As a side note, holiday traditions are an interesting phenomena. The predictability and familiarity can be so comforting when you celebrate them year after year. Strangely, what is so familiar to you can feel so foreign to new participants. Even though I feel like a family member at Kelly's house, I have 30 years of my own Christmas traditions under my belt, so I couldn't help feeling a bit like a visitor this past week. However, it was one of these new family traditions that saved our butts in the wee morning hours:
House rules dictate that all children, young or old, must stay in a holding pattern downstairs and are to walk upstairs (where the Christmas tree is) at the same time, only when they have been given the clearance to do so. In order to pacify the impatient, Santa also puts a few items in a small secondary stocking hung on the outside of the bedroom doors. These gifts helped, in part, to distract Emma until the pre-scheduled wake up time of 7:00am. Brian must have been a little anxious as well since our wake up call came six minutes ahead of schedule, but who is counting, right?
When we were given the go ahead, we made our way upstairs and we all had fun watching Emma find the Nintendo DS Santa left for her. Apparently Emma only had one thing on her wish list this year since all of her older cousins have one already. She declared to her parents that "This is the best day of my life." I remember the day I got the original Nintendo as a kid. It definitely was high on my list of days until that point.
The Steffen family was spoiled rotten. Santa brought Audrey a number of bath toys, a teething ring, spoons, and a rubber ducky. She also got a number of outfits, a crib music/lights player, and several toys, including a car seat toy that she loves and her first "musical instruments". Dad and Audrey might just form a band so we can drive Mom crazy together.Shortly after opening gifts, my family traditions were indulged by having my family's "Christmas Eggs" for breakfast. This recipe from a long since out of print cookbook was originally named "Fancy Egg Scramble" but the artery choking butter, cheese, and 16-18 eggs meant we could only indulge once a year. Hence the new title. Laura and I must have been fairly persuasive kids because at some point they became known as "Holiday Eggs", at least until we were old enough to make some healthy choices on our own.
The rest of the day was spent wading through our new toys, visiting with family, eating cookies, and trying to pry Emma's face away from her DS for a few moments now and again. A delicious Ham dinner and an early evening showing of "White Christmas" finished off the festivities.
A big thanks to Kelly's family, especially her Mom and Dad for being such gracious hosts over the past week.
What healthy choices???
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