My twins, their guy friends, my husband, and I go to the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC, for the holiday brunch and to enjoy the gingerbread house display and the gorgeously decorated Christmas Trees. We always have to visit the gift shops on the grounds and the Antique Car Museum. That is Hubby's and my gift to each other.
On Christmas Eve Eve (the 23rd) we meet at my sister's house for a variety of soups, breads, crackers, etc. We sing carols, and we sound a bit better when someone in the group plays the piano well *wink*. We also play several loud and active games. Those games probably were not originally intended to be loud, but our group makes them so. Our favorite is the one in which we act out "The 12 Days of Christmas."
On Christmas Day, the daughters come to our house for brunch and to open our gifts. This year we added the tradition of visiting Dad's grave and that of their "Momalean," out employee who started out as their babysitter and remained to work for us for 23 years before she and her husband "Mr. Harden" died in a house fire Jan. 6, 2006. You'd think that would be sad, but we recalled some wonderful times.
Christmas evening, we converge on Mom's house and have a meal of whatever anyone brings, mostly finger foods, but some casseroles and similar. Someone reads the Christmas Story, including some Old Testament references. Then we open gifts. We have a tradition of giving family gifts, all of which are handmade. It's a lot of fun, because we all have to open the same gift at the same time so as not to spoil the surprise. Dad used to play a game of sneaking all of his presents open before anyone else so we had to let him and Mom open their gifts first (unless they were receiving the same handmade gift as the others), but this year the 2 greatgrandsons (aged 6 & 2) opened their gifts first. A new tradition, I suppose. Mom and one of my sisters had gone through Dad's "collectables"--he was a packrat--, everything from campaign buttons to old coins. They divided them, and each of us received a packet of those items. It was a poignant time as each of us showed and described what was in our packet. Some precious memories there.
