Thursday, December 24, 2009

Christmas Eve

For my family, today starts our celebration of Christmas. This afternoon we'll attend mass followed by a trip to my parent's house to have a family dinner and exchange presents. If I can talk Zilla into it, we'll also drive down to the historical district in our town and see all the lights while listening to Christmas music.

Then we'll tuck the girls into bed and wait for Santa to arrive.

The fun and frenzy will probably also involve those last minute wrapping sessions. Hopefully, I won't need a final trip to the mall for anything.

Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions?

Instigator

P.S. The pictures are from another of our Christmas traditions, the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN. Each year we try to get up there to do a little shopping and also stop by the hotel to see their amazing Christmas decorations.

6 comments:

Playground Monitor said...

Until my boys grew up and left home, we always hung their stockings by the fireplace and made a big deal of leaving cookies and milk for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer too). And Santa continued to fill their stockings too, which just goes to show that you have to believe to receive.

I'm away from home this Christmas but my stocking is hung on the bookcase at home. I'm not sure Santa got my change of address form in time though. :-(

mslizalou said...

I love going out to the Opryland Hotel to look at all the lights...just hate the traffic that comes with it.

We have always had my dad's homemade pizza on Christmas Eve. We go to the 11:00 pm Christmas Eve service at me church and by the time it is over, we have started our Christmas day in church. Tomorrow will be too much food and lots of time with family.

This year my grandmother said she got the perfect Christmas gifts already. All of her grandchildren will be in at some point and we get to watch the Titans play on Christmas night.

Angel said...

Wow! I'd heard the decorations at Opryland were beautiful, and they really are! I'll have to get up there to see them sometime.

We have a big party at my inlaws on Christmas Eve with that side of the family. We enjoy the food we've been baking for 2 days and open presents. I always look forward to that time with family.

Angel

Andrea Laurence AKA Smarty Pants said...

I've always wanted to see opryland, but always heard it was a zoo.

Our family always has a Christmas eve dinner. Haven't been to midnight mass in ages. Our tradition is to open one gift that night, which somehow always manages to be pajamas. :)

Sherry Werth said...

I've never visited Opryland, but those lights are beautiful.
Hubby's family lives in Indiana and mine now live in Tennessee, so our Christmas is a quite one. I really don't mind, although ALL the cooking falls on me. We still hang stockings for the kids and open our presents on Christmas morning.
Today I'll be finishing the wrapping and doing some baking. I've never made yeast breads before but thought I would give it a try this year. And I'm sure I will have to run to the store for something I forgot.
Happy Holidays Everyone!

Kira Sinclair - AKA Instigator said...

Well, today has been bonkers but I'm finally home and sitting still for a few minutes...at least until some little girls go to sleep. :-)

The Opryland Hotel is amazing and the pictures just don't do it justice. Yes, it is a madhouse there between Thanksgiving and Christmas but it is so worth it. We park at the mall, do some shopping and then walk over so we can avoid the cars as much as possible. However, you just can't appreciate the outside lights any way other than from a car so as we leave we drive out that way. We didn't go this year and I really missed it. Just couldn't fit it into the schedule.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Instigator