HERE ARE SOME OF OUR TRADITIONS...WHAT ARE YOURS?

Welcome to my home and our traditions. Today the 24th of Dec , Eve of Christmas is when we open all our gifts. Yes it's true..at the strike of midnight on Christmas Eve we rip open ALL our presents.

Let me me go back in time to when I was a little girl and tell you how our magical Christmas' happened.

Magical for me because although my childhood was a very difficult one, our Christmas' always seemed to be exempt from most of the negative aspects that surrounded our lives. Or my sisters and I just made it so in our heads, who knows lol.

First of all, somehow we knew that santa was poor therefore he could only bring one thing to each child. When that sears catalog arrived a month or so before xmas we painstakingly leafed through everypage trying to decide which toy it would be. That catalog became so dog eared and wrinkled by the time all 3 of us went through it a million times its a good thing mom thought to have another one stashed away for her own use and to be able to decipher the item numbers with. When THE toy was finally chosen, we waited for it anxiously at Christmas. The days approuching Xmas when the decorations came out and mom did the tree it was all so special. Our tree was the most beautiful of everyones ofcourse. Presents from relatives and eachother would start to appear underneath it. OH I WONDER WHAT'S IN THAT ONE?...... We also had a manger under it with all the figures in it except the baby jesus in his little bed. He was not yet born so his bed was empty.

On Christmas Eve we either had a big meal or buffet with just us or visiting family and friends. Always lots of food for ppl to munch on through the evening. Us children though, had to go to bed so Santa could come. I even remember one year, just before bedtime, dad brought us to a window that had some snow and frost sticking to it ...looking through one of the panes of glass he points to the sky and says '' Do u see it?'' '' Way Way up in the sky so far it's just a tiny speck but it's Santa's sleigh...See There?.....We were so and wide eyed we all 3 of us strained to see the tiny speck in the sky that was Santa's sleigh and declared....'' I SEE IT! I SEE IT! IT'S MOVING IN THE SKY PAPA , YIPPEE!!!.....all 3 of us goobers danced around with glee. I swear to this day I saw it lol.

So off to bed we would go to sleep. Always so excited thinking we would never be able to but always did. Then at midnight the baby jesus had been born AND Santa had come and gone. We are then woken up . All sleepy but wide eyed we scurry to the tree to first see our covetted toy we chose with care. That one was never wrapped , it was always just sitting there on display ready for our loving hands. Once over the initial excitement of getting THE toy, we had to notice that the baby jesus was in his bed in the manger.

We then opened all the rest of our gifts. Ate more food and finally went back to bed in the wee hours of the night. All happy with what we got and thankful for everything.

Everyone sleeps in Christmas morning since we all went to be so late, and for the most part Christmas day is a lazy day for all except mom doing the turkey for supper.

I repeated the same traditions with my daughter but over the years I have added a couple more. I added stockings. We never had those growing up. I make one for my daughter and niece filled with do dads and what nots all silly little things. I also started buying new pj's for everyone for xmas eve evening. So everyone has fresh new pj's and we are all comfy for a late night opening gifts. As the children get older they no longer have to go to bed. We just all enjoy a late evening buffet and enjoy being together.

My daugher and my niece Chantal are here along with the rare treat of having Chris' kids with us this year as well.

I have shared a few of our traditions with you. What's fun to hear are the different ones that others have with their families. Tell me what some of yours are. I am sure others would be interested to know also. In the meantime, I wish you all a JOYEUX NOËL ....many hugs...0x0x0x