Christmas Celebrations Starting

Last night I went to my sister's house after work, for a Christmas get together. I couldn't stay long, because I had to get home to let the dogs out (they had been inside since 8:00 in the morning), but I was so happy to get to see everyone who was there.

I've lived back in this area since 1994. When I first moved back, my nieces and nephews were still kids, for the most part. The youngest one used to come running up and hug me whenever I came to visit, and his head only hit my abdomen - now he's over 6 feet tall! And every single one of them is living their own adult life. I have three great-nieces and a great-nephew in that family already (plus two more in my brother's family), and a third baby is due in this family in May. Time certainly doesn't stand still.

So last night was pretty much focused on the kids. The five year old left early to go be with her dad, but there was an almost one year old to make faces at and play with, and then the other two came over a little later. It's so fun seeing the new generation come in and make themselves known (although it's a little weird to see the people I still think of as my kid nieces and nephews in their roles as spouses and parents).

Tonight I'm hoping for a nice night with my man. He's off today, while I'm at work, which is kind of killing me, but what can I do - I need the time on my paycheck. And anyway, I'll get to spend the evening with him. We're going to go to Long John Silver's for dinner, I think, because that is our new traditional Christmas Eve dinner. :) And then we're going to come home and watch Christmas DVDs, with all of the dogs around us. And then we'll be stuffing each other's stockings (this is not a euphamism for anything dirty, even though it kind of sounds like it, :D) and going to bed, with visions of a great Christmas Day running through our heads.

Tomorrow we'll be opening presents and eating cinnamon buns in the morning, and then heading off to his parents' house to do the presents and dinner thing there. And then I'm hoping to fit in another visit to my sister's house in the late afternoon/early evening, to say Merry Christmas and maybe have some dessert. Christmas is such a great family day.

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone. I hope you have a great holiday.