Christmas Day

A few years ago, I read some ideas about Christmas traditions. One was to use plain white paper for the name tags and write the name in white crayon. When the time came to open the gifts, the kids were given a marker to "decode" the name on the tags. I loved the idea and used it that year. The kids were at first stunned, not knowing what gifts were theirs. After being handed a marker, they went to town decoding their gifts. From then on, they expect me to do this each year. Even this year, they asked, weeks before Christmas, if their presents would be coded. I love that they still enjoy this. Each year, I spread their gifts among our six Christmas trees. They select one gift at a time, bring it to the center of the room, "decode" it and once each of them has a gift, they can unwrap it. They have fun decoding, and I enjoy how it slows down the present opening process. Hard to tell how long they will ask for this, but I will enjoy it while I can.

Some things never change…..

We’ve had those little magnetic alphabet letters on our dishwasher for ages.  A few months ago, I made the statement that we really should get rid of those.  The kids really had outgrown them.  “But I like having them there” was the comment, not from my children, but from my husband.  “Fine, I’ll leave them”, I said, secretly mumbling under my breath.  The letters can go unnoticed for months but then they are available for little nephews to wipe off the dishwasher and toss on the floor over and over and over again in the few short hours that they are here.   On my family’s recent visit over the holidays, my brother had left a message stating “Uncle Bobby was here” for the kids to find the next day.  They immediately decided that the statement was unfinished and added “and had gas”.  Some things never change.  John does not understand my family’s interest in male flatulence.  We grew up with a father that was famous for the “pull my finger” statement.  When my brother shows up for a visit, flatulence immediately becomes a part of the daily activities.  Maybe it's a good thing that they are only here for one week.