Definitely hands down Thanksgiving to Christmas. This is my favorite time of the year. Thanksgiving is a wonderful day with our families and then the Hubs and me go out every year shopping on Black Friday, yes call me a crazy - but I love finding the best deals, that perfect gift for that special person, and we always have a planned route based off of varying opening times etc. There's a science to Black Friday shopping I tell ya! And when we get home, we wrap everything immediately, that way it's done and no fussing with it on Christmas Eve.
In preparation, I love pulling out all of my bins of Christmas stuff, it's the only time the back basement room shelves aren't bursting and are half as full as normal. I've learned instead of trying to do it all in a weekend to take my time throughout the week doing a section at a time. Every year I seem to have a new crafty project to try whether it be faux garlands, wreaths, or rag garlands. As a family we each make our own gingerbread house. We spend a day with the lady's in the family and bake, bake, bake until we can't anymore. The Hubs and me have big families with several family Christmas's to go to. Thankfully we are able to spread Christmas out over 2 or 3 weeks with the families so we are not overwhelmed.
L-o-v-e Christmas Eve service, my favorite part is singing Silent Night while holding our lit candles. There's nothing more beautiful then seeing everyone's faces in candle light. When we get home from the service we spread out some reindeer food for Santa and his reindeer to find our house more easily. And then there's a surprise of new pj's waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs. That's awfully nice of Santa to make a pit stop. We get dressed in our new pj's, make up a plate for Santa and read Twas' the Night Before Christmas.
Christmas morning is so much fun. There's nothing better than seeing Little One's excitement as she walks down the stairs and sees what all is under the tree. I can't wait to see both girls' reactions this year. Priceless I have no doubt. The day is spent opening presents, playing with them and heading to 2 other family Christmas's. Lesson learned from last year is to open all packages prior to wrapping them, remove any and all twisty ties & rubber bands, so once they are unwrapped we can go straight to playing instead of having to wait.
I've always loved Christmas and all of the fun activities that we do, but having the girls' has renewed the spirit of it all and brings a completely different joy to it. And I love making new family traditions that hopefully our girls' will want to do with their families also one day.
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