The First Day of Christmas!

No words can truly express my joy at Aly and Molly's creation of a Christmas blog challenge... 

 let's hope I have better luck with this one...

I am obsessed with Christmas.  I'm pretty sure I was talking about Christmas in June.

I have 95% of my holiday shopping done.  (This is not true, I always end up buying more stuff.)

But I digress... today's topic is 

TRADITIONS.

 Because our family has recently undergone some changes (my sister and I have moved out of the house, my parents moved into a new house, my brother and his lovely wife have moved to Florida, we're all grown-ups now, etc.) some of our traditions have changed.  Here are some of the retired traditions:

1) The Train

In birth order, we'd butt-scooch down the steps together to open presents.  None of this wake-up-before-everyone-else-and-open-everything nonsense, partially because...

2) Lights, Camera, Action

The Train was video recorded, as were our maniacal screams as we ran downstairs to discover bikes and other giant gifts.  This was not always pretty.

And some of our on-going or new traditions...

1) Seafood Feast on Christmas Eve

My mom decided to begin this celebration to serve our extended family party, as many aunts and uncles travel to visit their husband's/wive's family on Christmas Day.  The food: garlic shrimp and pasta, crab soup, crab dip, hush puppies, mussels, scallops, and so on.  Sooo good.  It's nice to be able to sleep in and have a lazy day on Sunday, because we go to church beforehand!

2) Christmas Mass

I love going on Christmas Eve.  It makes Christmas more exciting!  I love the religious Christmas songs and seeing everyone all dressed up.

3) 24 Hours of A Christmas Story

We love this movie.  The marathon stays on all day.

4) Opening presents in order by age

From the two three-year-olds all the way up to my 83-year-old grandpa, we go in order.  It doesn't take long though, because everyone over 18 gets only 1 or 2 presents from their not-so-Secret Santa.  (Except Grandpa.  He gets gifts from everyone.)

5) Advent wreath

I remember being sooo excited to light the candles on the traditional Catholic Advent wreath at dinnertime.  My pyro brother always claimed the duties of lighting and blowing out candles, but it added an extra feeling of excitement and anticipation to the Christmas season.

6) Breakfast

Dad always made French doughnuts or breakfast pizza.  So delish.  In later years, Mom added French toast casserole to the selection-- also very delish.

Make sure to link up and share your traditions!  I'm super excited for tomorrow's topic: Black Friday and Shopping Tips!  Right up my alley.