Then, early this morning, 6:00 a.m. to be exact, Shulamith texted "Rise and Shine!" Swen was awake, so she brought him up in order to let Matt sleep, and she and I ate chocolate eclairs and watched Hostages. Possibly a new tradition?
I do love tradition. In fact, that's the reason we decided to celebrate tomorrow. Our Christmas traditions take the whole day. So today, Shulamith can be with the Monson Family, and tomorrow she can be here. Our traditions actually start Christmas Eve, when we eat something yummy, read the Christmas story from the scriptures, open one gift each, and frost cookies for Santa. That will all happen tonight. Then in the morning, let the fun begin! Recently on Facebook, I saw this question: All at once or one at a time? (meaning does your family open their gifts all at once, or one person at a time?) We most definitely fall into the latter category. One. At. A. Time. And S-L-O-W-L-Y! I control the speed by handing out the presents myself. Bahahaha! I want to see every single person open every single gift. And I do. And it take hours. Literally. And I love it. The longer the better. But I think poor Mathew nearly rescinded his marriage proposal the first time he experienced this four years ago. He doesn't particularly enjoy Christmas to begin with, and our marathon morning celebration was a bit more than he bargained for, like three or four hours more! We are SO glad he decided to marry Shulamith anyway; we love him.
Sometime in the middle of gift opening, we take a break for breakfast and then carry on. Then in the afternoon, we prepare lots of appetizers, finger foods, and sweet treats. We don't do a formal dinner on Christmas, just easy stuff, so we don't spend Christmas in the kitchen. By then most of the males in the family are fully involved playing their new video-games and wouldn't stop for something as insignificant as Christmas dinner anyway, so it's easier just to snack. In the late afternoon or evening we go to the movies. We used to struggle to find just the right movie that would appeal to everyone, but we finally gave up on that, and now we often find ourselves watching different movies in the same theatre. You can't talk in movies anyway, right?
But this year, Gerald has to work tomorrow night and won't be here for the movie tradition, so just now he and Isaiah and Seth left to go see The Hobbit. Having zero interest in The Hobbit, I am here alone. It's weird. With seven of us living here, I am never alone in the house. It's quiet. Really quiet. I wondered how I might feel about that, being all alone for a few hours on Christmas Day. Would it make me sad, even knowing that our real Christmas is tomorrow? So far, though, I feel just fine about it. I'm listening to Celine Dion sing "O Holy Night." I'm sipping a cold Diet Coke. Kitty is basking in the sunshine that streams through our front window. I'm blogging in peace. It's all good. And it's gonna get even better around 3:00 when I log onto Skype and see the face and hear the voice of my favorite missionary. By then, Shulamith will be home, and the guys will be back from the movie. We will all be here to love on Eli for a full 40 minutes. I cannot even wait!
As you might expect, Seth was less than enthusiastic about waiting a day to celebrate and has made his feelings known multiple times in the past 24 hours. Sorry, Seth! I know it's not your favorite plan, but it's the best option this year.
And all those presents?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they'll all still be there tomorrow.
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