Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree. . .

Well Christmas is drawing nearer and I am excited about it.  I am so ready for it to be here, I keep asking Mark if we can please just open one present and of course he says "no" which is a bummer, but a good thing!  I feel like time is flying by and standing still all at the same time!  I also feel like I should be doing more, making my own traditions and celebrating Christmas in my own independent way, but the thing is I just don't know how to do that or what to do.  Should I bake cookies, make my own candy, take more pictures, drink hot chocolate while walking down the square. . . what!?  I dunno.  Mark is just fine chilling which I guess is ok with me, but still you only get your first christmas once!!!

Christmas will be a whirlwind for us this year, which is mostly my fault, but hey lol, what can I say?  We will be seeing both sides of the family on Christmas day, all by hopefully 10 that morning, needless to say it will be busy.  There are plenty of Christmas traditions in my family, all starting in the wee hours of Chirstmas Eve.  My mom played this game when she was little and so consequently we did as well growing up.  How you play is the first person that wakes up on Christmas Eve and goes and wakes up everyone else in the house saying "Christmas Eve Gift!!" gets to open a special gift on that morning.  Well we used to open a special gift until one year someone decided we should all head out to Ihop and eat then go to Wal-Mart and the winner get like a $5 something.  It is always great fun to see who wins!

After that growing up we would go to my Noni's house, where when I was really little we had to wait until "dark thrity" to open our presents.  That was until one year my noni decided to shake things up a bit and make us do little activites to get our presents.  We call it the "Amazing Race" because that is the show we got the idea from.  One of the annual races is teaming up and going to find as many candy canes as we can that are hidden by my Poppy all over is land.  One year we had a marshmellow shooter and we saw who could shoot it the farthest, and another we had a bubblegum blowing contest to see who could blow the biggest bubble (I won that one)!  After all the fun at Noni's we head back over to our house and get one Christmas present early, which is always new pajamas!!!  Then Adam and I would watch "The Santa Clause"  until we fell asleep, only to wake up extra early to open presents!  Then after we opened presents we would head to my Ballou's and Pawpaw's to eat breakfast (Pawpaw's waffels we get only once a year) and open presents.

Needless to say things are going to be slightly different this year, but in a good way.  Mark and I are going to do all the Christmas Eve festivties, and after the night is over we are going to head back to Marshall and go to sleep, only to wake up EXTREMELY early on Christmas morning to do our Christmas together.  Then we will head straight out to Harleton to do Christmas with my family, then to leave there and head to Tyler to do Christmas with his family!  I know it is going to be absolutely nuts, but worth it that is for sure!