Amazingly, Christmas is only four days away. I say amazing because it’s hard to believe it’s been another year. The older I get the quicker time goes by it seems. It’s been a great few weeks here in Phoenix, the temperatures have been in the mid 60′s during the day and high 30′s at night and it just couldn’t be any more perfect out.
And for this part of the country where you get zero snow, it sure makes it feel more like Christmas when it’s cold out.
So Christmas usually means two things. Family and traditions.
Now, I’ve gotten to know a lot of you guys this past fall, and everyday it seems like we have someone new stop by and leave us a comment about Journeyman or a multitude of other random things. Now that it’s Christmas time, I’d love to learn a bit more about all of you.
So the question this week is:
How do you usually spend your Christmas each year?
We usually make it a point to visit all our family on Christmas Eve and have at least one good cooked meal. At the end of the day, Jina and I usually do our present opening and save our stockings until Christmas morning.
Okay, that’s not true…we usually WANT to leave them for Christmas morning, but we always open them on Christmas Eve. It’s like being kids without parents telling you to wait and have patience.
Then we just relax on Christmas Day and more than likely catch a movie or two, or even three.
Do you have traditions? Do you go to your inlaws or other family? Do you tend to hit the road and go on vacation instead? Do you eat out at Chinese restaurants like in A Christmas Story?
Ha! Actually I do eat Chinese on Christmas Eve. Then we wake up early and go to my mom’s, then my GF’s, then my dad’s, then… finally we go home. Merry Christmas!
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My family is all over Texas while my wife’s family is pretty much centered in Austin so every Christmas is usually just a little bit different since you never know who will be where each year.
My oldest brother started a tradition of having a very large Christmas Eve dinner/gathering for friends and family that we’ve been doing now for over 20 years. We’re always (save for one or two years) in East Texas for that along with most of my side of the family who gathers there as well.
There’s tons of food and games and just having a good time. After most of the friends leave and it’s mostly family left we open presents from the non-immediate family like aunts and cousins and stuff…mostly for the kids. Christmas Eve usually lasts pretty late.
Christmas morning starts early, of course. My brother has three kids who get up for “Santa.” We usually stay with him so we get to share in that fun. The rest of my family (my sister and her three kids come over early if they’re in town) come over early and share in the Christmas gift opening extravaganza. Crazy fun.
My wife and I then head for Austin around 8:30 or so. It’s about a 4 1/2 hour drive. We make it to her family’s Christmas Day lunch at about 12:30 to 1:00. It’s a huge gathering of anywhere from 50 to 100 or more people. There’s TONS of food. We do a gift exchange and a gag gift exchange which is always a blast. We’re usually there for several hours.
After that we go to my wife’s parents’ house and open presents from them! (I know, now it just seems excessive) After spending some time at their house visiting with them, maybe watching some TV or a new DVD we try to go home and be by ourselves where we can FINALLY open presents from each other.
Once in a while we’ll actually try to go catch a movie that night but in the last couple of years we’ve pretty much given up on that. Now we just go the next day or even on the 27th and catch a movie or two.
This year, however, we have a six month old baby. I have NO IDEA how everything is going to change. It’s going to be a whirlwind of change. I think I’m going to be tired.
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We’ve always been a Christmas Eve family, too. Guess it had something to do with frequent road trips that would start Christmas afternoon (Chicago to Green Bay in 3 hours or less). So the parents caved and let us open the presents Christmas Eve and saved the stockings for Christmas morning as we were getting ready to hit the road and head up to Green Bay and Upper Michigan to visit the rest of the family. Perhaps the strangest family tradition (stranger than Chinese take out) was that we (we being me and my brothers) would look forward to the traditional frozen pizzas. In our minds, Tombstones were a Godsend and Christmas Eve just wasn’t the same without the frozen pizzas in the oven.
That tradition continued when I grew up and had kids. Even the Tombstones in the oven. I modified it a bit, saving the girl’s big present (the one from Santa) for Christmas morning. Tried to play up the big guy and even had to get a bit creative with the Santa tradition when the girls asked how he got in since we didn’t have a chimney.
Now that I’m getting married again, some compromise is in order. Out go the Tombstones. In comes the Lasagna (I am actually looking forward to that change). For the biggest change…only one present will be opened on Christmas Eve. The rest have to wait until Christmas morning. You can already feel the extra anticipation building. I’m guessing the first kid will be out of bed by 4:30. I hope they don’t forget to leave out the cookies for Santa. I hear he prefers chocolate chip.
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With our kids aged 7, 4 and 10 months, Christmas is all about the family. We used to travel to southern Arizona to see my wife’s mom, but once we had our second we instituted that Christmas would be at our house each year. We host family that wants to come; this year my mother in law and sister in law will be here.
Christmas eve consists of going to Mass (catholics) and occasionally midnight mass but it’s just too hard these days. I enjoy the spectacle of it, though.
Then we put up stockings and set out cookies and milk for Santa, read the kids a story and put them to bed. We’ll then wrap Santa presents in Santa paper, fill stockings and have some whiskey nog or some kind of drink.
Christmas morning is very relaxed, laid back. We do not rush and open all presents right away, but open and enjoy each thing. We usually finish opening all the gifts by around 2 pm or so…draw it out.
Since I’m a Laker fan, they are always on Christmas day so we’ll have that on in the background.
Overall, we just try to enjoy each other’s company and take lots of pictures.
Oh, and this year my wife started a Holiday Brunch tradition, two Saturdays before Christmas, hosting people for food, drinks and a kids white elephant gift exchange. It went over really well, and eventually we will turn it into a catered dinner with carolers, etc. Right now, it’s a budget deal.
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@ Jason, wow man, that’s a lot of traveling, but it sounds fun with such a huge family around!
@ Matt, that’s awesome…Tombstone pizza
Lasagna is great though. I am going to find it tough someday when I have kids to try and keep up the whole Santa thing.
@ Donald, sounds nice, and this year, the Suns play the Lakers, so that’s a bonus!
I’m starting a new tradition this year… The Queen in HD-DVD!!
Cool Cap’n, let’s watch it together on Christmas Eve, okay?