Merry Christmas!

I know, it's just Christmas Eve, but Christmas will be here tomorrow, and I won't be able to get to the computer till tomorrow night at the earliest.

"Why," you ask? Well, my Christmas is a whirlwind of tradition that starts around 6:30 tonight and runs straight through 10 tomorrow night. It's a wonderful amalgam of presents, family, overeating, and lack of sleep we can point to as some of the best family moments in the Sappington household.

So tonight, we start with a get together with my Dad's side of the family. We eat all kinds of snack food that my Mom has slaved over for the last couple of days. We also watch that movie about the kid that wants a Red Ryder BB gun. I always have to walk out during the scene when Randy, the younger brother, eats like a piggy. I've never liked that part, but the part where Ralphie beats the hell out of Scutt Farkas is pretty cool. During the movie, usually around the time that Ralphie turn in his theme on what he wants for Christmas, we start opening presents. This usually lasts until about midnight or so. We clean up and get to bed around 1 or 1:30 in the morning.

Christmas morning starts early, usually anywhere between 4:30 to 6:30 in the morning. TOO EARLY! If there was anything I could change about our family's Christmas traditions, this would be it. Man wasn't meant to wake up that early, modern man doubly so! Anyway, we wake up, see what "Santa" left. I can't speak for Santa at other people's houses, but he's highly organized at our place. Everyone has a general area where their stuff is. So we look at it, ooh and ahh, and then the race is on. We all race over to my Grandfather's house for breakfast. It was fun when I was like 10 or so, but man, I just want to sleep...you'll see my justification later. So we get over there, once everyone else is there we start with opening presents, then eat a good ol', genuine, first rate, never been beat, country breakfast. I try not to eat that much because there's a lot of eating to do today.

Around 10 or so, we head out from my Grandfather's house and head back home. I would take a look at what I got, but quite frankly, I'd rather sleep. There's not much time for that though because we've got lunch at 1pm. So we get up, head to lunch and lounge around and talk while the kids play with all the toys that require batteries or at least play with the boxes that said toys came in, and I beg to go back to the house to sleep.

Around 5 or so, we head back to my Grandfather's for dinner. See, we're over there twice in the same day. Seems like we shouldn't be killing ourselves to get over there so early, but we do it because it's family, it's tradition, it's just the way it's always been done. We get done there around 8 in the evening. Get home and finally get to breathe long enough to look at all the new stuff.

Anyway, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy whatever other Holidays you want to squeeze in.