I'm a stickler for tradition. Things in my world are black and white. Celebrations are to be held on the actual holiday. Period. And my side of the family traditionally gathers on Christmas Eve for food, gifts, and a visit from Santa.

Flash back to this past weekend. Saturday was not Christmas. It wasn't even Christmas Eve! But yet we somehow gathered in our Sunday's finest (well, at least Josie dressed up) to enjoy a Christmas celebration with my side of the family. An Un-Christmas celebration as I like to call it.

First there were footprints in the yard

Some from the neighbor's cat (much to Figgy's disgust)



And some from Josie

Along with some ice skating

Then there was an unhappy kitty

Bah humbug!

Followed by drinks, snacks, and drinks

And Josie in her Christmas dress

Then there were presents, intermingled with more drinks, snacks and drinks

Ted loving his gift from Josie



What could it be?

Topped off with lots of laughing, thoughtful gifts and and enjoyable time spent together

So here we are, a few days later, and the food has been eaten, the presents have been opened and the toys have been played with. Humph.

But here's the deal: our Un-Christmas celebration wasn't so bad afterall. It included all of the import elements of our normal celebration, excluding Santa of course! But hopefully he'll visit soon enough. We were relaxed, enjoyed our time together and didn't have to cram too many things into one short night. No tantrums, no fighting, and Josie was well behaved too. We pulled it off!
 
But here's the catch: Its now bare under my tree, half the Christmas goodies are gone, I'm tripping over the new toys and I really have the urge to take down the tree and put everything away. My tree is usually down the day after Christmas so I guess we're lucky its still standing 2 days after Un-Christmas. All bets are off for what's left standing on December 25th!  Like I said- my world is black and white.