Happy Holidays everyone! I hope that whatever you’re celebrating has been filled with laugher and light. My family celebrates Christmas (which you’ve probably gathered from the name of this post) and I thought it might be kind of fun to tell you a little bit about my family’s Christmas traditions.
I’m from a relatively large family. My mom is the youngest of four, my dad has one sister, and I have three sisters. I have four surviving grandparents (my dad has an ex-step-dad who’s still involved in our lives), and countless second cousins (or something like that, I’ve never quite figured out the technical relation). This has meant that our Christmases vary a bit from year to year, depending on which family members we’re with. It’s also about to vary even more with my parent’s recent divorce. One constant that I can count on is being surrounded by love–more specifically, my sisters.
This year, my sisters, my mom, and I drove up to Fargo to stay with my older sister for the holiday. We’re pretty typical in some of our traditions (see: baking Christmas cookies, cooking more food than any single family could ever eat, etc.). Something a bit more unique is our tendency to craft every time we’re together. My sisters are all incredibly artistic, so we end up doing some sort of painting or drawing every time we’re all together. We also end up completing at least one 500+ piece puzzle when we’re together.
Another (marginally) unique tradition we have is opening our gifts on Christmas Eve after we get home from the candle-lit church service. When I was young, I knew that this meant Santa was real, because my parents were always with me at church, so how could they be the ones putting the presents there?? 🙂 I also always loved this set up, because my birthday is June 24th, meaning that Christmas Eve is my half birthday. I thought I was so lucky that I’d get to open gifts every six months.
Now, I know that the true blessing is getting to spend time with all these people who love me. I know, I know, I’m cheesy, but it’s true! I hope everyone has had an amazing holiday season.
Stay tuned for more updates,
xoxo, second sister suzie
