Almost all of our Christmases have been at home (it would be a real big deal to drag along the gifts for 6 kids and 2 grandkids!). Anyway, we still have young ones at home, so I know that makes our Christmas a little different than Hondo's.
We share Christmas Eve with our good friends, the other grandparents of our oldest grandson. They live right up the street from us. We have a simple dinner together (often after having attended church services), exchange gifts, and enjoy each other's company.
Our youngest son and oldest grandson (12 years old this year) have a long-standing tradition. The grandson spends the night at our house so he can be with us the next morning. The past couple of years, the boys have added to their own tradition - they stay up all night (but they are NOT allowed to come out of the bedroom until morning, so they 'hunker down' with snacks and movies).
This year, our 6 year old grandson also stayed the night. He was VERY excited, and getting him to sleep was difficult. The Mrs. finally laid down with him, read him some stories, and he eventually fell asleep (so did she, but she woke up again to finish all the preparations).
It seems we (the adults) almost always end up staying up VERY late with last minute wrapping, straightening, stuffing of stockings, etc. I finally realized that happens because we don't have many good hiding places in our house, so many gifts remain locked in the car trunk until after the kids go to bed on Christmas eve.
We have cookies and milk with our old friend Santa when he arrives :teeth_smile:. After that, we go to bed for a couple of hours sleep.
Then, of course, the children wake us up at the crack of dawn to open gifts (they are quite excited, as you might imagine, but the ones who stayed up all night are the most insistent; they want to open their presents so they can go to sleep)! For as many hours as it takes to wrap everything, it is all over in a matter of minutes. Bleary-eyed, the Mrs. stumbles into the kitchen to prepare a breakfast casserole (she assures me it is VERY easy), then we sit around and enjoy our gifts and each other's company. The two who stayed up all night are, by now, fast asleep.
Around mid-morning, our adult children head over to our house for gift exchange, breakfast, and family fellowship. The major holidays are among the few times we have everybody together at one time, so that is precious.
Our oldest son and his girlfriend then head over to her parents' house for time together.
The rest of the day is fairly laid back. We usually have ham for dinner (little prep time), along with side dishes that require little time as well (the Mrs. puts all that food effort into Thanksgiving!).
We call family members that are scattered around the country throughout the day, to wish them a Merry Christmas. We watch our new movies (along with some old ones), play our new games, read our new books, try on our new clothes, . . . .
There is much napping throughout the day (to make up for the loss of sleep the night before).
Sometime during the afternoon, we have dinner, then munch on leftovers for the rest of the day. The older kids may wander off to visit with friends in the evening, and our one son went to work (he works swing shift at a local substance abuse recovery facility).
So . . . that's our day.
