Christmas Plans

I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year because I received the best present of all...

... this sweet baby boy. :-)

Christmas for us this year, starts on Christmas Eve with my Mom's side of the family. Every year we spend Christmas Eve with my parents, my Mom's parents, my sister and her family and then my Mom's 2 brothers and their families. We all take turns hosting it. I chose to host it this year. :-) It will be a bittersweet Christmas Eve this year without Grammy here with us. This will be our first Christmas without her. It was sad decorating my tree and going through all the ornaments she had gotten for me the last few years. Last year she gave me an angel ornament that lights up. I decided to put it at the top of my tree to symbolize her looking down on us from heaven. I miss her so much and wish she was still here, but I know this will be her best Christmas ever because she gets to spend it with Jesus.

Then at 10:00 Christmas Eve night, we have a candle-light service at church that is always so beautiful.  I look forward to it every year.

With Christmas being on a Sunday this year, we have church Christmas morning at 10, and then we are spending the rest of the day at my Mother in Laws house. Jake's 2 brothers and their families will be there as well. We have 8 nieces and nephews on Jake's side of the family, so much of the day is spent opening gifts. We will also have lunch and play a game or two I'm sure.

Then we are all off work Monday, so thats when we are celebrating Christmas with my parents, sister and my sister's husband and kids. We have a tradition where we always fix breakfast food, no matter what time we end up getting together that year. So we'll be having our traditional breakfast at around noon. The kids will open their gifts and we decided the adults would buy $10 gift cards this year and play dirty Santa with them. We also plan to watch Its a Wonderful Life and play a game or two.

So those are our plans for this year. I'm really looking forward to the next few days spent with family. :-)

What are your Christmas plans for this year??