JYC Dec 14th

December 14th Tales of Christmas Presents
When we are at home and it is just the 4 of us, the girls will take turns taking a present and handing it to someone. We then watch as that person opens his or her presents. We enjoy this method as it gives us a chance to see what each person gets and whether or not she likes it. We don’t use tags for the presents instead each person has one wrapping paper assigned to them. Every year we get the cats a small toy also. We usually give this to the cats first and enjoy watching them play with the new toys. Last year we forgot to give the cats their present. Kitty got a little upset with this and went over and stood by the presents meowing and looking at us and then the presents. I am not sure that he thought that his present was really worth the wait. At my mom’s house Sarah reads the packages and then gives them to Rebecca and Grace to help pass out, plus Kristen also passes out presents but doesn’t need help reading the tags. Once all of the presents are passed out we start with the youngest person and each person opens their gifts while the rest of us watch. Before we actually open the presents however each person opens their stockings. Kurt, Dan, and Dave usually have the same things and Beth and I usually have the same items in our stockings. The girls receive similar items according to their ages. It wouldn’t be fair for Sarah (15) to receive the same toy as Grace (almost 2). Kurt’s family passes out one present at a time and then everyone enjoys watching to see what the other person received. Usually Kurt’s sisters Jean and Ardith will hand out the presents. However this year may be different as little Allison will be joining the family for her very first Christmas. It is fun to see how each side does it differently and then how we have combined traditions for our own family.