20th Day of Advent Blog Hop

Hello readers!  Today I am proud to co-host (with Cheryl) Day 20 of Jo's Advent Blog Hop.  I've admired Jo's blog hops for almost 2 years now, so I'm very excited to be participating for the first time. 

Jo has asked us to share some Christmas stitching with you all and then share our Christmas Eve traditions.  So I thought I'd share a photo I snapped of Mill Hill's Holiday Stamp before I sent it off to my exchange partner.  Ornaments always look better hanging on a tree don't they? 

So now onto Christmas Eve traditions.  Growing up, and even still now, I don't think we ever have a "typical" Christmas Eve.  Our activities change a bit from year to year, although there are two constants: family and putting out stockings. 

Of course when we were little my brother and I would always put out milk and cookies for Santa and then pick out which stockings we were going to use and choose some for our parents as well.  Although we had a fireplace growing up, we never hung the stockings up, rather draping them over the couches and chairs in the family room.  This left more room for extra presents of course.  The years my Mom and Dad got sick of wrapping presents at 2:00 in the morning there would be more things piled around the stocking than in the years they started the wrapping earlier in the month. 

Now that my brother and I are adults, we still put out stockings for the family on Christmas Eve.  Then we take turns sneaking up to them in the middle of the night to fill them with goodies.  We have collectively taken on the Santa role I guess. 

What we fill our time with during Christmas Eve before the stockings go up varies from year to year.  We often enjoy doing a Christmas puzzle, so sometimes we will pull that out early and put one together on the card table while watching Christmas specials on TV in the background.  One time we gathered around the tree and read the book The Best Christmas Pageant Ever out loud in turn.  Which, by the way if you've never read that book, I highly recommend it.  Lately it seems Christmas Eve is reserved for snuggling up in your favorite cozy blanket and putting in a favorite Christmas movie.  My brother will probably opt for Elf while I'll fight for A Muppet Christmas Carol.  Although with the new Star Wars movie coming out a few days ago, I sense there might be a movie marathon in the works instead. 

Thank you for joining me on this blog hop!  Don't forget to check our Cheryl's blog for another Christmas stitchy post today, and you can catch up on any advent posts you've missed on this page at Jo's blog. 

Merry Christmas!