And, we’re on the countdown to Santa’s arrival. Only 29 more sleeps!
I don’t know that we have a lot of Christmas traditions in our house. Certainly, no very formal ones. Whoever’s around helps put up the tree, then the cats help pull it down. The wrapped presents go under the tree, then the cats unwrap them. And, if you are ever walking past the tree, your ankles are fair game for an ambush from whichever cat has taken up residence under it.
We open our presents pretty early in the morning. Tracy and I are both early risers. On a normal morning, we’re up at 4:30. After so many years, our body clocks wake us any time ten minutes either side of that. And, as I said in a previous post, I don’t really sleep well Christmas Eve anyway. We’re probably one of the few households where we have to wake the kids up to open presents. Most years, we manage to hold off until at least 6:00AM, sometimes 7:00AM but not much later.
Once presents are done with, and the cats have killed all the wrapping paper balls, it’s breakfast time! Bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, hash browns, toast…and laughter.
Mostly, that’s it. The rest of the day is pretty much unstructured. We play with our new toys, eat chocolates and chips, and generally bum around. I have to keep an eye on the clock to put the turkey in the oven (although sometimes we have ham instead). Then, around 4:00PM, I start making dinner. Once dinner and dishes are done, we’re finished.
I do have one Christmas tradition that I carry out alone, usually pretty early in the season, once the tree is up. I watch “Leo Buscaglia: Stories of Christmas Love”. My wife usually rolls her eyes at that. I think the kids do, too. It jump starts my Christmas spirit. Gets me in the mood, if you will. It reminds me of all those Christmases past–the good and the bad, and reminds me of the potential of the coming one and gets me looking forward to Christmas morning.
It’ll be doubly important to watch it this year. Despite the remote Christmas, there is still potential for a good Christmas. We’ll all be “together” — sure, it’ll be huddled around our computer screens when we open presents, but the laughter will still be there.
In case you’re curious or need a Christmas spirit jump start, I’ve put the video below.