Yeah, my niece was born my senior year in High School, so we had a few years off from the early morning stuff, but not nearly enough. She's started college this year, so it hasn't been as bad the past couple of years, but she does tend to be up early. Also, due to custody issues, she's only been with our family until noon, then her dad picks her up and gets her for the rest of the day. I have no idea how that will play out now that she's over 18.

This year we'll be in Ohio with my sister's kids, ages 3 and 5. We're also staying in their guest room. I'm very excited! I anticipate getting woken up early.

stay warm tomorrow d! I saw your voicemail. things have been v. craxy. will pick it up asap.

we also got a number of the same things in our Christmas stockings each year - a little toy (which matured into other stuff when we were older), a pack of AA batteries, a box of band-aids, and a box of thank you notes. As well as a tangerine or a tangello. Sparky knows my mom - she can vouch that band-aids and thank you notes are not out of character. I'm surprised we didn't get the same book Windsparrow got, actually.

We each opened a present Christmas eve, after dinner with our neighbors and/or family friends (at least for a while some of my dad's students from way back) - and it was pretty clear that we were Not To Open the Big Box in the Back, but instead open the one from our neighbors. I'm glad for that - those were usually really cool homemade gifts. The next morning, we were banned from touching anything or making any noise until my parent's unusually slow descent (my dad usually being up at 5am anything after 8 or 9 was suspiciously like torture). Then we did the gifts, and then we all retreated to our separate corners with one of our new books. Until it was time to help with dinner. Some years, there was a Christmas eve service to go to. Some years, it was Christmas day.

My favorite tradition is getting together on one of the two days with friends and family. I don't much care what I get after that. ... unless there's a good book and a corner to retreat to in the mix.

Our new favorite traditions are both from Fell's Point, Baltimore, where the self-proclaimed town crier walks the street Christmas morning in a tri-cornered hat, ringing a bell and shouting "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas to all!" and turning down offers of hot drinks on the way. He runs a 'sinners service' at midnight the night before in the local Vagabond Theater - where it's mostly carols and a benediction, and everyone sings very badly.

This year, we've traded that for Iris having her own bedroom for the first time, DH having a non-grad student or post-doc job for the first time in 8 years, and a chimney for santa to come down. We're hoping to do it justice - although I need to stock up on oranges and eggnog.

oh, and I could not kill the thread. That would be nice.

I just asked Jon Voigt to move outta way so I could get to the rest room. Ya, I have interesting side jobs. Busy day today. I'll try to back track. Just popped in on my 5 min break.

I'm not allowed to be an adult. I accidentally ordered our non-refundable, non-exchangable Christmas Carol tickets for a different show entirely. Luckily, I played stupid about the confusion and they exchanged them for me.

I saw A Christmas Carol last night. A friend had free tickets. I've seen the Alliance's production before. It's very broad. They add a drunken housekeeper for Even More Wacky Fun. I understand why; it's one of their main moneymakers. It made me want to go read A Christmas Carol again. One of Atlanta's better actors has played Scrooge for years and he's excellent, and the little boy who played Tiny Tim was good. There's a lot of caroling going on, much of it carols that postdate Dickens. For example, there was "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," which has words written 20 years after A Christmas Carol, using a tune written a century later. I know my obsessive nitpicking is not attractive, but I had to think of something other than the Wacky Drunken Housekeeper.

I thought of the sound people here sitting through infinite repetitions of this and shuddered. I also thought of Fay, since the same actor was Mr. Fezziwig and the Ghost of Christmas Present.

I just applied for a part time job.

I haven't filled out a job application in over 17 years. Accckkkkk.

Also, so not fair for that book which was an extrusion of parental duty to tell me the facts of life to replace some actual fun presents.

That is so worse than underwear.

When my nephew was pretty young, my sister teased him for weeks that he was only getting socks and underwear for Christmas. There was even a song. He was so worried about it, it was almost cruel. What he didn't realize is that she was getting everyone socks and underwear as a joke (and "regular" presents too).

The song continues to this day, and every year my sister gets everyone socks and/or underwear. The guys get boxers. Thankfully, I always get just socks since she says it would be weird to buy me underwear.

We opened one present Christmas Eve, then Christmas morning we were not allowed downstairs until my mother woke up. And we were not allowed to wake her up. When we went downstairs, we could peek in our stockings and check things out, but did not open things until after breakfast.

This is how we did it.

we could peek in our stockings and check things out, but did not open things until after breakfast.

That would have killed me as a child. I would wake Mom up early every Christmas morning and we would go right into the living room to open presents.