Christmas is a long holiday in our house – especially if we include the “nights before Christmas” full of recitals, baking parties, last days of playgroup, adventures in the snow. This year we count 15 days of non-stop “days of Christmas” with festivities, dinners, crafts, brunches, gift-openings, shopping (Boxing Day, here we come!), friends, family and time with each other before Hubby goes back to work.
Because Christmas Day itself is crazy between many houses (we have 3-5 stops on Christmas Day alone), none of which are ours, I love that we have created other traditions that do center around our home. Annually we hold a Christmas Eve open house with some friends and family (and some Ma Jongg!) and the girls and I cook up a bunch of fancy appetizers and a turkey to munch on. New Years Eve I make the fanciest meal of the year with souffles, sauces, and courses for Hubby and I. We always start the day with breakfast down at Granville Island (LOVE those Pear/Brown sugar crepes!), then we pick up all our dinner supplies. This year we even have some guests!
Every year we open our “family” gifts between us over a few days before Christmas, hoping to remember them separately from the chaos of Christmas day’s mass giving. And the past few years we have enjoyed the craziness of Boxing Day with our teenage daughters and all their gift cards. I’m planning next year to incorporate more focus on the birth of Christ through some new traditions.
Today, on our Fifth day of Christmas Holidays, as we start to see the skies finally clear from snow, we look forward to a relaxing day at home. There is simply too much snow to drive anywhere, so it’s either a taxi, grab a bus or just stay nice and warm inside. Ahhhhh! Sometimes celebrating also means just being together.
Hope everyone is enjoying their days of Christmas!
Happy Holidays!
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