Well, our family starts by celebrating Mom and Dad's Anniversary on the 23rd, and going out to eat at a local restaurant, usually the one down the street as it's closest and serves the best beers.

Christmas Eve is spent going to Dad's Lutheran church for Christmas Eve Service (the best part is that it's short and we light candles while singing Silent Night with the lights out), then we come home and make a ton of snack foods like pizza rolls and Poppers and have fun eating them along with eggnog spiked with banana flavored rum. We used to play card games like Hearts, but Mom really isn't a fan of the game so we no longer do that. After word, Dad makes cinnamon rolls with frozen bread dough as a base and sets them to rise over night and we all head off to bed. We (the kids) used to open our "ONE" present, but since we've grown older, and Mom just hands me a pair of pajamas every year it seems, that tradition has gone by the wayside.

On Christmas Morning, the rolls are baked and we have them for breakfast, which everyone must have a bite as per "Da Rules" (made and enforced by Dad) and we all eventually gather 'round the tree to open presents by 10 or 11 AM. Presents are opened one at a time and you go around the room, person to person.

Once presents are opened, Christmas Dinner is cooked and we feast on that with leftovers later that night and for days afterword. The following day, known as Boxing Day in Canada and the UK, may revolve around returning the presents that didn't work out, or spending gift cards received the day before.

That's the Christmas Holidays around my house.