celebrate Christmas differently

went according to plan except Pip couldn’t make it and the blizzard made it impossible to do the fireworks and sky lanterns but all in all it was a good time.

We are doing stockings for everyone to open at the same time. Then are giving individual gifts to each other throughout the day so the pressure is gone (instead of everyone watching everyone else open everything). We’ll eat appetizers and watch movies throughout the day. The big meal around will be around 4:00. In the evening we will be lighting off fire works and sky lanterns with an assortment of family and friends. Then like most holidays we’ll probably play some board games and drink more steadily as the evening progresses.

Christmas has always been huge in my family. Which is great, but I think we need a change. It tracks back to two main issues; one is the commercialism I spent over $3,000 last year on presents (which isn’t as bad as it sounds it was all paid for in cash). The other is that none of us are particularly christian so it just feels phony.

Over the next month-ish I’m going to try and figure out what exactly is great about the holiday that works for our family, what else we should incorporate and what we should stop doing.