Lately we’ve ended up as the Christmas hosts for my side of the family. The day before everyone shows up, my kid and I make koláče - poppy seed filling for my brother, apricot for everyone else. Then we make my grandma’s cranberry fluff recipe to have with Christmas dinner. Once everyone’s over on Christmas Eve, we watch the Garfield Christmas special. We watch other Christmas shows and movies throughout December, but Christmas Eve is always Garfield.
With just my immediate family, after Thanksgiving we start Christmas baking and decorating. Sugar cookies, my grandma’s ginger cookies, and chex mix every year, plus the last few years my kid has asked for date pinewheel cookies too.
We always cut down a tree in the forest - the forest manager makes a map of which parts of the public forest they want the firs and spruce thinned out, so it’s like free forest management. After Christmas we put the tree out by our chickens, who enjoy sitting on and under it.
My mom’s side of the family gets together the weekend after Christmas, but most of us cousins don’t make it back. I miss us all starting up late talking and playing Uno, and everyone crammed into one house. Even when we do get together now we stay more spread out at hotels and such. It’s just not the same, but there are more people since there are spouses and kids in the mix now too. We don’t all fit in my grandparents’ house any more.