christmas

Fa La La La La....you know how that song goes.And of course many other christmas songs because that is what we do...we learn christmas songs when we are kids and then we continue to sing them and listen to them as we grow up. So what is Christmas like for you? For me it is very different now then when i was a kid. When i was a kid we (being my older sister and younger brother) searched high and low for our presents and often my sister would find them and not tell my brother and i. Then we would open the inevitable pajamas on christmas eve and get changed and set out cookies and milk for santa and then go into our bedrooms and sleep. We never slept for very long, even just a few years ago when i lived on my own with my husband I got a phone call at 5am from my brother wondering where we were. So when we were kids we got to go through our stockings before our parents got up and in later years before our mom got up. Then we would wait until what we assumed was a decent hour usually 6:30 and wake our parents up very abruptly and rush them to get out of bed and come into the living room so we could begin opening our gifts. The time it took for our parents to get out of bed make coffee and get to the living room always seemed like an eternity. I can hear my brothers voice,"come on mom hurry up" he is the baby so he was always the most excited. Then we would all settle in around the christmas tree with blankets and my brother and i seperated the presents. once the piles were all set then we would begin opening one present at a time in rotation. We always seemed to start and end with my brother since he was younger he got more presents because they were still cheaper. Now of course he has the least amount of presents and he still hasnt adjusted to the change. So for me this year I live in a different state then my siblings, but i have already contemplated calling and waking them up at the crack of dawn because they always did it to me and i dont want to miss out. I now understand how hard it must have been for davids family when he was away, and I am excited for a new tradition. We have been in Jersey for christmas before but only visiting this year we live here and i just shipped off all of the presents to my family. i know i wont get to see their faces when they open them but i am still just as exicted for sharing the gifts i picked out specially for each of them. I am enjoying every part of my first New Jersey Christmas and I am looking forward to next saturday and all of next week as Christmas comes closer..Traditions are sometimes hard to break but they dont have to be broken..just a little bit of change. I know my Mom is sending my pajamas...and i will get to open them on Christmas eve.