Friday, December 26, 2014

Post-Christmas

     I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! 

     Although Christmas was different this year for us, we had a great day filled with gifts, good food, family, and love. I was thoroughly spoiled (as always) and ate way too much. We spent the morning at my Grandma's house where we opened gifts and devoured cinnamon rolls and monkey bread (after some baking mishaps). Then we drove to my Aunt's house where we had second Christmas, spent time with family, and of course indulged in turkey, tamales, potatoes galore (my 3 favorites), and so many desserts. I ended the day tired, and with a cold I was trying to keep away all day, but it was worth it.

     I wanted to share some Christmas traditions in my family.

  •    Growing up, we got to open one small gift on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure if it's meant to build the anticipation or temporarily satisfy until the morning.... Since my husband and I were apart this year, we decided to have Christmas on Christmas Eve via Skype and open our gifts to each other early.
  •    We open our stockings after everything else has been opened. This year we forgot to fill the stockings, so we passed out the candy and small gifts from a Target bag (hey, you make due with what you have).
  •    In my "new" family (my husband and I), we have orange cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast. Two years ago, I made them in the waffle iron. Delicious!
  •    My Aunt's family serves tamales for Christmas dinner. This is definitely a tradition I think I will be incorporating in to my family celebrations.
  •    I usually fill my husband's stocking with the same 3 things each year: gum, gummy worms, and a Monster energy drink. It's always topped off with an assortment of candy, maybe a gift card, or a couple small gifts. I was sad I wasn't able to do that this year, but I sent him a big box full of goodies. I'm regretting not taking a picture of it though. My heart that longs for beauty sure enjoyed decorating the inside of the box and coordinating all the individually wrapped gifts. Maybe the Husband didn't notice, but I noticed, and that's what matters, right? Haha!
          
 What are some of your family traditions?
 


4 comments:

  1. So glad you had a good Christmas! :)

    That. Is the coolest. Tradition ever. Tamales?! Yum! May just have to make that a tradition of my own one day. ;)

    We open one present on Christmas Eve, too, but we save the stockings for first thing Christmas day, then go to the bigger presents under the tree. :) We couldn't do that this year, though--we basically only had one present to give to one another! Haha. So yeah. Wouldn't exactly work to open one.

    We have a couple of traditions. Although it's not on Christmas Eve or day, for the last five years or so we've gone to the Battlement Craft Fair without fail. We stop by Starbucks first and get a holiday drink, my mom always buys a new snowman for her collection, Alicia always buys *something* (dog treats, jalepeno salsa, something that Kenzie wants), and I always buy something small like a personalized journal or necklace. I grab Kettle corn on the way out, and my Mom grabs some Caramel Corn. :)

    On Christmas Eve we go to our church's service, then come home to hors de'verous like homemade Queso, Spinach and Artichoke dip, shrimp, and some kind of small dessert. Sometimes we play games, other times just eat or watch a Christmas movie.

    And on Christmas day my mom always makes Cinnamon Sticky Buns right before presents and a Christmas dinner that's an exact replica of what we ate for Thanksgiving. (Including 3 pies! Pumpkin, pecan, and peanut butter.) Think that's pretty much all of our traditions! :)

    So fun getting to learn about yours!



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    1. Thank you for sharing your traditions! Your Christmas Eve sounds fun! And peanut butter pie?? Yes please! I was going to make one this year and didn't. By the way, I'm listening to that song now, and it's sad! But I like it.

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    2. It is *the* best. My mom made it this year with a homemade graham cracker crust and peanuts on top. Yum.

      And I know! It is so sad. :( To me it's kind of comforting though because then you know you're not totally alone in your pain. For me it always helps to acknowledge that things are different and not just gloss over what happened, I guess? So the song felt unique in that way. But that's just me!

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    3. Yes, I really liked the song. It made me cry, haha. And I am jealous of that pie. It sounds so good right now!

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