This year we spent Christmas Eve with my family, as usual, because of the Barlow Christmas Eve Bash. All of my mom's family (along with my dad's parents) comes to my parent's house for Christmas Eve. We have a big dinner and play games and do a gift exchange. Then we usually sing carols or have a little program, and then the Christmas story is read from Luke while someone plays Silent Night on the harmonica. This is significant because my Grandpa Barlow did this every Christmas before he passed away. Then we all sing Silent Night together and everyone goes home for the night.
This year was the Walker year. Meaning me and my sister were with our family instead of the in-laws. I don't know when this tradition started, but we all used to sleep in the same room Christmas Eve. Because we're older now, and bigger, and some of us have bad backs (Phil, hereditary, and Adam, fell off a roof), some of us need to actually sleep on a bed instead of the floor. So we had to split up into two rooms this year. But it was still fun.
We woke up Christmas morning around 7:30 and got dressed and ready for the day. Most people think we're crazy that we have to get dressed and do our hair before we open presents but it's our tradition and we like it. (Well, Brian thinks we shouldn't have our kids get dressed, but I am insisting on the next part.)
Then we all line up to go downstairs, youngest to oldest, with our eyes closed. As you can see, my mom leads us so we don't fall down the stairs. Also, even though Adam is older than Phil, we let him stand behind Nat because they're married. I still insisted on standing behind Brian because I am older than him. :)
Then we all eat the traditional breakfast of Monkey Bread, orange juice and hot chocolate. When we were little my parents positioned the table so we couldn't look at the presents and the tree, but we have too many people now. We still try not to look so it keeps the suspense going.
Then we can go downstairs and look in our stockings. And then finally, after building all that suspense, we can go upstairs and open presents!
This year, like last year, we tried to make it to all the obligatory visits. We did Christmas morning with my family, then we drove the mile down the road to do presents with Brian's family and talk to his brother Derek on his mission. Then we drove up to Bountiful to have lunch with my family and extended family up there. Then my family usually watches a movie and naps and plays games, but we had to leave so we could catch the late lunch at his grandparents house in Salt Lake. It was nice to see everyone but just not as relaxing as I want Christmas to be. So we decided that from now on, until we have kids, we'll just stick with one side of the family for the holiday. (Though we'll probably still do both families in the morning because they're only a mile apart.)
We did get to go home early though and have just our own little Christmas with a movie and cookies.
We spent most of the Christmas weekend at my parent's house because my sister and brother-in-law were in town. We went out to eat, a lot, and played games, and watched movies. And I got to have those well-loved chats with her that I miss so much.
For New Year's Eve, we hung out with Brian's family. We went bowling, had pizza, and watched a movie. His youngest brother Stuart was so excited to get to stay up late, but then by the time 11:00 rolled around he was ready to go to bed and wanted everyone to leave so it would be quiet. :)
Another fun thing we did over the break, was shopping. We realized that we still had a bunch of gift cards from our wedding that we hadn't used and thought now would be a good time to do that. And sadly for Brian, most of the shopping was for me. He took me out to dinner, and then we went to exchange some shoes I got that didn't fit, and then we went to Seagull Book, and I got a new book and a shirt, and then we went to Deseret Book and I got 3 new books. Oh, and did I mention that I got 5 books for Christmas to start out with? :) I love to read. I've already read two of my books and I'm starting on the 3rd. I got the whole Twilight series, even though I've read it before, because I wanted to have it to keep. And I got the Host. So I'm waiting to read those again, until I read my new ones.
This week I started back to work full time, after having a really nice break of only working a few hours each day the past couple weeks. Brian still has this week off before he starts back to school for his final semester!! He spent most of the break working on his portfolio to apply to Grad school here at the U. It looks fabulous and I'm really proud of him. Hopefully we'll be getting to stick around for another couple years here. :)
3 comments:
I love monkey bread! I always thought it was just a Peck tradition. We always have it at our Christmas party!
I don't think your family is weird by having to get dressed before opening gifts! That's what we had to do, too, growing up. We had to be dressed (shoes included!), hair brushed, and teeth brushed before we could go out, and we had to wait until everyone was ready! Now, since we've had kids, we're too excited for them, so we just have stayed in our pj's the last couple years. :)
Before we had kids, we also tried to make it to all he obligatory places for Christmas, but after the kids came, we have stayed at home, and have only made it to one family gathering usually on Christmas night. So much easier!
Where are the pictures of the parents...
We miss you all!
Cindra
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