I don’t know about you, but when it comes to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Mal and I (and Murphy) make the rounds to visit our respective families.
On Christmas Eve, we join my mom’s side of the family for a get-together, which includes delicious food and drink and an epic round of Yankee Swap.
We spend the night at my in-laws house and then go to my mom’s place in the morning to eat cinnamon buns and drink coffee, which is a Christmas morning tradition for our family.
Then, we open (well-wrapped) presents.
By the time the early afternoon rolls around, we head back to my in-laws house for more present-opening.
We used to visit my dad’s side of the family later in the day or fly to Oregon to visit Mal’s grandma, but we’re only hitting up the two families this year.
Dinner
Delicious dinner last night! We had grilled steak with pineapple salsa and brown rice. The meat was brushed with olive oil and chipotle powder, so the zesty/spicy/smoky flavors were intensified when mixed with the sweet pineapple salsa. Mmmmm!
After dinner, Mal and I headed out to complete two activities for our 24 Days of Togetherness. We picked “buy a Christmas tree ornament” on Monday, but we never had a chance to do it, so we paired yesterday’s “drink hot cocoa” with it for an extra Christmas-y evening.
Our first stop was Starbucks for salted hot chocolates, which were AMAZING. I skipped the caramel in the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate because I thought it would be too sweet, but now I wish I had got it. Next time!
With hot chocolates in hand, we headed to the Hallmark store to shop for an ornament. There were all sorts of fun options, but we eventually decided on a cute, little snowman. It was also one of the cheapest options. Those Hallmark ornaments are expensive!
When we got home, I unwrapped the ornament to hang on our Christmas tree. The pug, of course, was very interested to see what was inside.
Unfortunately, he was not impressed because he’s a big ol’ scrooge. Or maybe he hoped it was another pug ornament? (FYI: We didn’t even put all of our pug ornaments on our Christmas tree this year because we have so many!)
I like our snowman ornament!
Question of the Day
What are your plans for Christmas this year? Do you have multiple places to visit?
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Yup – we are ALL over the place for Christmas! I spend Christmas Eve day with my boyfriend Ben and then in the evening we split to meet up with our respective sides of the family for church.
Christmas morning we head to my family’s for breakfast and present opening. Then around noon we’re at Ben’s for dinner and presents with them. At 5 we head over to Ben’s extended family’s for a get-together with all his relatives and then around 8 we go BACK to my family’s so we have a little more time with them in the evening.
Last year, I fell asleep on the couch!
Since we don’t have kids to cart around, we try to be everywhere for everyone and as much as it’s a lot of running around, it’s wonderful too!
For Christmas, I will spend most of the day at my aunt’s house and then go to my boyfriend’s parents’ house. Must make everyone happy
We are going a little bit of traveling this weekend, but we will be home on Christmas! Yay. Ps. I like your Ps.!!
That little snowman is so cute! It sounds like Scrooge Pug could use a Christmas cookie.
My Christmas is pretty easy – heading home to Kansas City to my parents’ house! I’m not married and my parents are together, so I’ve just got one place to go which works well for me! My older brother is married, but they do Thanksgiving with his wife’s sister and brother in Springfield, IL, and then Christmas at our house.
You should put the date on the back of your snowman! My mom has given me an ornament every year and it’s fun to look back over the years of what I have!
I should! I need one of those special markers to write on it though. I guess I’ll have to go to Michaels!
I need to get my hands on some of that salted caramel hot chocolate from Starbucks! I didn’t even know that existed! Hmm, maybe I need to make a special outing for that today?
Our Christmas plans vary depending on whether we stay in Utah or go to Arizona to visit all of our families. Every other year we make the trek down to AZ (this year being one of them), so we’ll be scrambling all over the place to split up our week between three different families. It will be a whirlwind but so fun to see everyone!
I hope this doesn’t come off as too personal, but I’ve been reading for a long time now and see you don’t mention your dad much. What is your relationship to him?
Luckily, we do not have to go to multiple houses for Christmas. Just my parents.
We will head over to my parents house in the morning for presents and breakfast. I am bringing a french toast casserole. And then home for a while to get cleaned up, relax. Then back over later for dinner.
The Kidless Kronicles
That Snowman is adorable! My family’s Christmas plans tend to vary every year. This year we’ll have Christmas Eve with just my immediate family (parents, two brothers, med), then on Christmas Day will be spent with some on my mom’s side of the family. Fortunately, most of my family lives close by so it will be easy to see the rest of the family in the days after Christmas.
OMG I LOVE the wrapping paper on that rake (broom?) hahahah literally so funny. Whoever wrapped that has a great sense of humor
Love the ornament!! Too bad Murphy didn’t like it….maybe he was hoping you’d buy a pug one?
We’re going to Texas to visit my family!!! It can not come soon enough.
Caramel or not, salted hot choc sounds great!
@Khushboo: It was sooooo delicious!
Cute snowman ornament! We’re doing things a bit out of the ordinary this year, going to a Christmas brunch at my dad’s side of the family, then Christmas dinner with my mom’s side. It’ll be a busy day!
I would be exhausted if I had your Christmas schedule!! Impressive
My parents and inlaws live over 6 hours apart so my husband and I switch off every-other year for the hoildays. This year, we have a Hannukah party on Sunday with my father-in-law’s family and then we are heading over to my mother-in-law’s on Monday to celebrate Christmas eve and Christmas the next day!
I wish we were going to be all over the place for Christmas. Seeing my family and my husband’s in the one day would be amazing. Unfortunately my family are in Australia. Booo!
BUT we have fun Christmas plans to spend the week in Tahoe with my husbands family who are flying out from New York and my sister.
Cant wait!!
@Fizz @ fizzsbizz.com: That sounds fun!
i’m hanging out for a low-key christmas in DC. looking forward to it!
My sister and I always “make the rounds” so to speak as well. My parents are divorced so we have Christmas eve with my moms side of the family, wake up and open gifts, then head to my Dad’s to spend time with them. Then we end Christmas at a traditional party at a friend of the family’s. I like having multiple places to go because there’s always a different crowd (and different spread of food!) to enjoy.
This year is the first Christmas in a long time that I will get to spend with my entire family back home in Brazil! I’m so excited to spend all of Christmas eve on the farm (a coconut farm) with the ENTIRE family eating, napping, eating more, and swapping gifts.
I am in love with Murphy, by the way. He has such a personality!
Cinnamon buns sound like a tradition worth keeping. yum!
Cute ornament!
My fiance and I started the tradition to buy an ornament every year. This year we went to Hallmark and figured that the ornaments are way too expensive to get our own, so we bought one good one! Target has a good number (and cheap) ornaments as well!
We have 6 Christmas gatherings this year, and they start on Friday night! Luckily, they are all within 15 minutes of my house, so it’s easy to commute
We are in a blizzard warning right now, and are supposed to get 15 inches of snow (eastern Iowa), so it’s going to be an interesting next couple of days!!!
We usually spend Christmas Eve morning unwrapping gifts with my family and then drive up to my boyfriends house I spend Christmas there, splitting up time is so hard! I love salted caramel hot chocolate!
Since my husband’s family lives in California and my family lives in Philadelphia – we have to switch off every other year. This year we will be with my family in Philly! Our tradition there is that the whole family gets together for Christmas Eve & my aunt makes the 7 fishes & we all play Yankee Swap (which I love!). Then my husband and I go out with my cousins for a drink before heading to my parent’s house to go to sleep. On Christmas morning we drinking coffee with Bailey’s and open presents! Can’t wait!
Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate?! YUM!
I usually end up spending Christmas Eve with my boyfriend’s family, and then drive down to my parents’ house late Xmas Eve night and spend Christmas there
I’m very excited for the holidays this year!
salted caramel hot chocolates are amazing!!!
I will have to try the salted caramel hot choc! I always stick to the peppermint hot choc’s when I go to starbucks.
I love the 24 Days of Christmas “game.” I imagine it has helped get you in the holiday mood. The snowman ornament is very cute. My mom’s favorite Christmas icon are snowmen, so our tree is covered in them
We’re spending it at my house. My mom’s siblings and their families come over (tradition. It’s either at our house, or my aunt/uncle’s house), snack mindlessly all day, open presents, play games with overly competative cousins (seriously. It’s MONOPOLY MONEY! You don’t own four railroads in real life!). Etc. I usually hide out with my cousin, Laura, to get a break in.
ahhh sounds fun and busy. I like being able to see both sides!
I am going to my aunts on my dads side and my aunts on my moms side this year.
I am purposefully going to leave my phone in the car during our family christmas’s so that I can be fully present and enjoy time with my family
Those hot chocolates have made my mouth water! Pretty low key his year-my mum’s Christmas Day and my boyfriend’s family to us the following day. I’m the chef for both, though, so may be a bit stressful!
We usually stay in one place but this year, we’re moving around a bit. My sister just got a new house so she is hosting in the morning and then we will head to my in-laws later in the day. I kind of like the idea of spreading it out.
My family does a Yankee swap every year, too! I just picked up my gift yesterday, actually; we’re all Yankees fans, so I bought two beer glasses and a huge fleece blanket. I need to pick up an ornament today, plus one other Bronx Bomber-themed item.
We actually do the same thing as you! Even the cinnamon buns! The snowman ornament is adorable.
You should totally invest in another tree exclusively for pug ornaments. Hit a post-holiday sale and snag one for cheap for next year! Maybe Murphy will be less of a Scrooge if he has his own tree.
(I have my own tree for my collection of felt ornaments.)
@Christine: We should! That’s an awesome idea!
We each have our own trees – I have a santa/snowman theme, my husband has star trek (I know…but actually it is very cute) and my son has a train theme.
Christmas is a pretty crazy time for me! On Christmas Eve, my boyfriend and I go to his moms house to give her her presents and we exchange gifts with his brother and sister too! Then we head over to my parents house and we each open one gift and watch Christmas Vacation. Then christmas morning we go back to my boyfriends mothers to open all our gifts from her, then go to his dads house to open gifts with him then I go back to my parents to open my gifts with them and have dinner while he goes to his dads family for dinner! Its alot of back and forth but its fun!
We’ll be traveling to WV next week to see our families. I’m hoping for some snow up there since we haven’t had any here in NC.
Love the salted caramel hot chocolate (and mocha!) from SB….yum.
We all convene…that is my mums 5 sisters, my grandparents on her side and all the cousins and great grandchildren in my aunties Christmas morning..then we have my Dads parents for dinner….we have my little niece for some of the day…the best part
I think your 24-days of togetherness is one of the cutest ideas I have ever heard of and the things you two are doing together is great – if I had a significant other I would totally have done this too. Little things like that are so important in relationships I think.
You should write “2012 24 days of togetherness” on the back of the snowman ornament in permanent marker so you don’t forget why you bought it!
We spend Christmas Eve with at his Grandparents house with the whole extended family, then Christmas morning with his parents and sister, then Christmas evening with my Mom and siblings. its a lot, but I love it especially since I do the cooking for Christmas dinner!
We have quite the Christmas schedule. Luckily our family lives close so it makes it easier. Saturday we are having our Christmas celebration with my husbands grandparents and that side of the family. Christmas eve we go to my parents house where my siblings and their children will be there. Christmas day is a busy one, first my husband and I open our gifts to each other and have a bite to eat. Then we go to my parents house to open gifts with them, then we head back home and my in-laws come over to open gifts. After that we all go over to my husbands other grandmas house for a lunch and finally we go back over to my parents house for dinner. Its a long day but it is a lot of fun. We will most likely change that when we have our own family.
The Salted Caramel hot chocolate is the BEST! When I was at Panera yesterday, I ordered my hot chocolate with a shot of caramel, and the girl who made my drink said it’s the first time she’s ever heard of someone ordering hot chocolate with caramel – I was surprised! I thought EVERYBODY did that, as it’s so delicious!
This year we are with my family Christmas Eve, then Christmas morn we are flying down to southern Oregon for time with the in-laws. It’s an expensive ticket but it would be 5ish hours driving so it gives us more family time. I think you should get 2 trees next year and make a pug-only tree.
I feel pretty lucky that I get to spend every Christmas with just my family. My birthday is Christmas Eve, and my husband grew up Jewish, so it really makes the most sense to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with my family.
Cinnamon rolls are my favorite part of Christmas day!!
usually i go on vacation to new orleans with my husband, but this year my father passed away so i am going to be with my mom in NJ.
I loooove the salted caramel hot chocolate at Starbucks. I’m actually headed there in a few minutes lol.
As for Christmas this year, since I don’t have much family out here in California, it will just be me, my parents, my dog Roco, my cousin and her family. It’s Roco’s first Christmas and I want to see if he will actually attempt to unwrap a present. He is always snooping in bags so a wrapped present should be a piece of cake for him.
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