Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Christmas With My Family

My family seems to have a unique family tradition -- we open our gifts to one another on Christmas Eve.  THEN on Christmas Day we get our gifts from Santa!  I have learned over the past several years that this is strange and different from what a lot of people do.  This has ALWAYS been the way we did things, even when I was very small.  We go to Christmas Eve Candlelight service at church and then come home for family pictures, spirits, snacks and gift giving!
This year, J and I decided to stay the night so that we could have our Christmas Morning/Santa gifts on Christmas Day as my family has always done.
We went over to my parent's house around dinner time on Friday afternoon to eat some stew my mom made and to help bake some yummy treats, including Santa's chocolate chip cookies. J was in charge of the Santa cookies.  He did a great job!  I tried the batter and said "they taste very vanilla-y?" He re-read the instructions and realized instead of the 1 TEASPOON the recipe called for he added 1 TABLESPOON! OOPS! =) They were still really good....the dough however didn't rise properly haha.
Since it was going to be so late after church got out, we decided to do our family Christmas pictures and light seeing BEFORE church.  This was a great idea because there were a LOT of lights on at 9:30 vs midnight!
Here are some of the family pictures from before Christmas Eve Service
J and I setting up our new tripod before getting ready
My family goofing off during pictures =) typical.

Merry Married Christmas



We came home after church and changed into comfy clothes to open all the gifts under the tree =) I will have to do a gift recap on Thursday and point out my notables =) On the way home from church we stopped at our house to pick up Ruger since we were staying at my parent's that night.  He LOVED the stairs...once he figured them out haha =) We were awake until close to 3AM snacking and opening gifts!
Christmas morning we woke up and went to see what Santa brought us! For those of you curious, our Santa gifts are the 'big' gift of the year. =)


Obligatory Christmas Morning Picture =)
One of the neatest gifts I ended up with was a kit to make a paw print ornament with Ruger! It's very cool.  and there is a place on the back to write how old he was and the date!  I LOVE it!
Can you believe this big tongue fits in his head?!


He was SO patient! =)
Stay tuned tomorrow for Christmas with my In-Laws =)
What were some of your Christmas Eve Traditions this year??

20 comments:

Christina said...

There's a spot missing there where you surprised MF & John while looking at Christmas lights haha :) jk jk

I haven't ever heard of the family gifts Christmas Eve & Santa gifts Christmas day. Sounds fun though!

Pink Champagne, Gatorade, and MRE's said...

the paw ornament is soo cool! my aunt got us ornaments that look exactly like our pups- best part is she found them at the grocery store ha!

Scientific Housewife said...

How neat! Our tradition is that we open one present on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas day :)

redwhitebride said...

what a cute family you have! looks like a wonderful christmas. we opened our gifts on christmas eve too... austrian tradition :)

C Mae said...

We open ONE christmas gift on Christmas eve usually as at traadition in my family and do our stockings...then on X mas day we open everything else! :) I love that you dog let you do that to his paw! ) precious!

Anonymous said...

Love all the family photos! Fun traditions! And the doggie paw ornament idea is too cute :)

JMB said...

Love all your Christmas traditions!! You looked sooo pretty for your candelight service too! Love the dress!!

Nicole said...

We so wanted to go to Candlelight services but I was up at 4am on Christmas Eve and fell asleep before 11...woops! Looks like a fantastic Christmas and I kind of wished we'd have gotten to stay the night at my parents house... this was the first year I woke up not at their house on Christmas morning.

Unknown said...

Love your blog. Im your newest follower.

Samantha

Lady Fromage said...

What great pictures!! My family has the same Christmas eve tradition of opening one gift!!

What a patient doggy :) He's so cute!

Young and Fabulous said...

what a great tradition! i love it! must agree with everyone else you looked gorg in your pics! Looks like you enjoyed Christmas as a married woman!

xoxox

Megan said...

That's a neat tradition! This year, my husband and I did our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve, then we did family presents Christmas morning. It was perfect! You look so pretty in all the pictures!

Tutti said...

We've done the same thing for as far back as I can remember: gifts from/to each other are giving on Xmas Eve (and Xmas PJ's and a special ornament) and the regular "santa" gifts are on Xmas. I actually know a lot of people back east that do the same thing. Hubs and I are carrying on the tradition with our family.

Kelly said...

Cute pictures!!! Looks like y'all had a great Christmas =)

Anngela said...

I LOVE D's tie :) :) :) haha

TracyZLesh @ Then I Got To Thinking said...

My favorite thing about Christmas is the traditions. I love that your family has a specific way of celebrating, that is so cool! Thank you for stopping by and saying hi! Look forward to learning more about you :)

Faith said...

such great traditions! i love how your family does it ... and all the Christmas pictures! love that too! looks like you had a great Christmas!

Nikki said...

Love the pictures!! Every Christmas eve we all open 1 present and every year its the same -- new Christmas pj's to go to sleep and wake up in on Christmas day! Even now that i'm married I still have to go over and the folks house in the morning wearing the pj's from the night before!!

Sandra said...

Loved snooping through your pictures. You are gorgeous! I always feel so priviledged that people allow me to nose through their lives via the pics!

Unknown said...

Great pictures! Love that paw print ornament-so sweet! xoxo