Sunday, December 7, 2014

December 6th - Opening Presents


When Do You Open Presents?

Christmas 2013
(one of the grandsons is almost photo bombing the tree!)

When my brothers and I were growing up, we spent many Christmases in Florida with our grandparents; or our grandparents came to visit us in Georgia.  The years we spent in France or Germany, we didn't have our grandparents with us; but when we arrived home from Germany in January, we had Christmas waiting for us!

During those years, we opened presents on Christmas morning - always!  Well, there might have been that special Christmas Eve gift that we would open; and it was usually a pair of new pajamas!

But Christmas morning it was like this:  Wake up - early!  Eat breakfast - required!  Check out the Stockings - first!  THEN...on to the GOOD stuff!!  Our gifts were handed out and we opened them - usually all at one time!

When my children were growing up, we kept the same basic traditions...the early rising was a must as far the the children were concerned!  They were too excited to wait!!  Breakfast?  Cinnamon rolls or something quick and easy!  Stockings may or may not have been first...but the fun always came with the gifts.  They were handed out one by one by someone - different someone each year; and then we would open them all at one time!

Most Christmases were spent with my parents in Florida and everyone had plenty of gifts to unwrap and enjoy!  While my mom and I were preparing the Christmas Dinner, everyone checked out each other's gifts; playing with a new toy was always fun for the little ones.

There have been many years I would say, "This year is going to be a bit smaller than usual" - only to get together and find an enormous stack of gifts.  But...no matter how or when we open our presents, or what gifts we receive - we'd always agree that it was just right and the thought put into each gift was just as special (if not more) than the gift itself!

Fast forward to grown children...I remember being excited when my children were old enough to pick out and buy gifts for others all by themselves!  Why?  Because it made be happy to see their excitement in choosing just the right gift!  And the "secret keeping" was always so much fun!

Once the grandchildren came, we would let our "children" have Christmas morning with their own families.  They have kept a few of their "growing up" traditions, including pajamas on Christmas, or a family video to watch before going to bed.  Then my husband and I would join them later in the day for more presents and Christmas Dinner.  Someone passes out all the gifts and we sit with ours surrounding us or beside our chair - and then, we try to open them one at a time so we can see what everyone has received...this only works if we let the smallest ones go first!!  But, it's total excitement to watch them open their gifts - wanting to open and play with each one they discover!

Christmas is all about family; and when familes all live in one city, it takes some manipulating to get to everyone's house during the holidays!  One of my daughters goes to her in-laws on Christmas Eve, allowing them to be with us on Christmas Day.  My other daughter brings her mother-in-law (and sometimes brother and sister-in-law) to Christmas Dinner at her sister's house - or they are with her if we are doing Christmas at her house.  The two girls usually switch off between doing Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner!  In any case, we always have a big gathering for Dinner.

Then...there are the years my son - who lives in Louisiana - comes a day or two after Christmas - and we have Christmas all over again!  Usually with a non-traditional dinner - lasagna; my son's favorite!

This year, since my son and his family came for Thanksgiving - we had a wonderful Thanksgiving/Christmas, complete with presents and a yummy turkey dinner with more yummy trimmings!  What a wonderful time we all had!!

Thanksgiving/Christmas
2014

We will just have to wait 'til Christmas Eve and Christmas Day get here to see what great things will be happening then!  So far, no plans have been made...




Blogmas 2014
Linking up December 1 - 25



6 comments:

  1. Loved looking at your photos. I mentioned it before in your other post about your traditions, but I love how you open presents when you can with your family, and according to when they are visiting :)

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    1. Thanks! That probably comes from growing up in a military family and not always being together ON that day. Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  2. Love that you accommodate everyone's schedules....(being a Mum never stops, does it?!)....

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    1. Oh, no, Helen! We are mums for life!! Even when the kids are grown with families of their own. I am flexible enough that I can help them out with babysitting so they can do things, too - but I also have had to say "NO" because I do other things as well - like my crafts! Thanks for reading!

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  3. I agree one a mom always a mom. I am hoping that one year the entire family will be able to get together for Christmas (my family and my inlaws) i think it would be fun but what we have now is good

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    1. Cindy, we all do what we can and when we can! Each family is different, and sometimes it doesn't work out to have all the family together; but we sure try! In fact, today after church we are getting together at my youngest daughter's house for a family get-together - just because we don't get to hang out much anymore and are trying to set aside every other Sunday to do that! Thanks for reading and commenting...enjoy ALL of the family get togethers!

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