Although my family has strong traditions for every holiday (even the less celebrated holidays), Christmas probably has the most tradition. We practically have a timeline that is followed consistently ever year. We drive 8-12 hours (depending on the weather) to participate in this tradition.
Christmas Eve
6:30pm-Candlelight service at my grandmother's church.
7:30ish-we go to my grandmother's house for Christmas Eve dinner. Adults sit at the big table in the bigger dining room. Children at the kids table in the smaller dining room. Although, there are not really many little kids anymore except the newer generation of grandchildren who can't sit by themselves because they are still too young. So everyone squishes in at the big table. If they are too many people, some will just sit at the "kid's" table.
7:45ish-some start doing the dishes while the rest of us keep eating lefse and other Norewegian goods such as sanbakkels, rosettes, flatbread, krumkake, etc. Some pull out the nuts and nutcrackers and we make a make a mess of the nutshells all over the table (which is conveniently covered in plastic for this) and I usually pull out my grandmas homeade ice cream and eat it with the sanbakkels. My favorite is when she makes peppermint ice cream.
8:15ish-we all make our way to the living room. (Note: this step cannot begin until every last piece of China has been washed and put away.) Someone will volunteer to read Luke 2 from the Bible. After the reading, someone volunteers to pray. Then we open presents.
*Up until a few years ago, all the children had to put on a talent show. They could play my grandma's piano or other instrument they brought. If you were like me and didn't play an instrument or sing, you were told to share poetry. This, of course, had to be an original. If you didn't want to, they eventually would just give you a poetry book and make you pick one to read. This would only happen if you were being too difficult. Sometimes we would team up and do skits, like Scrooge, our own original version, of course. These are all on videotape that most of us have yet to see.
You were told that you wouldn't have to do this as an adult. When you became an adult, you realized this wasn't true and the only real way out was to have a baby to replace you in the talent show, so we would never be short on talent. Sometimes I got really into it and other years, I wasn't--which ended with me being given the poetry book, of course. Even though there were a few years that I wasn't really feeling it, I'm glad our grandma and parent's made us do it. It built a strong sense of family tradition, and therefore, a strong sense of family.
8:45ish-After the presents have been opened, you make sure to go around and personally thank people for giving you the gift and tell them why it will be useful. Then we usually just talk and hangout for another hour or more. Some people will start playing card games while others are already back at the table cracking nuts or having third helpings of lefse or the other foods. Usually someone pops in movie and a bunch of us will watch together. Sometimes there's disagreements on what to watch so the boys will watch on the tv in the living room and the girls will watch on the tv in my grandma's room and we'll all lay on her bed and watch together. People usually go back and forth between the two. Sometimes we just overpower the boys and take the living room tv.
10:00ish-those who live locally head out and the families that travel (including my own) will either go to bed or stay up talking until the early hours of the morning. If you go to bed after people leave and wake up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, there is a chance that my grandma and aunt will still be up in the living room talking.
Christmas morning I hear people moving around upstairs and I know my grandma is already making breakfast. And as I lay there, I wonder if everyone has already eaten the sweet rolls and I whether I should make the trek upstairs or sleep a little longer. Will sleeping a little longer reduce my chance of having the complete ultimate breakfast? Is someone else pondering this same thought from their bed and the one who gets up there first will get the last roll? Most of the time, I drag myself upstairs where there is almost always still lots of great breakfast to have, sweet rolls, eggs, bacon, sausage, swedish pancakes and orange juice included.
Then we go lay around and watch some tv. Usually some of the cousins who live locally will come back and then we go for a walk and possibly drive over an hour to the nearest mall to make returns or get some deals. Someone in the family will snowblow or shovel my grandma's driveway and porch as needed. We reheat the endless supply of Christmas food for lunch and dinner the next couple days. And that's how it's done.
