Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve in the Samok household. We spent the last couple of days snowed in with my folks, but made it back up to the old homestead around noon today. The kids got lots of presents from their grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. We ate like starved swine...this included what most folks would call "sit down dinner food" and cookies, candy, and the like. Pulling on a pair of freshly dried jeans on this afternoon was a reminder of why we only eat like this a couple of times a year.

Goobs didn't nap well this afternoon, so our Christmas Eve is kind of in a Flux. We were prepared to go to a 7:00 Christmas Eve service, but he was so crabby at 5:00 that we laid him down and he's sleeping right now. We might just have to chalk this one up to a sleeping kid and eat our Christmas Eve dinner when he wakes up.

You know, we are trying to start our own Christmas traditions as a family. Everyone else in my extended family has two sides of the family to visit, be visited by, or just hang around with. We, the Samoks, have only my side here in the immediate area. J does have some aunts, uncles and cousins in Michigan, but that's quite a long trip for a short visit. We spend time with my family, and I've got to say that J has fit in quite well...we are a family who loves to tease and rib each other...and by gosh, the woman has really gotten in and taken part in the fun. She can poke fun at anyone of them and loves getting in the mix of it. She and my brother have really taken to "giving each other the business." It's fun, but because we only have half of what everyone else has for family, we are in the midst of trying new things to create tradition.

Let me explain. Christmas Eve focuses on the Filipino side of things. We went to "The House of Wu" today to get a couple of pounds of roast pork, so we can have Lechon Baboy today. We also stopped at an asian market to get tuna, shrimp, and a variety of fruit salad fixins' for dinner tonight. It's going to be a feast. We'll settle down and the kids will watch some Christmas Eve TV and J and I will settle down to our annual Christmas Eve scrabble fest. She usually kicks my ass in scrabble (she can see the board for future moves much better than I can). Then she gives me shit and asks me "who's the native English speaker anyway..." which pisses me off every year. Ah...hell I enjoy her giving me shit...so every year I get my ass kicked in scrabble...It's part of the tradition.

Tomorrow we'll open presents and have a big steak dinner. I'm going to take the kids sliding...and then we'll all be tired. To me...that sounds like a pretty good start of a tradition. I wonder if anybody else has some suggestions for us. I'm open to anything....

I'm about ready to go eat dinner...the food awaits. I do want to hear how some folks are spending their Christmases. Hey...give me a holler and I'll do the same for you...