Christmas at the Carpenter's

I spend my free time watching Stargates, playing the latest Call of Duty game, and working on my RPG. I am looking forward to Christmas, but I would rather the next few days go by slowly, as to lend more time to friends, and family. Since people keep asking me, I will now share with you some of my Christmas traditions.


#1 [Last Friday in November] Day after Thanksgiving, I put the lights and decor in place in my bedroom, and start listening to Christmas music.

#2 [December 5th] Day before my birthday, our family goes and buys our Christmas tree. Usually a Christmas tree farm, though in the past years we have been known to cut one down at my uncle's house in Cross Plains, (where air-soft party occurred).

#3 [December 6th] My Birthday, I wake up to the pleasant smell of frying bacon, have a splendid breakfast, and then (new to this year) watch Stargates all day. :) In the evening Oma (Irmgard Mittler) comes over for a dinner of my choice. This year my mother made Lasagna, caesar salad, and garlic bread. Also new to this year, Jesse came over with Lucinda to join us in festivities. After dinner we then decorate the Christmas tree and place the rest of the Christmas decor around the house. Then I get to open my gifts. After dessert, my father takes Oma home, comes back, and we usually watch a movie. This year we watched Elf.

#4 [Advent] Usually the weekends of Advent, I devote to family. We try to get in a Christmas movie every week. Holiday Inn is a must see during the Christmas season.

#5 [Third week in December] The annual Caroling Party (not to be confused with a Curling Party which apparently was the basis of confusion for a few people this year.) I have gone to the Caroling party for the past 17 years. The first time I went I was two weeks old. We eat and eat and eat and Karen, one of the hosts makes delicious holiday fudge
by the pound(s).

#6 [Some time before Christmas] Baking day! :-) My mother devotes an entire morning and afternoon to baking cookies. She makes about six different kinds, and Rob (family friend/cop) always is there to help. . . I sneak down from my room and eat the cookies dough from time to time if I'm not helping.

#7 [December 23rd] My father's Aunt Dolores (Oma's sister) and Uncle John from Highland Park, Chicago come up for Christmas Eve. The day before the Eve of Christmas, we have them over for another spectacular dinner. (I eat really well during the Christmas season) :-)

#8 [Christmas Eve day] Not really much happens except I peel about 20 pounds of potatoes for my mother's famous "German Potatoe dish". The way it is spelled, according to our family, is "Toepechugen", which spelling, revealed zero google results.

#9 [Christmas Eve] This is when we spend time with my father's family. On Christmas Eve, we pick up Oma, and go to my uncle's house in Cross Plains where we join up with, my Dolores and John, my Aunt and cousin from Maine, my five other cousins (I'm the youngest of the cousins), and my ten other aunts and uncles, as well as some various other family. We eat and eat and eat, and then the cousins all go to the basement and watch A Muppet Christmas Carol (we've done this for the past 14 years). After that we go up to the renovated attic and sing Christmas carols, until we hear Santa come. (Actually, not Santa, by my father who's banging pots and pans in the kitchen [with a 70% atheist family what can you do? It's tradition, and we've done it for the past 17 years. {Note: we never see Santa, but we hear him.]})
The way the gift giving works is all the cousins recieve gifts from another family. We give to family number 1, #1 gives to #2, #2 gives to #3, #3 gives to #4 and #4 gives to us. lol. I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this but I figured I would because this episode of SG1 is a boring one.

#10 [Christmas day] We see three ships come sailing in. On Christmas morning, Lucinda and I awake, to the sounds of Christmas music, and my dad making coffee. We sit at the top of the stairs until we are called down. In the living room, the stockings are hung and we patiently wait to dig through them until my mother is done taking pictures (pretty typical. lol) Then we spend the rest of the morning opening presents and burrying Buster in Christmas paper. Then we eat Breakfast. What we do the rest of the day until dinner is always a mystery to me. For dinner we either go to mo mother's sister's house for dinner or they come here, or we go to my father's sister's house for dinner. This year i believe the plan is the latter.




-Carpenter,
To God Be The Glory,




9:59 AM on the 21st of December in The Year of Our Lord, 2008.