Merry Christmas!!

This year has been a beautiful Christmas. Mom lives in Houston, my brothers Adam and Jonah are in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Aunt Sue, Ethan, and Kirsten are in Minnesota, and my sister Megan and I are in Detroit. We all met up in small-town Alpena, Michigan at our grandparents where we always spend our vacations. Here are my favorite Christmas traditions:

1) Midnight Mass

We stay up through Christmas Eve wrapping the last of our presents and playing intense board games to keep us awake and then get ready all fancy in our Christmas outfits. I had been dying to wear my purple leather coat with fur on the collar and cuffs of the sleeves, and this was the perfect occasion to wear it. I would post a picture of it, but it's a little extra. We enter the Church and it was all dim except for the Christmas trees and the garland surrounding the Church. The room is full of carols. We kneel, pray, and sing until mass starts. Once mass starts, we know that the hour reads midnight indicating it is the turn of Christmas. My mother looks at me a gives me a kiss wishing me a 'Merry Christmas'. And I wished her the same.

2) Cousin Exchange!!

There are 9 of us cousins who are regularly together for Christmas and it is just so expensive and so much effort to get every cousin a gift. SO we assign a Secret Santa so we only have to get one gift for the cousins. Some of the cousins weren't able to make it — Paige is on a mission trip in Mexico, Ben is a Marine stationed in Japan, and Bradley had to work (lame excuse). Regardless of circumstances, here are the rules: you HAVE to get a gift for them, and it HAS to be thrifted or homemade.

This year, Ben had me for the cousin exchange and got me this epic coat that he got at the thrift store ------->

Some of the other gifts were amazing and showed so much talent in craftsmanship, creativity, and patience in thrifting.

3) Birthday Cake

Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, right? So we always make a coffee cake and sing Jesus ‘Happy Birthday’ before unwrapping presents.

This year, Christmas looked a little different with my parents being separated, so the day after Christmas, my siblings and I drove to my dad's house to celebrate Christmas with him. That night, we started new traditions and got Christmas doughnuts and sang.

I hope that everyone had a beautiful Christmas. I hope it was full of so much joy and love!

What were some of your Christmas traditions?