The joys of Christmas

Christmas in my family has changed so much in the last few years. After my parents got divorced years ago, we always spent Christmas Eve night at my grandparents’ house, Christmas morning/lunch with mom and then Christmas night at my dad’s house. It was exhausting, but we were lucky to have so many Christmases to enjoy.

Last Christmas was a blur – dad passed away in April last year, so nothing was the same. I don’t even really remember what we did, except that we all exchanged stockings at the grave. Stockings were dad’s favorite part of Christmas and even though we’re all adults now, we’ve continued the tradition.

This year, we did things a little differently, but it’s been lovely and I feel so blessed to have my family. We started off with Christmas #1 at my step mom’s house last Sunday – she out did herself and made brisket, ham, mashed potatoes, pea salad, and what seemed like millions of other yummy foods! We stuffed ourselves and exchanged gifts with her, it was really nice.

Christmas #2 was yesterday with the extended family, including some cousins, aunt and uncle, grandparents, etc. We again stuffed ourselves with traditional foods and watched my uncle eat just about all of grandma’s fruit salad “in the yellow bowl.” We played a Christmas Trivia game and won prizes (thanks, Aunt Becky) and then played a gift exchange game where we passed gifts around according to what our answers were to a list of questions. It was fun and we learned some things about each other. I ended up with a $20 gift card to China Wall…woo hoo! Then we went to church and ate dinner at Kerbey Lane. Somewhere in there I managed to finish wrapping all my presents.

This morning, I slept in and woke up alone…and it was awesome! Some might think that’s odd, but I have been so busy lately that this was the greatest Christmas gift of all, time to myself! If I had time to think about it, I might be sad, but how can I be? We still have Christmas #3 at mom’s house this afternoon. Plus, my sister and I leave for a week in San Francisco tomorrow! Have I packed? Nope. But who cares? It’s Christmas, I slept late, and now I’m drinking coffee and listening to Christmas music. It’s awesome.

My mom and sister let their doggies, Cali and Hero, open their stockings this morning and I thought these pics say it all. Even dogs can show the joy of Christmas!