We will normally travel to my Aunts house which out in North Western NJ and that means that 9 out of 10 Christmas' they will have some kind of snow -- even if it is just a dusting. Its great because I see extended family that I never get a chance to see during most of the year.
Normally we'll arrive around 330 or 4 in the afternoon and get re-antiquated with the family -- who's dating who, who's doing what in school, who's changed jobs.We're a bunch of LOUD Italians so you could imagine that there is quite a lot of chatter going on.
We normally start with Mussels and Oysters on the half-shell, shrimp cocktail, stuff like that. Then we'll move into the Main Course of Fish or Crabs, that's followed by the Caesar salad with Anchovies(!!), and then desert pastries and cookies --- I know everyone has different traditions but I personally can't see anyone eating Meat on Christmas Eve.
Normally after that some of the Family with young kids will start breaking off around 10. My Brothers, a couple Cousins, and I will often put the kids to 'bed' downstairs at My Aunt's (they always bring their Pajamas with them) And then we'll all head back to the dinning room late into the night telling stories over bottles of Sambuca.
I'm never home on Christmas Eve before 2 am. Thankfully my son is a good sleeper and, even though I end up carrying him to the car, sleeps through till the morning.
"I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." ~Charles Dickens
It'll be nice to relax and recover on Christmas eve. We'll probably watch Christmas films in the day, do some Christmas baking with the girls - mince pies and gingerbread cookies usually, then we take the girls for a walk, hope for snow and build a snowman if we get it, dash to the supermarket if we happen to have forgotten anything, and feed the girls early and put them to bed by 6.30. Before going to bed, we let the girls put out some of the mince pies and cookies for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer. While I tuck them in, I tell them to listen very carefully to hear the bells on Santa's sleigh and my husband sits outside their room and rings some jingle bells outside their window
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Christmas_mama
