Merry Christmas

This is my first Christmas in nine years without a deadline hanging over my head so I have decided to embrace the season and enjoy it. I don't think I ever realized before how many things have become tradition with our family.

The weekend before Thanksgiving we start decorating. We have to in order to have everything done by the first Sunday in December. This is the day I have my annual ornament swap with my girlfriends. I started it in 1997 because I wanted us to do something without our kids since our lives seemed to revolve around their functions. Now our kids are mostly grown and moved on yet we still get together this first Sunday in Dec and catch up and have a blast. For some of us, this is the only time we see each other all year. Still we come together, I hope we're still doing it when we're all old and gray. We've even brought in the next generation with daughters and daughter-in-laws.

When I get to the point in December when my work is done, the shopping and wrapping under control and I feel like I can draw a breath, I sit down and watch White Christmas. This is one of my all time favorite movies and I can pretty much recite it line by line since I've probably seen it over 50 times in my life. When I was little I wanted to be Vera Ellen. Actually I still want to be her. Have you seen her waist? And her legs? My guys sure do like to talk about her. They also like to rewrite the songs. Their tradition is to sing the Sisters song and insert the line, Sharing, Caring, Even the underwear that we are wearing. Yeah, got to love the traditions.

We open our presents on Christmas Morning after breakfast. We attend our church's Love Feast on Christmas Eve. All the men in my family cook a huge country breakfast the morning after Christmas when we have our family get together. We open presents from the youngest to the oldest and take turns so everyone can see what you got. And every year, our kitty climbs the Christmas tree. I'm sure these traditions will change as my son's get married and have children. We'll figure something out. But one thing for sure, I will still watch White Christmas every year.

I'd love to hear your Christmas traditions. And here's wishing each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas.