It's the best time of year for holiday cheer!
I love Christmas. Love it! I love getting together with family, having my annual Week of Snow, and watching people's reactions as they open gifts I picked out or made for them. I love all our holiday traditions: sticky buns and cream chipped beef; Christmas Eve carol singing around the tree, complete with candlelit Silent Night; pass-the-bags to 'Twas The Night Before Christmas (pass every time you hear the word "the"; at the end, one of the bags is a winner with a little extra Christmas treat); group game-playing; all of it!
This year was Steve's first Christmas, Andres-style.
We started off our trip with a rather busy Christmas Eve-Eve holiday-prep day, including breakfast with Meghan, second meeting with the pastor for the wedding, and manicures for my sister and me. The rest really was Christmas Eve preparations, ending with all of us in the kitchen making various dishes for the next day.
We had our Christmas morning a day early on Christmas Eve Morning (CEM). Steve and I had a very crafty December, making ornaments for friends and family. Only a few of these went to people present on CEM, but I thought I'd share them all:
Elaina & Danny and Pat & Laura, with whom we went to San Antonio and the Alamo this summer.
These were for Grandma Peggy and Grandpa Jim, and are their grandchildren (plus Steve) organized by family.
Meghan & Mark (getting married next March) and Emily & Frank (expecting twins next March)
Around lunchtime, the Kansas City crew arrived. Once Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Phil joined us a bit later, our traditional Christmas Eve was underway. We played games (Catchphrase and a 1300-clue crossword puzzle), had a delicious dinner, sang Christmas Carols and played Pass the Bag. We went to the Christmas Eve church service, and then came home and collapsed.
On Christmas Day, the whole group of us headed over in three cars to Aunt Nancy's house. More good food, more gift exchanges, and more games (Catchphrase again, Telephone Pictionary, Bananagrams, and Spicy Farkel). We even had a delightful cousins snow-fight photoshoot. Phil has all the fun pictures; I only ended up with one posed shot.
The 26th brought our third Christmas celebration, as the Green Bay group made the trek southward. More food, more games (Dirty Bingo this time).
Our trip ended with an overbooked flight, which netted Steve and me $400 each in travel vouchers. Woot! That will help tremendously with paying for the four-plus flights we'll be taking next year, between weddings (Meghan's and ours), honeymoon, and Christmas.
All in all, a FABULOUS Christmas, and the celebrating's not over! There's still New Years to look forward to. I love holidays!