Christmas at Home

We're staying here for the holidays. It'll be just the two of us, plus the doggie. We have some lovely friends coming over to share Christmas Eve Dinner tomorrow night and plan on a weekend of cross country skiing around beautiful Bozeman.

We're working through building what will be "our family tradition". Thus far, it includes traditions from DJ's family such as:

• Prime Rib dinner. Related, my husband has named our Christmas Eve Dinner "Optimus Prime Rib"; is this a Star Wars reference?
• Opening one gift on Christmas Eve, and the rest the morning of Christmas Day. (I'm not sure how I feel about this. My family opens them on Christmas Eve... but then again we also have like 4 Christmases spread throughout the weekend, so?)

Traditions from my family will include:

• Drinking whiskey
• Drinking wine
• Eating chocolate

Traditions I hope we can start this year:

• Doing something active and "Montana-ey" on Christmas Day. This year it's XC skiing. 
• Taking a dog for a walk to check out all of the Christmas decorations in a different part of town. We do the loop in our neighborhood at least three times a week. Maybe the historic district this year?
• Turning off Football, even just for a little, and watching a movie together. With buttery popcorn an wine. 

It's tricky for both of us to be away from family for the holidays; especially for me with aging grandmothers that I'm close to. At the same time, we're both really relieved to not be doing the 1600 mile road trip on shitty roads at Christmas. Everyone understands, everyone was invited, and it'll just be the two of us. I think that's okay, as long as I stay busy. 

More tomorrow!

(Sidenote: remind me to never work the day before Christmas break begins. Nothing happened at work today.)