Long
time readers know that Swedes celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve.
We do this with all the Colorado contingent of our family and it's a big group. My Swissie has a great house, perfectly designed to
host a party this size, and she and Windex (her husband, please see
nickname tab above for explanation and intro to him) do a marvelous
job. It was a truly special time. Thanks again to both of you.
Being
Swedish and having that big celebration with my family on the 24th works out perfectly, because then we can always spend Christmas Day
with The Engineer's family, American style. We really do try to
incorporate both cultures in our family of four's traditions that we
are creating as we raise them.
However,
this year, his sister didn't have her kids until yesterday, so we
postponed. That meant that American Christmas would be on the 26th, Annandag Jul. Swedes really take three
days to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child, each day having
different traditions.
What
this also meant was that for the first time since OYT was three and I
had the stomach flu, our family of four (which I kept referring to as
our nuclear family – but people didn't like that term, something
about weapons of mass destruction was the objection, and wanted to
just call it “our family” so we did a bit of both, depending on to whom we were trying to explain ourselves.)
OYT,
appreciator of all things Christmas especially the traditions, went all out helping me plan our day. The Engineer and The Transporter
stuck around long enough to make sure we had snow crab for dinner,
then left with, “Whatever. I want some time to do my own thing,
too, though.”
Here's
a list of what we tried for our first family Christmas:
Hot
chocolate while opening presents
Peppermint
tea with candy canes available at all times
French
toast with bacon for breakfast
Lighting
all the candles I decorated with
Free
time
The
Charlie Brown Christmas Special
Chess
Apples
to Apples
Left-over
Swedish Christmas food for lunch
The
new Veggie Tales movie “Merry Larry and The True Light of
Christmas” (narrated by Uncle Si of Duck Dynasty – he's
HILARIOUS)
Snow
Crab for dinner
Movie
together all four of us in the evening
We
had a great day, and the only things that didn't happen were
Apples to Apples and the movie. By the time we finished crab legs
and Uncle Si, it was 10:30 and all of us were droopy.
As
to Annandag Jul, that was of course a great day as well. On both sides of the family, we just enjoy each others' company so much. This lot of cousins
are a bit older, 23, 22, and 17. They've taught my boys a lot of
useful skills over the years, like how to turn a golf club into a
LARP (live action role play) weapon, how to play card games like the
ones the Big Bang gang plays, and of course, video game strategy.
They have similar interests, which makes it all just flow.
While
some of us watched Man of Steel (I may have to write my first movie
review so strong is my opinion) others did a puzzle, which is another
tradition. Day turned into night quickly, and as we drove home, I
counted my blessings. Too many to count.
How
was your holiday? Want to share a favorite part?
~Tina
P.S If you want to know more about the Veggie Movie. 52 second official trailer.
