slowly getting there: Chrismas future and past

10 years ago

This morning, I packed the two Christmas presents I must mail. That is out of the way. Must address the few cards we send.

The fake tree is in the living room and the furniture rearranged to accommodate it. It's stored with the lights on, but now I must decorate it. DH brought all the boxes downstairs.

Slowly will bring downstairs the table top and mantle decorations.

Then I have to finish the gift shopping. Lots of cash gifts this year toward projects and big purchases. That makes it easy.

Still not back to normal since being rear ended 7 weeks ago. I ache after being on my feet for just a few minutes. So I take lots of breaks. The adult kids will have to chip in to make the Christmas dinner happen this year as they did for Thanksgiving.

We will have 10 around the table, with two little grandsons. The older one celebrates his 7th birthday Christmas Day, but this year we will try celebrating the birthday on the 24th and see how we like that arrangement.

We started the tradition of opening stockings on the evening of the 24th after baths when our kids were tiny. I usually shopped for stocking stuffers all year, trying to find cute, interesting and inexpensive toys. But when we opened their stockings on Christmas morning, I learned that they played with the items only until the tree gifts were opened, and ignored them after that. I had spent too much time and money to make their stockings special, so from then on, we opened stockings before bed on the 24th. I am pleasantly surprised to hear my kids talk about those evenings as one of their favorite family times. Everyone bathed and in pjs, Christmas music playing, and sitting in the formal living room (which we rarely did) to open and play with stocking gifts.

One of my favorite stocking gifts I still remember over 30 years later was a find of tiny glow in the dark dinosaurs about 1 to 1 1/2 inches long. As it turns out, that is my older son's favorite stocking gift ever. This was an era when dinosaur books and toys were very hard to find.

So now my daughter also gives her sons their stockings after dinner on Christmas Eve too.

We were never sticklers with all the Santa myth, and it did not seem to conflict with their beliefs, which is perfect.

Comments (6)

marie_ndcal
10 years ago
Sounds like you are having a fun Christmas. I feel for you as I still am having problems with my back after slipping on ice over 3 years ago. Something to do the the vertebrae along with the arthritis in my spine. When I watch football, or any other sport, I sure don't see how those guys bounce around, and still come up walking so great. Not fair!!!!
chisue
10 years ago
sheilajoyce -- Thank you for the pretty word picture of freshly bathed darlings in their pj's enjoying their stocking gifts! Have you spoken with your MD about the fatigue -- not normal to be that sore so long after the accident. One thing that helps my back and joints is to have good support shoes. I just found a pair of b.o.c. shoes with steel shanks to replace some old Rockports. Those, and my Reeboks, help a lot.

marie -- Those football players are either still very young, or they are doped up more than you want to know! Remember the movie "North Dallas Forty" with Nick Nolte? DH will be watching his Bears on TV tonight. It's 15F here and dropping. Soldier Field will be like playing on cement with a cement ball. The wind is also picking up. You wouldn't leave animals out in this weather! (Men!)
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sheilajoyce_gw
Original Author
10 years ago
Not getting tired, though I don't have the energy that I used to have. The accident apparently triggered what my BIL guesses is sciatica. It hurts to be on my feet for long. Plan to get back to the doctor and ask about some kind of therapy.
liz
10 years ago
I LOVE the traditions you started!! so sorry about your wreck and hope it doesn't leave you with lifetime lingering effects! Let your kids help...I'm sure they love being a part of your life so helping us as we get old is part of their lives!!
Jasdip
10 years ago
I echo Liz's sentiments with not having long-term effects.

Years ago, when my niece and nephew were young, we held Christmas Eve dinner. One present was opened by everyone that nite and the next day we went to our parents for Christmas Day. We held Christmas Eve dinner and sleep over for years.

I'll never forget when my niece got up the next morning,the first year and mentioned that the tree looked exactly the same, with no new presents. Silly me, put all the presents under the tree, without saving the ones back marked from Santa. Duh. But she caught it!

This post was edited by jasdip on Tue, Dec 10, 13 at 11:13
Orchidllauraga
10 years ago
We always open 1 gift on Christmas Eve....a new pair of pajamas...in fact the boxes are marked Pajamas so we know which package to open.

Another tradition we have is we fix a Low Country Boil with shrimp, red potatoes and corn on the cob. After dinner we go riding around to see the Christmas lights. Get back read the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible. Sing Christmas carols (only time Molly and I get to sing) open our new pajamas and go to bed..Right before Tony goes to bed he puts our ham on to cook(really just warm up) So when we get up EARLY Christmas morning the smell of the ham fills the house...YUMMY!! After we have Santa and open the presents I cook a pan of biscuits and we have ham & biscuits for breakfast then I really don't cook the rest of the day..

That is what we do for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...btw we usually stay in new pajamas all day and just laze around..

slowly getting there: Chrismas future and past

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marie_ndcal

chisue

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slowly getting there: Chrismas future and past

Comments (6)

marie_ndcal

chisue

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