Christmas Day-2024

Yessa had to work in the evening, so we agreed on a family plan to open one present in the morning and all the rest after Yessa got home from work after 6:30 p.m.

As per typical for many years now, Buds and I were the first ones up. Long gone are the days when the threesome jumped on us at 5 a.m., ready to open presents. Since we knew there was no rush, Buds and I took our time; walking the dog, drinking our coffee, chatting and laughing.

Once Yessa was awake, we got started on the traditional baking of the cinnamon rolls.

Baked and ready:

Around 12:30, after everyone had time to wake up, we opened up our one pre-work present each.

A new tradition for us this year was inner-family secret Santa. The kids have long enjoyed secret Santa gift exchange with the 12 cousins on Buddie's side of the family, but this year the five of us exchanged names.

I was Buddie's Santa.

Buds got Monkey.

Monkey got Buster.

Buster got Yessa .

Yessa got me.

We each shared our wish list on the family slack channel and had $150 of family funds to spend on each person.

It was fantastic! People had a lot of fun choosing for each other. I didn't have the pressure of choosing for everyone. People could be as specific or general as they chose in their wish lists.

In addition to each opening a gift, we decided to read this year's Red Envelope. This is a long tradition of a letter to the children, listing the many ways we have financially supported causes or people over the last year. It finally occurred to me that I should be saving these from year to year, so from now on the envelope will hold multiple years of memories.

After gift opening, the lazy afternoon stretched before us. (Except for Yessa. She left for work at 3:30 like always.)

Monkey and I settled in to watch some of our Christmas favorites. She managed to find a movie the kids watched a bunch when we still lived in the big yellow house. (So I guess 2 of the kids watched...) It's about a mouse named Gregory who defeats an evil fairy named Empelstick.

We also got in one of our favorite versions of A Christmas Carol. You might not know there is a Mr. Magoo edition.

While Yessa was away at work, the rest of us watched movies, played, and prepared our next traditional food: pull-apart bread. For the non-vegans, it's filled with cheese. For the vegans this year, we tried some new combos; pb&j, pumpkin butter, pb& chocolate, and plain chocolate.

After Yessa was home and showered, we noshed and then settled in for gifts. We went around the circle by height this year, so Monkey got to go first, with Buster closing out the ring.

We took our time and shared stories and ideas of why we chose what we chose.

I was a little shocked by this present because I knew it was from someone in my house, but the writing looked exactly like my mom's. It was actually from Yessa as my secret Santa, but the Babs' handwriting look was an extra bonus.

Monkey and Buddie's mom bought gifts for everyone, adding to the choices under the tree. And we had Babs on a video call while we opened gifts, which made it fun to explain things to her and include her in the laughter.

From my secret Santa I requested an outing with a meal and a bookstore or a movie. Yessa created a "choose your own adventure" gift for me to decide what the outing would look like.

She held out 4 cards for each choice, and I randomly picked what we would do.

What tickled Yessa and me was that the items I chose randomly were the items I would have chosen if I had been asked to pick directly.

A nice, relaxed morning together, out for sushi, then Barnes and Noble, and then home for some baking and extra time together. It sounds like a perfect day.

Everyone enjoyed what they had gotten and I loved the laughing and connecting with the time feeling effortless and easy and unlimited.

I also gifted Buds a new game called "A Gentle Rain." It's a cooperative game for 1-5 people, building a board together and trying to place the flower blossoms. It's got a little strategy which we now have figured out, plus the luck of the draw. Beautiful and soothing.

Another night of magic and connection with this crowd.

Merry, happy Christmas.