I am sitting here at my brother's house, listening to my mom wrap last minute presents, and my brother and dad play the Wii. Although some might think that these are unusual sounds to hear on Christmas Eve, to me, they are precious memories. My family is big, and because of that, we are required to do big family Christmases on other weekends. My mom's side celebrates the first weekend of December, while my dad's side has chosen to celebrate the weekend before Christmas. Because my brother works at a church, he usually has to to a service, and so my immediate family is up in Texarkana for this week.

As a child, I remember going to the Christmas Eve Candleight service at FUMC Pearland at 11:00. My dad and mom used to sing in the choir, so my brothers and I would sit with friends and listen to the carols and Christmas Story as it was read. After the service, we would all go home and try to sleep. This usually didn't work until around 2 or so :)

In the morning, we would wake up, have breakfast and see what fun stuff Santa brought us. After the flurry of paper settled and we thanked Mom and Dad, we would open the stockings. Personally, this was always my favorite part. We usually got socks and underwear, but Santa would make sure that we each got special treats too.

After the gifts, mom would cook and then we would pack up for the 5 min drive over to my grandma's house. Here I would instantly find Mary, my cousin that is my age, and we would exchange Christmas stories and talk about our presents. Then came food.... and was there a lot of it!!! My aunts and mom would spread the food out and let us devour it! The kids were done in a matter of minutes and then would proceed to the TV room to sit in front of the tree, waiting for the moment that we could open gifts. The adults would take an ETERNITY to eat and would usually tell us that we had to do the dishes before present time. We would all trudge into the kitchen, wash dishes as quickly as possible and then run back to the tree. Finally, it would be present time!! We would play with whatever toys we recieved and would then start the game time.
In the Martin household, pinochle is a must. It is a partner card game that takes entirely too long to explain. It is fun, and for those that don't know how to play, you will just have to trust me :) All of the adults, and older grandkids would sit to start the pnochle marathon while the younger kids would play boardgames, go outside, or watch a movie.

This generally would be our Christmas every year until I was in juniorhigh. Sometimes the whole family would be there, sometimes not. But no matter what, we would spend the whole day together, playing games, talking and enjoying everyone. This is why Christmas is my favorite season


This picture was taken last year. It is Meagan, Me, Keith, Sarah, and Russell.
Santa (aka Keith) left them in our stockings last year for us to enjoy and embarass mom and dad with :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year