Christmas 12

We celebrated Christmas with some of our usual traditions plus a few changes. We started with Christmas Eve mass (3:30) at St. Cletus, then went to Jenny and Jay's for dinner with my side of the family. Arne, Beth and the girls were with Beth's side on Christmas Eve this year. This was the first year that Sally and Matt started the transition into new traditions as a couple. They were with us Christmas Eve and Matt spent the night at our house. We changed things up a bit by opening presents at our house on Christmas Eve, after Jenny's, rather than on Christmas morning. That made Christmas morning a bit less rushed. We arrived at Jack's folks' house at 9:30. We opened presents with Bucky, Grandma, Paul, and Downtown Sue, then had breakfast. Sally and Matt left as soon as breakfast was over and went to Matt's parents' where they spent the rest of the day and stayed over night there. We are fortunate that both sides, in both generations, are understanding about sharing the holidays. That's important. Things change.
Christmas evening, we returned to Jack's folks' for dinner with Sue, Lauren and Brendan, too. It was good to be together.
Mike and my mom were both missed in our holiday traditions, but were definitely remembered and were there in our hearts.