My family (grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins) have our Christmas gathering on Christmas Eve. The family party was moved to Christmas eve when I was little, after my cousins, Sunshine and Angel, were born and it became too complicated to drag the little ones away from home on Christmas Day, when they had all kinds of new toys to play with.
I hated it back then. It was just my mom, my grandmother, and me... and we did very little on Christmas Day. The trials of an only child... I had no one to play with.
As an adult, I am grateful for the date change. It's true that Christmas would be more hectic if I had to drag Amerah out and away from her presents on Christmas Day. I LIKE lounging around the house, in my pajamas, eating candy, on Christmas Day!
This year, we had Christmas at Sunshine and Shaun's house (which may look familiar to those of you who read my Thanksgiving blog). It was nice and relaxed and I enjoyed it even though it was the most painful day that my legs had had in a long time.
Dave got his tankerman (who has a captain's license) to cover for him at work, and found someone to cover for his tankerman, so that he could be with us on Christmas Eve. He missed the party last year due to a ship that ran aground.
(proof that he was there :-)
"The Girls" - Alexis, Gracie, and Amerah
Alexis and Amerah posed patiently for Angel and I as we snapped away...
Jimmy reluctantly agreed to let us photograph him with the girls...
Shaun... watching the game...
Angel...
Donna... (there's one in every crowd haha)
Dave, making friends with Gracie...
Mike, Pat, and Roy...
Somehow I managed to not get any photos at all of about 4 other people who were there! (Of course, I'm not in any either haha).
Opening presents....
Jimmy doesn't look happy about this one at ALL, does he? hahaha
Best gift of the night... Dave and I gave Nanny a hardcover book full of photos of her and her sisters, both of whom have passed away). I knew it would be emotional for her, but never imagined that she'd start crying the minute she saw the cover!
We ended the night at the Presbyterian church that my grandmother, Aunt Pat and Uncle Roy, and cousins Sunshine and Shaun attend. It was a lovely service and a treat to see all three in choir robes (especially Nanny - I never thought I'd see the day she'd go to church, much less look like a choir girl!)
When we got home, Amerah got to open the traditional Christmas Eve gift of Christmas Pajamas... Which she LOVED because there was a matching nightie for her baby doll!
Then it was off to bed so that visions of sugar plums could dance through her head... a lovely Christmas Eve!
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