Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Our First Christmas



...And Christmas Day finally arrived...

Every Christmas, we wake up at 6:00 am (Bryan swears its 5:00, but after 22 years of Christmas's...I'm sure I have the traditions down!). After a night of all us sleeping upstairs, we gather in one of the rooms and send a message through the intercom to my parents sleeping downstairs: "Merry Christmas!"

We jump onto my parents bed and force them to wake up. First item on the list...the Jesus Box. For those of you who aren't familiar with this idea, it is a box that we leave notes/letters in each year containing our "gift" to Jesus this next year. In essence, it is a New Year's resolution that we commit to in order to improve ourselves. We each take turns reading our "gifts to Jesus" and have fun evaluating their implications. Once we have finished with the Jesus Box, my dad will usually try and mess with us by telling us that we have to shower or make our beds first before we can go see what Santa brought us. That never lasts too long, but there is always the mandatory "check with the video camera." Dad always has to go first to "make sure" that Santa came, to video the things he brought us, and to turn on the Christmas bells. After many anxious minutes, our excitement builds as we hear the bells downstairs.Now we are allowed to line up on the stairs to go down.

a beautiful sight to see on an early Christmas morn...


We walk down the stairs with our faces covered with our Christmas bears (don't ask me where that tradition came from or started). Finally we are free to enjoy the gifts from Santa.

After an hour or so of gifts from Santa, we open our traditional Christmas Cereal. Growing up, we were never given any sugar cereals for breakfast. Sugar cereal was reserved for the one special occasion each year: Christmas.



The joke this year is that everyone wanted Cracklin' Oat Bran (not a sugar cereal). I don't know if you have noticed, but that cereal is seriously expensive...always. I swear it is never on sale. So my mom surprised us with a "Family Christmas Cereal" of Cracklin' Oat Bran. We were thrilled (even though it disgraces everything the Christmas Cereal stands for).



After eating breakfast, the rest of the day is spent taking turns opening gifts from the family and lounging around. Usually games and movies are involved, but of course, lots and lots of food and fun.

Some of the more memorable presents of the entire Christmas season were:

#1 - A new vacuum. We went our entire first year without one! How gross is that!?! (of course we borrowed from family and friends...but still...)

#2 - My own movie list. My dad went through all of the home videos we have and created a play list for each of us, documenting the videos each of us were in and where to find them (I knew he must have put hours and hours into that, so I couldn't help but get emotional!)

#3 - A Levi blanket. My mom made each of us a special blanket (she has become quite the master quilter lately).

Of course there were many other great gifts, but those are the main ones that come to mind right now. Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas. Thanks to Jason for putting up with our strict traditions...I'm sure it was a lot different than what he is used to, but he was a great sport! Thanks to both of our parents for their loving gifts and for helping make this Christmas full of wonderful memories!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Emily! I love reading your blog and I love all your Christmas traditions. I had to put my husband through all my traditions as well. Oh my I am already excited for Christmas again. Hope things are going well!

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  2. i love the picture of all of you and your sugar cereal. that is hilarious. that's a good idea that you save the sugary stuff for one day a year :)

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