Day 12- Christmas Traditions/ Photos

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords-a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids-a-milking, seven swans-a-swimming, six geese-a-laying, five golden rings, four mocking bids, three french hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Merry Christmas everyone! For my last day of Christmas blog post, I thought I would do a recap of my Christmas holiday. This Christmas was perfectly wonderful, as Christmas usually is. I love that feeling of waking up on Christmas morning (I still wake up super early because I'm so excited) and then rushing out to open gifts and start Christmas. Family comes, and everyone gets to play games together and eat the best food you eat all year. It's so fun. So I thought, to sort of give you a little peek at my day, I'll do my main traditions with some cute photos and snapshots thrown in every now and then.

So on the 23rd I go with my cousins and grandma to her Christmas Eve Eve service at her church. Her church always does a really cool sermon, and I love going to it every year. Plus, her church's worship is literally a rock concert, like it's so loud that my cousin wears noise cancelation earphones, and everyone rocking out and there's smoke and lights and the camera zooms in on the worship leaders and it's just pretty much awesome. I mean, who doesn't like to rock out to Jesus music?

my grandma's fudge

After the service we go to dinner with my cousins and Grandma- this year we went to her house and ate soup and cornbread and fudge...mmmm. I have tons of fun with my cousins whenever we visit them. And I got a really neat necklace with my name on it and a little paintbrush- so cute.

On the 24 (Christmas Eve!!) I go to Universal Studios down in LA with my mom, dad, sisters, and grandpa, and sometimes my cousins come as well- this year only one of them came. We had a lot of fun, I love all the decorations and pretend snow on the stores and shops and all that fun stuff. It's so neat.

When we come home, we get dressed in our nice Christmas dresses, and my family all comes to my grandma's house for a big Christmas Eve party. We eat all the delicious food and talk and play present exchange games which are always a highlight- this year I got a giant Reese's Pieces and some cute Christmas socks. So fun. My aunt and uncle gave me a super cool pop up book that has art pieces in it- it's such a neat take on pop-up books, making it into an art form, I love it. And then comes the big reveal of.. THE CHRISTMAS PAJAMAS!!! YAY!! I don't know about you but I love getting new cozy PJs for the holidays. I wear them for the car ride home, then snuggle up in bed, anxious for it to be morning.

On Christmas day, I wake up super early, but my sisters and I have to wait until six to go wake up our parents. Then we all go to the living room together. We unwrap gifts and exchange presents. This year, I got some fun stationary stuff, Converse and Dr. Martens, some jeans and cool necklaces, a sweater, ice skates, scrapbooking supplies (sounds like a cool craft), and a keyboard!!! Yay! I take piano (and singing), as you may know, and I have wanted a keyboard for a long time now, and I am so happy I got it! There are some cool features where you can record on your laptop and do some tracks...I'm not hinting at any new features to the blog, like maybe some covers or song harmonies, no of course not ;). I got my sisters little gifts and donations to World Wildlife, and I got my dad a photo of my sisters and me for his desk at work, and my mom this really neat little candle that had snowflakes that spin- check the movie out for that action- it's super cool (the angel one it the one I got for my grandma).

Then comes Christmas breakfast. My dad is an awesome cook. Eggs, sausage, hash browns...mmmm. I get dressed- donning my new converse and jeans and Christmas socks and my rad reindeer sweater.

We have a nice relaxing morning, then my second cousins and great aunt and uncle come for lunch. We play games and joke around, and this year, for our annual "feats of strength" we did a pull-up competition. I did six...haha. Nowhere near my cousin who did thirty. Oh well, there's always next year. Maybe we'll do running, I bet I could win that. We open up presents- I got a Forever 21 gift card- always a good thing to have on hand.

My grandparents arrive for dinner, and we exchange even more gifts. Guess what? I got a polaroid camera! So neat! I also got a jewelry box and this beautiful pearl necklace that's absolutely gorgeous (I got so many fun necklaces). My dad got a new iPad and an Apple TV, so he hooked that up and my sister tried out some games. My grandma made a beautiful quilt that has fabric with three little girls on it- just like me and my sisters! So amazing. We ate dinner, for which my dad always prepares the famous "rare roast beast" (like in the grinch, we always call it that) and this amazing dish with brussel sprouts and bacon, and salad, and green beans, and potatoes...so good. And brownies and chocolate and all that amazing stuff. My dad and I make a really nice cheese plate- I love fancy cheeses and olives and all that.

My grandparents eventually go home- although this year one of my grandmas is spending the night. We get back into our Christmas PJs, and I write this blog post! And that was my Christmas.

Merry Christmas my dear readers! I had so much fun doing this series, thanks for reading along the way. I have no doubt it will make an appearance next year. I love you all so much, and can't wait to embark on the new year- I already have SO many new sweet blog post ideas cooked up...they're going to be AWESOME! Merry Christmas everyone!