The best holiday tradition here. I'm of Polish decent. Our Christmas Eve meal is a big deal. The whole family gets together and has traditional Polish Fare, three kinds of Pierogi, potato pieces boiled then sauteed in oil and onions, fish, mushrooms, peas, rice, prunes, olives, candy, wine and soft drinks followed by cookies, nut and poppyseed roll for dessert. Before the meal there is a large rectangular shaped wafer (consistency of communion wafer) everyone has a piece and those at the table break off a piece or yours and you of theirs and eats it, it's called Oplatki. I've always loved our traditional Christmas Eve better than any other Holiday tradition.

So many 'we used too's on this thread... When my kids were little, we used to go to my in-laws for Christmas Eve. That was the day my ex-husband's family had always celebrated Christmas. We had a big family dinner (traditional with all the trimmings), opened gifs, and then went to midnight services. Most years, we also went to my ex's grandmas house for a short visit. There was always a big family celebration (with all the aunts/uncles/cousins) going on there too. Christmas Day morning was our own little family celebration... we'd get the kids up, exchange gifts, eat breakfast. Christmas Day (after breakfast) was with my family. Another big family gathering. Dinner (mid-day), clean up, gift opening. And our own special Christmas tradition was the night of the 23rd of December - the day before Christmas Eve. Scheduled then because I didn't want my kids to confuse the real meaning of Christmas with all of the commercialism that was to follow. We baked a birthday cake for baby Jesus. We'd set up a nativity on the kitchen table and would have a birthday party and sing happy birthday to Jesus. Sometimes we'd invite special friends to share the occasion with us, but usually it was special family time. We started this when the kids were tiny and continued well into adulthood (until we were scattered and no longer within easy driving distance). Now we go with the flow. Sometimes someone in one of our (Gary's or my) families have dinner Christmas Eve. One year, my oldest step-daughter did, but I was at work so couldn't attend. She cooked Chinese dinner and Gary and Emi brought a plate home to me. Other times, we're on the road, traveling. Still others, it's just us at home. I love Christmas, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.. but I do miss those big family celebrations when the kids were little. My parents and the kids' dad's parents are all gone now, for several years. The big family gatherings in my family are a thing of the past, except for our 'sister's summer campout'. And, of course, I'm not part of the kid's dad's family get togethers any more. Gary's family doesn't get together as a big group (there are 10 kids in his family). So, it's just our immediate families (us and our kids). We do love Christmas and take turns celebrating Christmas Day one year with Gary's kids, the next year with mine. We celebrate with the opposite family usually somewhere between Christmas day and New Year's day (because there's travel of several hours involvedf).

I wish we had the luxury at our house to spend the evening reading, but alas, we host Christmas Eve for my parents, then head off to 9pm Mass b/c it's the most beautiful of all the Masses at our church. By the time we get home, the kids are exhausted and headed to bed, while dh and I (well, ME) stay up wrapping gifts and putting out those and the Santa gifts under the tree. But, the idea of spending the evening quietly reading sounds amazing to me as I am a voracious reader. I used to give all of my kids books in their stockings each year, but sadly, my boys do not like reading (one has a learning disability) so I rarely do it for them anymore. Last year, I did give them both books, but my older son never even read the one I gave him but *I* read it just a couple of months ago (The Outsiders). Thankfully my girls like to read, so I still give them books. Bothell, that is a lovely idea. My kids each get an ornament every year. This was a tradition MIL had with her kids. She carefully labeled each one with their name and the year (she has five kids). When dh and I got married, she sent us his box of ornaments. Many of them adorn our tree every year - we don't have room for all of them b/c now my kids' ornaments have taken over. I do the same thing, label them with name and year, and they each have their own storage bins. I love your idea to pair ornaments with books. How fun!

If you only have one and you don't compost - put it on the Prep Sink. That's where you'll be creating the most "leavings". If you compost all food scraps, then it may not matter. We don't compost and I made the mistake of ignoring the advice here about putting it on the prep sink. We originally planned for two, but my DH was in a cost saving binge and decided we only needed one - and he wanted it on the cleanup sink (his sink!). I regret "giving in" to that - if I had it to do over, I would have fought to either keep two or tell him since he wanted to give up one, he could give up his! (He deferred to me on most things, so I got my way in probably 90% of the remodel, do I don't begrudge him the GD too much - unless I'm in the middle of a big cooking project!) Next house, they both get one, assuming WV allows them on septic! We do have the InSinkerator Septic Assist model - in our current MD county, you can have a GD if it's designed for septic systems.