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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas Day…Cozy Traditions and Predictable Chaos….

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This is the Grandparent’s home on Christmas morning. Actually the kids call them Mimi and Papa, and this is where we all end up on Christmas day.

 It goes like this. Every Christmas morning we wake up, start the pot of coffee, blast the Christmas music, and head over to our living room where we all get ready to open our Christmas stockings.

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our living room Before the Chaos

This year, in all the excitement I actually started to pass out a present first and both of the boys said, Mom, what are you doing? We haven’t opened our stockings yet?!”

Wow. That was a surprise. Isn’t it nice to know that our kids actually like having certain traditions?

Once we’ve had our family Christmas at our home, the guys all start loading the presents in the car as we prepare to head over to Mimi and Papa’s house.

At this point, our living room floor is a mess with wrapping paper and empty boxes everywhere and of course, there’s always some loud confusion about a missing present.

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Lately, Somebody is always saying, “Stella, what do you have in your mouth?”

And meanwhile, Mimi will have called to wish us a cheery Merry Christmas and to find out how late we are running. Somehow I’m always the last one out the door (“Does anyone know where my purse is?”) and Jim is dangling the car keys and rushing me… only when we get out to the car, I usually discover that something is missing. So we tell the boys to call Mimi and let her know we’re on our way (a-little-white-lie) while Jim and I head back inside to do “one last look.”

It’s traditional chaos, do you have this too?

But it’s all good. At some point while we’re driving, Mimi will call to tell us that everyone is starving and ready to eat, and Jim will take the phone and tease her and she will give it back. And the boys will enjoy the banter.

Mimi’s the early bird in the entire clan who is up before dawn. No lie. She runs circles around most people half her age and she’s usually on the treadmill by 5:30 each morning. Her little house is always ready and beautifully decorated on Christmas morning.

A Silver and White Christmas

This year she decorated her tree in white and silver. She got inspired by Pottery World’s giant silver bulbs with snowy script on them.

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The words on the bulbs are, Joy, Noel and Peace. I loved them.

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And this is her beautiful tree.

In her typical grandma style, she has only allowed color from one of Michael’s homemade ornaments. (Do you see it?) No other red or green on her tree this year. Funny.

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This is Mimi’s Christmas chandelier this year

…covered with simple silver tinsel. Didn’t she do a great job?

Hmm…she’s inspired me to do an entire post on a white and silver Christmas—what a easy transformation for a New Year’s Eve party!

Oh, One more thing

One of Mimi’s traditions is her Christmas trivia games that she finds online. Games are her special touches at family events and she gives prizes to the winners. Only last year…she accidently put the answer key on the bottom of all the pages.

I can’t remember who she decided the winner was, but I do remember the funny comments and laughter….

 

What are your Christmas Day traditions?  I’d love to hear…

Have a beautiful day, my friends.

LH

 

 

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