First Christmas waking up in our own home

First Christmas Waking up in our own home

Waking up Christmas morning as a kid was the most exciting moment of the year. My Mum would bring my sister and I our ‘bedroom stockings’, we’d check to see if ‘Santa’ ate his cookies and left a note, we’d eat breakfast quickly, and then gather around the tree. We were (and still are) pretty spoiled. Everyone got their own corner of presents and my sister and I each had a giant stocking on the sofa.

Unfortunately, Christmas lost a lost of magic the year I discovered Santa wasn’t real when I was 7. When little Smarta$$ me asked my Dad, he replied “He’s real if you believe he’s real,” …… Mmmm okay there’s my answer. Although the magic of Santa Clause disappeared, Christmas still kept its excitement. Not only for the presents, but for that delicious Christmas dinner my parents spent hours cooking, with turkey, stuffing, roast potatoes, and about six types of veggies I didn’t like at the time.

As I got older and into my snooty teen years, I got embarrassed by the giant inflatable snowmen, reindeer, Santa or whatever else my Mum had to chase down the road when they blew off the lawn. I think my Dad wanted to believe his daughters were children for as long as possible.

Like most students, I came home for Christmas from University, and I woke up and celebrated the same way I did as a child. When I lived away in other places, there was only one year I didn’t spend Christmas at home. I refused to come back to the snow the year I lived in the British Virgin Islands, and my Mum came to down to visit.

Last year, I wanted to spend my whole week off work at Christmas with my boyfriend, Brendan, and spent Christmas Eve and morning with his family at their house. My parents were pretty good about not seeing their daughter on Christmas Day.

Waking up to your parents’ routines, following their traditions, and opening presents with your family does get tedious when you’re in your late 20s.

Since Brendan and I moved into our own place in May, we decided this year we’d spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day just the two of us, with our baby panther, Jasper.

It’s been fun setting up the pop up tree my parents bought us, and hanging our Christmas cards like ‘grown ups’. It’s exciting to see presents around our tree.

I’m finishing this post the day after Boxing Day, even though I planned to post it Christmas Eve. We stayed up later than usual Christmas Eve, and woke up pretty late, so ‘Christmas Morning’ was early afternoon, when we got to open the stockings given to us by my parents, a few gifts from them, and the presents we gave to each other. We went out for dinner Christmas night. After driving around assuming there would be more restaurants open Christmas Day, we stumbled upon a place which will now be our spot to dine on Christmas. The real feast happened on Boxing Day when we visited and got spoiled by my parents at my childhood home in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Anyways, here’s some of the cute little ‘traditions’ we’ve started our first Christmas together in our own home.

‘Pop Up Christmas Tree’

A few years ago, my Dad found these ‘Pop Up Christmas Trees’, probably either online or in one of those Sky Mall airline catalogues. They’re great. They come with all the decorations and the lights already on them. The circular-shaped tree comes in a flat square box. All you do is lift it up and stick it on a pole; Brendan was able to do it without me in about 3 min. My parents still decorate a tree, but we don’t have time nor have a collection of decorations, and to be honest, I don’t see the fun in decorating a tree anyways. Our beautiful Christmas tree is tastefully white and gold and simple to assemble.

2. Wrapping Presents

My parents used to spend probably 12 hours wrapping presents for my sister and I as kids. Sometimes they were so fed up after wrapping our presents, I’m pretty sure they just dumped their gifts to each other in a bag. When gift bags became popular, my Mum was overwhelmed with relief, and could put multiple presents in tissue paper in a single bag. I planned to use bags for my presents for Brendan this Christmas, but when he bought penguin wrapping paper and gift tags and wrapped all mine, how could I not do the same? I must say, wrapped gifts do look better under the tree, and the time put into wrapping gifts is far more thoughtful (no offence, Mum, I know you have to wrap like 300 presents).

3. Personalized photo cards

I’m pretty good at creating social media posts and signs, and I love photos, so I decided to create our own custom Christmas cards to give out. A cute idea I came across was to add a few highlights which happened that year to the card. I was so proud of my cards, our hilarious cat wearing a Santa hat, and my handsome boyfriend, I gave them to almost everyone.

4. Stringing up cards

At my family home, my Mum always strings up the 60+ cards she gets every year. When she decorates the house at the start of December, she uses last year’s cards to string up, then swaps them with new ones as they come in so the walls don’t look bare. With nine cards given to us this year, Brendan tied fishing line to two finishing nails to make our house look more festive.

5. Paramount Fine Foods

A regular customer at the tanning salon (http://stuckinyourtwentiesblog.com/work-advice-you-need-to-know-business-success-from-a-healthy-glow/) where I work gave each of our five staff members a $25.00 ‘Ultimate Dining Card’. We planned to use it Christmas Day for Swiss Chalet’s Festive Special. We were extremely disappointed when not only Swiss Chalet, and every restaurant the Ultimate Dining Card accepts, but almost every restaurant on Upper James was closed on Christmas. We ended up finding this Mediterranean restaurant, Paramount Fine Foods. Even though we’ve eaten a lot of shawarma lately, we had two delicious shawarma plates. It is a beautiful place inside, quick to get food, and they also have a bakery on display. The manager went out of his way to help serve tables and promote welcoming customer service.

6. Driving by the Burlington Waterfront

When I lived in Niagara-on-the-Lake, my family and I would drive out to the Festival of Lights in Niagara Falls. Beautiful light displays by the falls and through Dufferin Islands were a beautiful way to celebrate the magic of Christmas. In Burlington, about 25 min from where we live, they set up a similar display of lights by the waterfront. Since it was a mild temperature this Christmas, we got out and took a few photos by the displays which included moving helicopters, seals, a Choo-Choo train, and other characters. We also drove along Lakeshore Road to get a good look at the mansions. Their lights were a bit disappointing, but it’s always interesting to see those massive, ostentatious places and wonder who lives there.

7. Building a gingerbread house

An ongoing joke which was our first inside joke is that Brendan’s name almost looks like it has the word ‘Bread’ in it, therefore I started calling him Breadnan. At Christmas, there are gingerbreadnans and gingerbreadnan houses. Last year, we bought a gingerbread house and made it New Years Eve with his brother and brother’s girlfriend over a few drinks. This year, we built the gingerbread house on Christmas Eve; the perfect quick and sugary snack for the morning.

8. Opening one present on Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we decided we’d each give each other one present, and I think that’s something we will continue to do in the future. He got me a gorgeous Swarovski Limited Edition golden, shimmery pen- my best writing ben. I got him a flashy new red lunchbox/ cooler for work.

9. Watching a Christmas movie on Christmas Night

Since we moved to Canada when I was almost 7 and all our family is in the United Kingdom, Christmases got pretty lonely for my family and I. We started going to the movies on Christmas Day. Brendan and I planned to do the same, but since the movie we wanted to see was no longer in theatres, and doing dinner and a movie would become a rush, we planned to watch a Christmas movie at home. We saved ourselves the trouble of highway traffic, and a bit of money for our vacation fund. We ended up watching New Years Eve staring many stars including Zac Efron, Ashton Kutcher, and ‘the foot’ Sarah Jessica Parker, who Brendan says looks like the side profile of a horse. It was a good movie, nevertheless.

It’s been a great Christmas avoiding the stress of choosing where to go on Christmas Day. Brendan is the best gift I could ask for, and he’s all I want on Christmas Day.