christmas morning we wake up and do our stockings and gifts and then we go to his parents house and do gifts with them! Because there are 6 kids plus me we draw names (so we don't have to buy for everyone). We always get something for his parents. I love See's Candy, so we usually give both our parents gift certificates there plus a GC to a resturaunt. After visiting with the Fallbecks we go over to my parent's house and do presents with them. That afternoon we still go to the movies! Tomorrow we are going to see National Treasurer 2. I am really excited!! And tomorrow night we are going to have Christmas Dinner with ham! Yum!! And that's it! Sorry that was a forever long story! I love Christmas!! I can't wait to have a family of our own to carry on these traditions!