Christmas All Day posted by Rachel on 12/9/08
We celebrate Christmas all day. We get up early and the kids open gifts from Santa. After all the excitement we break for a special breakfast and the kids play with their gifts. About 11 our family starts to arrives and we have light appetizers. We keep a buffet out all day with cookies and candies we also keep hot water and a variety of tea and hot cocoa for everyone to enjoy. After everyone has arrived, Grandpa reads the Christmas story then we open family gifts. We open them one at a time so we all get to experience the joy on everyone's face as they get the perfect gift or even when its not the perfect gift! After that we clean up and prepare for Christmas dinner (about 4PM). We eat Christmas dinner and then pull out the pies and homemade desserts everyone has made. We then visit, laugh and play with the kids. About 7:00 PM we gather back into the living room and we open our stockings. We used to all bring little items and candy for the stockings but now my brother and his wife fill the stockings as their gift to the family. Its a fun way to end the evening. After everyone leaves we sit and watch home movies we have taken all year and often pull out the ones from many years past. It has become a tradition the kids look forward to doing together. After the movies are over the kids get dressed for bed and when they come out Santa has swung by with just one more gift under the tree. Its usually a movie, book maybe a stuffed animal something to calm down the excitement of the day. That is how we spend our Christmas day. Its not over in 15 minutes in our home, we enjoy it all day long.
