Who do I celebrate the holidays???

Today was a great day!  I got to have coffee with a very good friend (an ex boyfriend).  Alan was in town for the St Pete Boat Show and was leaving today.  It was nice to catch up with him over a great Peppermint Mocha.  I am very fortunate to be very good friends with 2 of my exes.  Call me crazy or weird but that's the way it is. The Hubs doesn't get it but they really are 2 of my very close friends.  We don't see each other that often so it was a nice way to spend an hour of my morning.  Em and I also had to do a little Pampered Chef delivery at work (yes I went in on my day off) and she got to meet all my coworkers.  Then we headed over to the unit to see my former coworkers and check in on a few patients.  Emmy ended up making friends with one of the patients and we colored and had an impromptu play date for about 15 minutes.  Then we headed to have lunch with the Hubs.  Now it's nap time for Em (and maybe for Mommy).  I also got my Christmas cards in the mail, including cards to my partners for the Card Swap, and shipped my ornament to Ashley, my partner for the Ornament swap!


Today's challenge topic is all about how do you celebrate the holidays
It's simple.
It's all things Christmas!
I completely redecorate the house, even the bathrooms.  I stress over our outfits for our family pictures (which we haven't taken yet).  I make the Hubs go on the roof and hang the lights (which he hates). Our Christmas cards have to be perfect and I have to send out at least 50 of them.  I listen to Christmas music in the car.  We have to have the perfect tree with the perfect ornament layout, which isn't happening this year since the kids helped so much with the tree.  The ornaments are all over the place, which stresses me out every time I look at it, but I'm dealing with it (not really) since Noah is so proud of his tree decorating.  All the presents are wrapped with the specific wrapping paper of the year.  The kids paper always goes with the theme of their gifts and they each get their own paper, that way it's easy to spot who's gift is who's.  I'm neurotic but I'm okay with that!!!
Every Christmas Eve, we have a huge family party.  There's always too much food but we can't cut anything off the menu since it's tradition to have the same foods.  We have a gift exchange and then we head home so Santa can arrive. On Christmas morning, all of our parents and siblings and their significant others, come to the house to watch the kids open up their Santa gifts and we have our gift exchange.  Then we spend the rest of the day playing. It's the exact same way I grew up celebrating Christmas and I wouldn't change it ever!!!

How do you spend your holidays???  Link up with Amber and Neely and share it with us!!!