Almost Christmas

I guess I have to blame the holidays and work for staying away so long, at least that's what I'm going with.  Sorry about that.  Work keeps me busy, I'm glad I love what I do.  Always something new to learn and put into practice.  That's the way work should be, shouldn't it?  Thankfully, I have that.  I've been there for five years and have no plans to leave.  I always tell my boss he is stuck with me whether he likes it or not.  So far he seems OK with it.  Smile.

Is it just me or is Christmas sneaking up on you too?  During Thanksgiving weekend it seemed like Christmas was so far off and there was so much time to get everything done.  Now, it's almost here.  I did procrastinate a bit with my decorating.  My daughter wasn't happy about that - she loves the house full of decorations.  Usually I get everything out and up during the Thanksgiving weekend.  This year I did get the lights up outside.  Then within the week I got the tree up.  Then a few days later most of the decorations were out (but I didn't put everything up as I normally do).  Then the last of what I was going to put out finally went up about a week ago; that includes our toy tree, which you can read about here. 

This week I can say I am caught up and ready for the holiday, except for the food.  I still need to get our Christmas dinner prime rib and all the fixins'.  But my shopping and mailing is complete and even my gift wrapping is done (I am ALWAYS wrapping Christmas Eve so it will be nice this year not having to worry about it).  Don't hate me because I happen to appear organized one holiday out of my lifetime.

The kids love the tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve then they have to wait for all the others, and Santa's gifts (yes, Santa will always visit our home even when the kids are gone) until Christmas morning.  This tradition started when I was a kid.  My grandparents (Christmas Grandma and Grandpa as we called them - you can guess why) would come visit and the adults would open their gifts on Christmas Eve.  They did this so they would have little to open Christmas morning (Santa always left them a few gifts too) and would be able to watch us kids open our gifts.  We all had stockings (hand made by my mom and each unique and completely different from the others) with goodies as well.  Of course, as kids, watching these adults take a couple of hours to open each gift, one by one, was excruciating.  My parents relented and allowed us to open one gift.  This was just to shut us up, I'm sure.  My hubby and I don't open our gifts Christmas Eve, but we do allow the kids to open just one.  Then Christmas morning is a fun time opening gifts, going through the stockings and listening to Christmas music.  Later we watch football games and then eat prime rib. 

I love the casualness of the day.  We stay in PJ's and enjoy family time.

What family traditions do you celebrate at Christmas?