Christmas #1 was on the 23rd with Rob's dad, sister, her husband and the kids. We decided last year that we were going to celebrate on the 23rd every year and we would alternate between her house and ours and this year was our year to host it.
The night before Rob decided he really wanted to make it festive and fun for our nephew Trav (who is 2 1/2). (This was one of those 'aww I can't wait to make him a dad' moments. :) ) So he started pulling out all the decorations we hadn't bothered to put up. He hung these little felt trees from the ceiling and I made some snowflakes and he hung those up.
Rob wanted to give one to Trav and Libby, but they were already in the car and he had forgotten to have Traverse pick out one, so grabbed two down and handed them to Lisa (his sister) and when she got in the car she gave Trav his snowflake and he said 'but mom I'm sad Libby didn't get one' and she told him that she had one for Libby too. How sweet is that? He had it hung up over his bed that night so he could look at it.
My family has this tradition of passing this ornament back and forth. It's called the ugly ornament. My dad and his sisters have passed it back and forth and now it's on my generation. You know I like to enter contests. So on Christmas eve I got this package. I noticed before opening it that it was from the area I live in. I opened it and the letter explaining I had won this sweepstakes. I didn't remember entering it or winning it and a big win like that I'm sure I would have. However I did get a gift card in the mail once I didn't remember winning so I thought maybe it was legit. I pulled back the tissue paper and saw the ornament. I started laughing and was like 'oh man my cousin got me good'
Christmas #2 (Christmas eve) was with Rob's mom, his sister and her family again, and his grandparents. Then after eating and presents his great aunt (grandpa's sister) who lives next door came over with 2 of her kids and their kids and we had dessert and played a few minute to win it games that my sister in law put together. One involved boxes with jingle bells of different sizes in them. One box had 5, the next 10, and all they way up to 35 (in increments of 5), so 7 boxes total. I only got the first 2 right. Yikes! I think the winner had 5 right. It was a fun time. His grandparents left for Florida on Christmas day so we wanted to hang out with them for longer. We ended up skipping my mom's extended family. I know I had mentioned probably doing it anyway, and it was fine, but it is the one time of the year I do get to see most of them, so it was a little bit of a bummer.
Christmas #3 was Christmas morning with my parents. We went over there and exchanged gifts with my parents, sister, brother in law, brother and my niece. It was a fun time. My parents spoil us. They probably spent $150 on each kid. I spent $25 on each parent.
Then Rob and I came back home and exchanged gifts. We only did a few small gifts because we are saving for couches. So I got him a shirt, a new coffee/tea mug and a candy bar. He went a little over our set budget and got me a gift card to the gas station (he's a practical one), a new bra, a pair of underwear (those surprised me), some candy, a few lotto tickets (I think they all lost), and a zip up sweatshirt.
After that we went to my aunt's house for the final Christmas This was the side of the family that does the ornament. We did a white elephant (I brought an old college textbook and ended up with a 2 1/2 men jersey I do not like that show). Then we did a good gift exchange. My sister brought something for me to exchange (a letter opener that was re-gifted to her and she was re-gifted again), but I ended up with a $10 gift card to Meijer and a bag of candy. I offered the gift to Ali since she brought my gift to play, but she didn't care.
We did decide that next year we would not do that get together on Christmas. It's going to be weird because it has ALWAYS been on Christmas day. The time has changed but the day hasn't. So that will be different, but now that my generation has kids they all say it's too much. And it really is. It's stressful running everywhere so that will be nice to just do immediate family and then be able to relax.
It was not a white Christmas here. There was a little snow on the ground but it was patchy. Other parts of the state had plenty though. It is kicking in tonight though. Lots of snow outside.
I started to take down my decorations today. I usually leave them up until after the new year, but I just want them down now. I don't know what it is. I guess I want my living room back. :)
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas wherever you were and whatever you were doing!
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