You know it's almost Christmas when...

One of the cousins has a birthday towards the middle of December. The years we spend Christmas with my family, the Lastnames come to town for a birthday/Christmas weekend extravaganza.

We've tried many different celebrating times on our off years with both families: before Christmas, New Year's, a little later in January...we've tossed around the idea of celebrating at Thanksgiving...but the weekend before Christmas seems to settle the best with both sides.



This year since we had the birthday party at the cousins' house, we had Christmas at our house. Honey cooked chicken in his smoker and we fixed simple sides to go with it. And apple cider.

The older I get the more simple the food gets on the holidays. I like to cook, but I don't love it. I would rather visit, play games, and watch the holiday parades. This year for Christmas Eve we're cooking the big meal with my family, and then Christmas Day we'll cook our traditional finger food breakfast and have leftovers for lunch.

Two years ago, we had a simple Mexican food meal Christmas Eve and soups in the crock pots Christmas Day. I LOVED the food that year.

After dinner with the Lastnames, we opened presents. Usually we take turns, open one present at a time, and go youngest to oldest. This year we went oldest to youngest.

Here is a pic of the youngest protesting the new way of opening presents. I think she was feeling a little bit discriminated against.


After presents we took the cousins in front of the Christmas tree picture. I used to have one from almost every year until my computer crashed. I need to get with my sister-in-law and get copies of the years I'm missing.

It gets a little hairy around the holidays when you try to compromise and see everyone on both sides. How does your family do it?