Christmas Traditions

My family always spends Christmas Eve at my grandma's house with cousins. All of my mom's siblings live in Utah now, so for the first time in years, she and all four of her brothers were there.

We eat good food, admire Grandma's beautiful Christmas decorations, and laugh as we catch glimpses of A Christmas Story on TBS. We play chimes, Roper Christmas Jeopardy, and Christmas Bingo with coveted prizes such as gummy bears and duct tape.

At the end of the evening we do a gift exchange, where Grandma usually gives the grandchildren pajamas, and we take a few pictures. Then we all sit down by the fire and one of the Roper uncles will read the real Christmas story from the Bible.

On Christmas Day we wake up early and meet in my parents' room to say a Christmas prayer before heading out, youngest to oldest, to see our Santa presents. This year, Jared and I stuffed each other's stockings. Jared wrapped each little stocking stuffer before putting it in my stocking. He's a gem. 

Christmas is a lazy day. We each get our favorite breakfast cereal as a Santa gift, and we have a cereal buffet for breakfast. Eventually we make our way downstairs to open family gifts by the Christmas tree. This year Timmy (my youngest brother) played Santa, and we opened gifts one by one.

My dad always wears his Christmas bears nightgown that my mom sewed for him when they were first married. We take a picture by the tree and enjoy playing together for the rest of the day. Grandma comes over for a late lunch/early dinner, and we eat the leftover food from the Christmas Eve feast.

This year I have two brothers serving LDS missions. We were able to Skype with Jordan and talk to Peter on the phone for a while. Peter was like, "I love you guys but exact obedience dictates that we can only talk for 7 more minutes. But hey, I hope Tim enjoys that caped Batman onesie I sent him." Jordan was like, "Hey guys, I haven't washed my hair in six months so let's talk about that together for half an hour because I'll see you in a month anyway and we can talk about more meaningful things then!" Man, I miss those brosefs.