Merry Christmas Everyone

So we are getting ready for our Christmas in Disneyland. In case you are wondering... Our oldest son and his family have gone to Florida to spend Christmas with Mollye's family. Our youngest son and his girlfriend were making plans to go to spend Christmas with Helen's family so we decided in July to go to Disneyland with our best friends aka sister and hubby Mary and Randy!

Now I know it is not a traditional Christmas for us. As a matter of fact we agreed to throw all the traditions to the wind this year and just have fun at Christmas. However, I have to admit that this year has been a really hard year for me for Christmas. I am not used to no hustle and bustle, no big meals to cook, no house keeping to get ready for guests, no snow.. (although let's keep that one under wraps.. OK?) I miss having my family around right now. Dan is even gone until tonight. Tomorrow we pack and do all the getting ready and Tuesday we are off...

I have kind of forgotten what it is like to not do a traditional Christmas. We have had a traditional Christmas routine for 30 years now with occasional changes to accomodate friends and family that were spending Christmas ýwith us. For the most part the routine went something like this:

Christmas eve started at 4:00PM when the television and all electronics went off except for the stereo with Christmas music. Then we cooked cookies and coffee for Santa and everyone was encouraged to help. We usually fixed a simple dinner that everyone had to help with. Over the last few years it has been pizza. I prepared the dough and then everyone covered thier pizza with thier own toppings. There is something to do for everyone with pizza from cutting up the toppings, grating the 3-5 different kinds of cheese and then making the pizza. It is usually a bustling time in the kitchen but definitely fun. While the pizza cooks, we play a game of some kind. After dinner and dishes (and yes we always do the dishes right after cooking on this one night per year! Usually the dishes wait till the next day.) Anyway, then we light all our candles (for Christmas that is a total of about 25 to 40 candles.) Then we read aloud The Grinch, The night before Christmas, the Nativity from the bible, and usually a Christmas book. This book is read aloud all through the holiday till it is finished. At midnight we toast Christmas and wait to hear the animals speak.. Usually they just look really grumpy when we wake them up!

Christmas morning is present time. When the kids were young we didnt even put out presents till they had gone to bed. Santa didnt come till Christmas eve you know. We then break out a game (we always bought one game per Christmas) and I cooked breakfast. The day was spent playing games and reading (NO TV!! or later No Computer either!!) And I cooked a meal for the dinner. Over the last 10 years we have spent the holidays with Mary and Randy and thier family so every other year she cooked dinner and we went to thier house. The whole day was spent talking and being together. That evening we gathered all our gifts together from under the tree and put them away.

For those of you who have not been around for our Boxing day fun... well we celebrate Christmas with a huge dinner for all our friends family and acquaintances. Last year we had dinner for 40. This year we will be coming back from Disneyland and won't be here.

So this is our routine... our tradition and for this one year we are throwing it to the wind... Hello Disneyland...Here we come! I hope you all have a terrific Christmas and we will see you come New Years!

Christmas on Whidbey Island.