Christmas in my House

I haven't really felt the need for a Christmas update because Christmas isn't over in my house yet. I will be back at school before it's officially over, but all the same I wanted to write about it.

My parents decided that they wanted to celebrate all 12 days of Christmas with myself and my sister. Yes, there are really 12 days of Christmas, just like the Christmas carol says. My family celebrates from Christmas day until Epiphany. (Epiphany is the 12th day of Christmas, representing when the Wise Men visited Jesus.)  We do this by opening gifts from Santa, stockings and big gifts, on Christmas day and getting one or more a day until we run out or get to Epiphany. I can't remember the last time my family made it all the way to Epiphany with gifts left to open though. Haha!



This would make it a bit awkward when talking with friends after Christmas when they would ask about gifts since many times I hadn't opened them all yet! The thing is, I can't imagine opening everything on Christmas day now. It seems so overwhelming. After I've gone through everything from Santa, I want to have breakfast and get ready to visit my dad's family and have Christmas dinner. I also want a chance to go through everything I've already gotten. I don't need to know what's in the other presents yet. It can wait. This year, I didn't get a chance to mess with my new camera until the evening since the battery came completely drained!

I am the only family I've heard of doing this. I haven't met anyone yet who does, but I've heard some denominations don't celebrate until Epiphany. But all of it in one day seems like stimulus overload. My parents recently told me that not only did they do the 12 days of Christmas for religious reasons, but also for just that reason above. When a kid opens a toy, they often want to play with it right away. They don't want to move right on to the next thing necessarily. In a way, I'm glad they space it out. It gives me time to appreciate everything and not just forget about a particular gift. It also spaces out any thank you notes I need to write!

I've always gotten strange looks when I explain how my family celebrates Christmas, but as I've gotten older, I've learned to really appreciate it. And despite the amazing camera I received and how much I love it, I think this gift from my mom takes the cake. Apparently she got it in the bookstore at the college she works at.