Christmas Traditions

Katie and her family went searching for snow last weekend, and found Santa too!

Well, Christmas is just a couple days away! This will be only the second time in my 32 years that I won't be home for Christmas, mostly because our school schedule doesn't allow me to catch a flight out in time to be home for Christmas Eve.

My family (Mom's side) always gets together on Christmas Eve for a nice meal, time together, and of course, exchanging gifts. I'm not sure when we started opening gifts on Christmas Eve - maybe in high school - but it's a tradition I've enjoyed because it means that we can sleep in Christmas morning. As a small child, we would wake up, open gifts from Santa, and then rush off to Granny and Grandpa's house for a breakfast of Belgian waffles with raspberry whipped cream. Yum!

This year, I am in a unique situation in that Tyler and I will be alone for Christmas Eve. We have a ham dinner planned for the evening, and we'll probably do some pleasure reading (I just bought all of the Twilight books!) and maybe watch a Christmas movie with Fred. In the morning, I am continuing the waffle tradition before we head over to Richmond to spend the day and night with Tyler's mom, step-dad, brother and step-brother.

After Christmas, we are going to deer camp for a night, followed by a visit to Ty's dad's house for lunch with more family. We are going to spend New Year's at Manoir Hovey in Canada. (It seems like we are making a NYE trip to Canada a tradition. We were in Quebec City last year!) The hotel looks amazing; we will start the day with snowshoeing or a sleigh ride before checking in to get ready for the evening. I believe the night starts with drinks and appetizers, followed by dinner and then dancing and a champagne toast at midnight. So fun! Finally, the Alexander Family Christmas will be the last big event (and I mean BIG!) before heading back to school.

Although most of Christmas break will be spent relaxing, I do have a huge pile of papers to grade, as well as work to do for my online class. I plan to dedicate just one day to grading, planning, and my own schoolwork though... the rest will be fun stuff!

Off to make cupcakes for my 7th graders and white-chocolate hot chocolate for Tyler and myself. I can't wait to try it!

Merry Christmas everyone!

p.s. The elf project at school went off fabulously! The little kids are so excited to have their own personal elves!