The 9th Day of Christmas: Traditional Christmas Day

We are getting pretty close to Christmas because I'm actually posting about Christmas day today!  The most magical day of the year!  

Last year Ryan woke me up bright and early and said "It's Christmas, get up!" and I had to tell him to go back to sleep.  We don't even have any kids, so I can't imagine what it would be like if we did!  I have a feeling that this house will be the opposite of my house growing up where every Christmas we had to wait for my dad to get ready, and comb his hair (the only day of the year he does that), and make the coffee....

So now that I'm married, Christmas morning has changed a little bit of course.  Ryan and I get up, make some coffee and open our presents.  

Once we are done, we head down to my parents house.  They live about a 30 second drive from us, so we just stay in our pajamas.  My brother and sister both still live at home, so they just open their stockings before we get there and then we join them for the rest of the gifts.  I may have said it before, but my mom is a little out of hand with Christmas.  Most people probably think it's ridiculous.  The gift opening takes awhile because we all try to soak it in.  

Oliver's First Christmas

My family also still has Christmas with all my cousins and aunts and uncles.  We alternate between families for Christmas and Boxing Day.  So this year, my dad's family is getting together on Christmas Day.  Every other year, when we are with them for Boxing Day, the whole fam jam goes up to the cottage.  We love cottage Christmas!  This year Christmas is out at my Aunt and Uncle's Mill for the first time.  The Mill is very cozy in the winter, so I'm looking forward to it.

Cottage Christmas

Boxing Day this year, we go to my other Grandma's house.  Her house is like home for all of us, and we are all so comfortable there.   

And then it's over.  And we are all so sad.  As a kid, you are so focused on the gifts.  Now it's about so much more than that.  It's the whole feeling of Christmas that I love.  My mom was always obsessed with Christmas, and I'm starting to understand why.  I don't know whether it's because it's the one time of year where even as an adult you feel the magic?  There are so many people in the world for whom Christmas may not be a happy time.  So I feel so very fortunate to have the life I have and my family surrounding me this time of year.