Memories of Christmas

Tonight is Christmas Eve!  I am not sure where the month of December has gone but here we are, on the brink of another toy avalanche for Luke and Katie.  It never ceases to amaze me how the toys multiply overnight and my house seems so much smaller.  Of course, if I were not such a sentimental pack-rat, we probably wouldn't be in this predicament. 

Anyway, I woke up at 3:30 this morning to wrap a few more presents and have been thinking a lot about Christmas when I was a kid.  Vinnie and I would go to church with my mom and Gram (always leaving right after Communion - the anticipation getting the best of us!) and would head back to Gram and Pap's house where Pap and Unk would be waiting for us.  Then we would tear into the gifts that Mom and Gram had purchased which generally consisted of clothes, pajamas, etc. 

After that, family and friends would slowly make their way to Gram and Pap's for a party that usually went on till the wee hours of the morning, much to the annoyance of me and Vinnie who still had to be in bed at a reasonable time.  At some point during the night, we would leave and go have Christmas with my dad and his family.  I always enjoyed that too and not only because we would come home with wads of cash and presents but also because I got to see my favorite cousins who live outside of Austin.

Then it was back to Gram and Pap's house to get ready for Santa.  Christmas was really the only time of year that Vinnie and I stopped fighting long enough to be friends.  We would work together to try to find the loot and cooked up many schemes but alas, we were usually unsuccessful.  I still have no idea where everything was hidden.  Maybe my mom will tell me one of these days!

Finally, it would be time for us to try to fall asleep.  You might think that sneaking a couple of sips of people's drinks might have helped but no, not on Christmas Eve!  Eventually we would fall asleep and then wake up to an onslaught of presents that I still cannot believe.  I honestly don't know how they did it.  There was everything imaginable under that tree for both of us! 

So here we are today and my children are playing sweetly with each other and they haven't even messed with any of the presents under the tree and are not old enough to start the tricks of trying to open them and tape them back together (which never really works).  I wonder when Luke and Katie will start those shenanigans?!  I look forward to it! 

But for tonight, we will go to the Christmas Eve service and then come back home to open some gifts before having a little get-together with family and friends and then in the morning, it will be time for more gifts.  The Christmases Andrew and I have had since Luke was born and then since Katie came along have all been wonderful and special and, now that they are getting older, I am hoping that we can start our own little tradition like when I was a kid and I hope that Andrew, Luke and Katie will enjoy it just as much.  So, if you are in our area tonight, please feel free to stop by any time after 6 and be a part of our tradition!

Merry Christmas!