Family Christmas Traditions

I think that everyone has their family Christmas traditions, even if they think that don't.  I sometimes think that we don't really have a lot that we always do, but Christmas is the one time of the year that we do do set things together.  It is a little different though, being in New Zealand, being summer, it's a totally different feeling.

How we do Christmas

The one thing that I always remember from being little though, is that it was Dad's job to go down stairs and check that Santa had been, and that was one of the family Christmas traditions that I really wanted to continue with my own children.  It's not downstairs here though, but still the kids came into our room, Daddy went to check if 'he' had been, and I got my cup of tea.  I should have taken lots of pictures of the ensuing chaos when the presents were opened, but I was a bit slack on that score.

Mahe did decide to use my phone to take a picture of one of his favourite presents though, I'm sure that you can't guess what it is (hint, I've mentioned something similar before) so I'll share that, it's actually one of six that he got.

In our house, Santa brings just a few small presents for everyone, and then we get the rest of the presents.  I know that this varies between families, as does the whole unwrapping of gifts. At our house we always had our own little pile of gifts to work through, rather than having the lot under the tree.  It's another of those family Christmas traditions I suppose.

A wet Christmas

One of the great things about this Christmas has been the weather, no, seriously.  Last year was a stinking hot day, and I don't think I can honestly remember a worse Christmas, it really wasn't fun.  This year it rained not full on rain as we've been having before and since, but enough to make the skys dark and a day inside on the cards.  We even had the fire on a few times over the last few days, and combined with the twinkle of the Christmas tree lights, it's actually felt like it's really Christmas, a traditional Christmas.  Sadly the bad weather has continued since then, and yesterday was the first bit of sunshine I've seen in days.

It hasn't lasted though, and today we're back to more of the wet.  Still, I'm not really complaining, we still have the tree up and a little bit left of the twelve days of Christmas, so I think I'll just eat drink and be merry....