We have so many fun little traditions at the holidays and I look forward to each and every one of them.
We always start Christmas Eve at Matt's parents. John makes scratch cinnamon rolls with scratch icing and pretends that the (also very yummy) fruit salad we eat with them somehow cancels out the decadence! The cinnamon rolls somehow taste better every year, which is hard to believe since we have such high expectations! It might have something to do with John's little secret (that I'm going to tell you): he doubles the cinnamon roll filling and icing recipe but not the dough! We also get to ice them ourselves, controlling how thick the frosting is, which adds an extra flavor profile for the control freaks (eh hem, me) in the family. They're ridiculously good and he makes eight so we can each have one as a leftover. Matt and I each ate our second today and it was terrific.
After a nice morning with John and Carol, we headed to my Aunt Leila's for the Muller celebration. My dad's side has gotten together on Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember, a cherished tradition for all of us. And several little traditions take place as well, some older than others. We always play the "Twas the Night Before Christmas" game--once you're about 10 or so, you know it by heart--where we pass presents each time my mom (the reader) says "and" during the poem. Her little secret? Sometimes she adds extra "ands" to keep us on our toes. Hope Mr. Moore doesn't mind. :)
Other traditions include little kids piling up on (trying to smother?) big kids. My mom has a picture that I absolutely love of me at toddler age sitting on one of my teenage cousin's backs while he was laying on the floor. So I suppose this one has been going on for at least 30 years! Matt somehow avoided the six-kid pile-up, but our second-oldest "kid" Beth got the treatment from Matthew, Chad, Erin and Erin's American Girl doll!
We also wear ugly Christmas socks. Though "socks" has expanded to include the whole footwear category. I have the pink kitty cats with the scarves, Matt has the reindeer feet (he wore them last year too; they're the only ones we've found actually big enough), Mom has the red slippers, Dad the striped ones. Lots of good ones this year!
We also took our annual group photos. . .
Dad, Mom, Matt and me
Courtney, Chad, Chrissy, Zach and Ron
Erin, Marianne, Matthew, Beth and Brian
All the kiddos with their Grandma Leila
All the kiddos with their Great-Grandma Mary
Matt and me. We were cracking up because most of the peanut gallery was jokingly saying "awwwww..." and "say LOVE!" and such embarrassing things, through giggles (ours and theirs). We didn't coordinate our outfits, but with how often Matt wears red and how often I wear green (our coats that day were those colors, respectively), this could have been any Saturday (well, except for the socks).
Another great, great day.
