Christmas

Christmas is always a crazy time of seeing everyone.  We went to my parent's house on Christmas Eve for the McGinn/Sheehan Christmas celebration.  I always think of it as the McGinn Family Christmas as it was always at my grandmother's house when I was growing up.  I never remember a time when we didn't go to Grandma's house on Christmas Eve.

The cousins (minus Aiden who was anti-photo)

 Now the tradition continues but it is the kids turn to go to Grandma's house for Christmas Eve and they of course know it as the Sheehan Family Christmas.  It is still just as crazy as it was when I was a kid and just as fun.  We head down to my parents house in the afternoon so that we can exchange presents with my parents and brothers (with their families) before the mayhem really gets going when all my aunts, uncles, and cousins arrive at 6pm.  Once everyone is there we celebrate with about 30 people.  Dinner is served buffet style and once finished with dinner it is time to dig into the gifts.  The opening of gifts in my house was always a crazy mayhem of paper.  No one really watches anyone but rather everyone tears into their presents with unrestrained glee and shouts of "thanks Auntie _____" or "thanks Uncle _____".  It gives me joy to see this tradition maintained.  I remember being so excited and happy on Christmas Eve and I'm glad my kids get to experience that as well.  After everything is opened the kids go back to running around and playing, my aunts and uncles leave and we give my mom a hand with clean up before heading home to put the kids to bed.

Christmas morning is more laid back.  This took time for me to get used to with Jason as he grew up with a slow opening of presents and one person opened at a time.  I appreciate it now.  It gives me time to enjoy seeing the kids faces as they open every present.  We always come downstairs together as a family and head to the stockings.  After opening the stockings we take a minor break so that Jason and I can get some coffee and we all have some holiday sweet bread.  We need some sustenance to continue with the presents!  Once all the presents are open we have breakfast and laze about for the remainder of the day.  This year instead of just having our family dinner we drive down to my brothers for Christmas dinner with my brother's family and my parents.  The girls were excited to spend more time with their cousin and I was happy to be with my family again.  We had a nice meal and then headed home.  It was a very easy relaxing day.




After all the gift opening the girls say a final good-bye to Christopher Pop-In-Kins because he has to go back to the North Pole.  They each gave him a gift and a hug and we put him back on the mantle so he could leave when he was ready.