Every year we celebrate Christmas at my parents house starting Christmas Eve. When we were children we would open all our gifts from our family on Christmas Eve and awake early Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought. Even though we no longer receive gifts from Santa we keep the tradition of opening our gifts on Christmas Eve after dinner rather than on Christmas day. This year we decided to do secret santas. Secret Santas were supposed to be secret, as the name denotes, but my family isn't exactly the best in keeping secrets so everyone had figured out at least half of them before we exchanged gifts. Shari was the worst; she went around telling everyone who she had (Nannie) and who had her (me!) and any others that she thought she knew. It was fun teasing her that if she was so certain we should wager on it, as gambling is a favorite pass time in our family, especially because in the end she only missed about 2.
Normally dinner includes Christmas crackers, as my mom was a Brit in a former life and loves all things British, but she had trouble finding them this year. Crackers usually contain a paper crown and a small novelty, like toys from cracker jacks. Oddly enough, Adam and I found them at William Sonoma. Can't you just find everything there? Christmas makes us all revert back to being 12, whether telling someone who you think their secret santa is or anxiously awaiting the end of dinner so you can pop your cracker and find out what is inside, and that's why it is my favorite time of year. Here are some pics from Christmas Eve at my parents...crowns and UT santa hats included!
I LOVE this one. It makes me happy and sad at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that Adam is still participating in the wearing of the crown during present time, I see that Buba has pulled his off. Doesn't Buba know that costuming is required for the duration of the festivities?!
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