My Family X-Mas Traditions

Well first off, the ladies on my Mom's side of the family (6 of us) get together every year the weekend after Thanksgiving and go x-mas shopping together. We spend the whole day from breakfast to dinner together and visit shops all over (the exact location/town varies from year to year).

Come December, we decorate the house, decorate the tree, put up a nativity scene, and put up x-mas lights. Since me and my brother moved out my Mom has developed a themed tree (white+blue with snowflakes) and a native american indian nativity set (with a ton of pieces), but when we were little we used all kinds of random ornaments for the tree (from homemade popcorn garlands to puzzle piece picture frames to mini stuffed animals) and we had a ceramic homemade regular nativity set (with a wooden shed to tack angels to).

Our exact house decorations and x-mas lights seemed to change a lot, but the themes of red+green, snowflakes+snowmen, santa+etc., and always having lights all along the front of the house have stayed the same. We used to take a weekend and put everything all up as a family and decorate the tree too, and my Mom and Dad would take a billion pictures for photo albums. We each had a stocking to hang on the fireplace as well (and every year those suckers are stuffed full of candy and mini presents even till today!).

We go to my Mom's family Christmas Eve for dinner (potluck that can be really random from pizza to turkey to Portuguese sopas, and my mom always bakes tons of yummy desserts to bring like no-bake cookies!) then we all exchange and open presents there, and then we play with them :) The kids get presents from everyone while the adults draw names to buy for each other.

Then me and my brother go home with my parents (yes even to this day as grown kids) so we can have family breakfast (eggs, potatoes, bacon fried crispy, and tortillas) then we exchange and open family presents from just the 4 of us to each other, then we play with them :)

Then later Christmas Day we go to my Dad's family to celebrate and eat, the location changes as does the time (used to be brunch at my Grandma Pena's now it's more like Lunner at my Aunt Tina's, which my Mom also brings yummy desserts to). It's the Mexican side so we have beans and rice, and if we're lucky tamales and enchiladas instead of turkey and ham. We exchange gifts, the kids buy for one other kid whose name they picked at Thanksgiving and the adults buy for whatever adult they picked, and then can you guess?...yes! we play with them, heh.

Then it had been a tradition for years and years for my Mom to take all the grandkids on her side of the family (9 of us) to go shopping at the big mall after x-mas (we had $$ to burn). We are all old enough to drive now and have our own cars, but we still occasionally decide to get together and carpool to go shopping after x-mas anyways, cause it's FUN!

Happy B-Day Xeelia

Here's wishes for a happy day to xeelia


And here are a few to make you smile behind the cut. ( Wanna See Yummy? )